Good morning Sifted reader,

It’s been a busy few days at the Sifted Summit in London. 2,300+ delightful attendees, 250+ insightful speakers and countless delicious coffees (really).

Our panels, workshops, roundtables and food truck conversations covered everything from fundraising challenges to founder loneliness, making tech transfer work in Europe to AI regulation, but there were several themes that came up time and time again:

Founders need therapists
Europe’s regulatory environment is holding it back
Expanding to the US is still extremely enticing — to investors and founders alike

– Amy, editor

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🔋Battery recycling startup Mecaware raises €40m Series A. The French climate tech has developed a more efficient way to recycle batteries, and the deal — a mix of equity, debt and state subsidies — was led by French VC Crédit Mutuel Innovation.

Other investors included SPI2 fund — which is managed by Bpifrance — EIT InnoEnergy and UI Investissement
The company will use the cash to scale and to deploy a pre-industrial pilot in a real-world setting, as part of a partnership with Verkor, one of Europe’s best-funded gigafactories.

🏦Metro Bank looks to raise. The UK-based challenger bank, which IPO’d in 2016, is in talks to bump up its balance sheet with £250m in equity funding and £350m in debt, the FT reports — though it hasn’t made a definite decision yet. Its shares — which had already fallen in recent weeks — had dropped 25% by yesterday afternoon, leaving its market cap at about £66m.

🇺🇸Monzo announces hiring of new US CEO. The neobank’s COO, Sujata Bhatia, confirmed live on stage at Sifted Summit that it has brought onboard Conor Walsh — ex-global head of product at Cash App — as the company makes a second attempt at US expansion. Bhatia also ruled out the possibility of Monzo offering crypto investments.

🤖It’s up to developers — not builders — to make AI safe, says Mistral AI founder. Arthur Mensch, head of the AI startup that raised a €105m seed round earlier this year, said that “the responsibility for the safe distribution of AI systems lies with the application maker.” His comment comes after Mistral’s recently launched large language model was met with criticism, after users found it could generate harmful content.

🌍 "Kind of like the post-Glastonbury cleanup of the industrial age” — Europe shouldn’t miss the opportunity to become the global leader in carbon removals, said Stripe’s cofounder John Collison. In conversation with Entrepreneur First founder, Matt Clifford, he said that unlike the US, Europe has a robust regulatory framework and is home to the bulk of deeptech talent; that means the new opportunity for the continent should lie in climate. “We need to suck carbon out of the atmosphere — we need to do a bit of hoovering up, kind of like the post-Glastonbury cleanup of the industrial age."

🛡️“Promising dynamics” are boosting Europe defence tech — but role models are still needed. That’s according to Kelly Chen, a member of the senior management team of the new €1bn NATO Innovation Fund.

She added that the engineers and researchers who spent years working for big tech firms in the US, and are now returning to Europe with heaps of expertise, need to be mindful of regulatory differences between the two.

🧓 How to live to 100. Top tips onstage from German billionaire Christian Angermayer, a prolific investor in longevity and psychedelics, at the Sifted Summit.

“Failure is a very expensive, but very powerful feedback mechanism” — Hayden Wood

Speaking on stage at the Sifted Summit this week, Hayden Wood, the cofounder and former CEO of UK energy startup Bulb, said he’d found the collapse of the company an expensive but powerful feedback mechanism.

Wood, who has only given two interviews since Bulb’s collapse, also said that he had been buoyed by the fact that the cost of the bailout was not as much as was believed at the time.

Wood is now working on a new company, Beams, which is a marketplace for home renovation.

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Startup investors turning entrepreneurs. Meet nine startup investors forgoing VC to become founders instead.

Our Startup Life newsletter came to life on stage at the Sifted Summit this week. A few highlights from the programme:

How to cope as a solo founder

Investors are often skeptical that solo founders can run their business alone, without someone else to share the workload with. In her pitches to investors, Valentina Milanova, founder and CEO of women’s health startup Daye, always emphasised her board of directors, a range of chemists, gynecologists and pharmacists, to prove there were senior people supporting the business.
Milanova also said that managers can’t just take a day off from supporting their team, even if they are overloaded. “One thing I’ve learned is the patience you need to have with your team. You can’t delegate the job of being present.”

How to stop your investors from giving up on you

When it comes to handling bad situations, Kenny Ewan — CEO of the now shuttered WeFarm — says being totally honest and transparent with your investors is important to make sure there are no nasty surprises.
Eshita Kabra, founder and CEO of fashion sharing app ByRotation, echoed this: suggesting that open communication between herself and her lead investor has been key to leading the company through challenging times. “He takes it personally when the company is doing well and that helps keep our interests aligned.”
TourRader’s founder Travis Pitmann, who helped his travel company make a remarkable comeback after Covid 19 battered the industry, said that at some point you have to accept that things are going badly and take that ego blow. Otherwise, you can’t move forward. “We pushed off the bottom and focused on how we can rebuild the team and keep them motivated.”

Habyt, a flexible housing provider which offers co-living, apartment rentals and short-term stays, has raised a €40m Series C led by Korelya Capital and Deutsche Invest.
Brite Payments, a Swedish instant payments fintech, has raised $60m led by Dawn Capital.
Creatopy, a platform which helps brands and agencies create, customise and automate ads, has raised a $10m Series A from 3VC and Point Nine.
Purpose Green, a German startup which hopes to help the construction sector get greener, has raised €3.3m from Speedinvest and Atlantic Labs.

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