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The Sifted Podcast — the EU gets serious on startups

Plus, why tech needs to be more LGBTQ+ inclusive, and layoffs strike as the crypto winter bites

By The Sifted Podcast Team

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

On this week’s episode of The Sifted Podcast, we dig into the European Commission’s new plan to supercharge Europe’s tech and startup sector. 

Brussels veteran and Sifted’s new CEE correspondent Zosia Wanat joins the podcast to run us through the commission’s five-step plan to narrow the gap between Europe and the US and China, and find out how it’s been received in startupland. We discuss how it fits in with existing initiatives like the European Innovation Council, and what exactly entrepreneurs can expect to see in terms of concrete next steps.

Then we welcome Christian Tooley, founder of i³ investing, to talk about how and why the VC ecosystem needs to become more inclusive towards LGBTQ+ people. Tooley describes how the overwhelmingly straight tech investment landscape can lead queer founders to conceal who they really are, creating negative mental health outcomes and suppressing many potentially brilliant startups.

We also get the latest news from the crypto winter, as Austrian crypto trading startup Bitpanda lays off a third of its team. 

We hear about a UK-based startup, Screenloop, which raised $7m to scale its recruitment tech that promises to reduce the amount of money businesses waste on poor hires. 

And finally, the founders of Wise and Songkick are launching a new VC firm. Will traditional VCs, without such glittering founder experience, struggle to compete as more and more successful entrepreneurs enter the investment game? 

Find out on the Sifted Podcast. Listen here.