Hello Sifted reader,

A juicy episode of the Sifted pod dropped this morning, featuring:

"Layoffs by stealth" and an exec exodus at Checkout.com
A "mini revolt" by TravelPerk employees
And the biggest startup community you've never heard of

Tune in here.

From the Sifted newsroom...

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR VIENNA UP

Saddle up for ViennaUP’23

From Vienna to the world, ViennaUP is a community-driven startup festival bringing together Europe’s most dynamic startups — from May 30 to June 7.

Check out the programme

🇫🇷 French entrepreneur and philanthropist Alexandre Mars’s VC blisce/ has closed its second fund with $250m. The fund leads Series A to C deals, with an average investment of $15-$20m, and has already backed eight companies out of the second fund including Too Good to Go and Welcome to the Jungle.

A chart showing Q1 funding in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

😬 Europe saw the fewest number of rounds closed for six and a half years in Q1 — and the €14.3bn raised was also the lowest quarterly total since Q3 2020.

Here's what went down in the first three months of the year.

A line chart showing the rise and fall of lithium prices

👍 Sliding lithium price signals good news for climate techs. Lithium is one of the key ingredients for the green energy transition — but last year surging prices spelled bad news for the 400-odd VC-backed European startups using or manufacturing lithium-ion batteries.

Now that the cost of the metal has dropped by more than 30%, Freya Pratty looks at how the falling price could boost climate tech progress.

💰 "There are moments of complete darkness" — with the dollars drying up, commitments falling by the wayside and LPs keeping their cash for fund managers with a proven record, emerging fund managers are having a hellish time raising right now.

🏖 The Airbnb for not-quite nomads. Working away from the city smog sounds dreamy until the wifi cuts out mid-Zoom or your back's done in by a wonky chair — but UK-based startup Ashore's trying to fix that, kitting out holiday rentals across the UK with fast internet and trendy ergonomic furniture.

🧠 6 deeptech ideas VCs want to be pitched.

🤔 What does a COO actually do? The CEO's second-in-command has often been there from a startup's early days — but what do they actually do?

😴 Your boring offer letter is putting candidates to sleep — here's how to improve them, and why it's worth it.

💼 How to avoid ageism when hiring — Khyati Sundaram, CEO of ethical hiring company Applied, gives her top tips.

⛔️ Generative AI is here — but is it really accessible? (Sponsored by AWS)

Do you want to get in front of Sifted's audience of startup founders, operators and VCs? Get in touch here.

💰 Series A+

Residential energy provider Hometree has raised a $46m Series B round, led by 2150 and Energy Impact Partners.
Prestatech, an embedded finance platform, has raised €4m.
Reactional Music, which helps developers embed interactive music into digital games, has drummed up a pre-Series A round of SEK 21.3m ($2m).

💰 Pre-seed & seed

Open-source authorisation software startup Cerbos raised a seed round of $7.5m led by OMERS Ventures.
Xapien, a platform that automates background checks and research, has raised a £4.5m seed.
BX Technologies, an AI-powered climate tech that helps food growers and retailers measure their carbon impact, has raised £1.5m from Counteract.
Ukrainian startup Zeely, which helps businesses set up mobile online stores, has raised a $1m seed round.

💰 Undisclosed

EyeLights, which has developed augmented reality safety displays inside motorcycle helmets, has secured €20m from investors including Bpifrance, EIC Fund and Techstars.
LMS365, a learning management system, has raised $20m.
New Origin, which makes photonic chips for more energy-efficient devices, has secured€6m.
Cognassist, a SaaS platform for people with hidden learning needs, has raised £4m.

Meet the sustainable packaging pioneers

Plastic may be a miracle material for food and drink packaging, but it comes at a huge cost to our planet. So what are the sustainable alternatives? And who are the pioneers making them?

Find out in our report

Want to learn who could be leading the drive for sustainable packaging? Here are 8 startups that VCs are watching.