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Mass layoffs at Cazoo as the company shuts down its EU operations

This week on The Sifted Podcast, it's all about layoffs and fundraises

By The Sifted Podcast Team

Listen to The Sifted Podcast on Apple, Spotify and all major platforms.

This week on the pod, our regular host Amy is joined by Eanna, Sifted’s contributing editor. We unfortunately start with a lot of layoff news.

We hear about secondhand car marketplace Cazoo’s plans to lay off 1,500 people in 2022. Then we discuss Pitch, the Berlin-based startup creating alternatives to Google Slides and PowerPoint, which announced it will be laying off 30% of its team. And last we go to Infarm, Europe’s largest vertical farming company, which laid off 50 employees in an effort to cut costs and secure its path towards profitability.

In happier news, we turn to fundraises. Northzone, the European VC firm, has raised a new €1bn fund — its largest to date, and one of the biggest raised in Europe this year. EQT Growth, a new €2.4bn fund which will back 20 to 25 European and Israeli scaleups with cheques of €50m to 200m is also new.

And for our main story, we’re joined by Lech Kaniuk, CEO of SunRoof, who’s startup that raised €15m this week to build its — you guessed it — solar roofing business.

Then lastly we talk to Tim Smith, our reporter who visited Europe’s largest medical cannabis manufacturing facility. It is and isn’t exactly what you might think.