Hello reader!

Silly season isn’t over just yet. It appears that VCs — especially the big ones — will still go to somewhat ridiculous lengths to get a deal over the line with AI startups or new ventures founded by the alumni of hot scaleups.  

“We've heard of weekend term sheets, term sheets sketched out on paper, people flying in from New York for a Friday meeting to take them out to dinner and closing on a Saturday,” says Hoxton Ventures’ founding partner Hussein Kanji, who joined me on the Sifted Podcast this week. Listen to our conversation here. 

”It becomes a battle between the big funds — Index versus Accel versus Sequoia versus Lightspeed,” he says. 

Hoxton tends to opt out of these kinds of deals “because the prices get really high and the cheques get really big,” Kanji adds. 

Another VC I caught up with this week questioned whether it benefits founders — or investors — for valuations to get so high, so early. 

It’s a lot to live up to, and if there are downrounds further along the road, it’s those same founders and early investors who’ll get stung. 

Some serial entrepreneurs she has spoken to, who are raising at the moment, are pointedly taking much smaller cheques at much lower valuations, she tells me. Their strategy is to grow into that valuation. 

What’s the craziest deal you’ve seen done this year? And how do you navigate early-stage hype, without missing out on the next [insert name of favourite unicorn]? Hit reply. 

— Amy, editor

Ps. Tickets are on sale for the event of the year: the Sifted Summit. Join us — and 3,000 other founders and investors — for two glorious days in London in October. I’ve had a sneak peak at the stage lineup and it’s looking spicy already. Get your ticket here. 

A coach for everyone!

Berlin-based early-stage VC Cherry is getting coaches for all its founders.

The firm’s putting aside a €50,000 coaching budget for every company it invests in — on top of the amount it would otherwise have put in. In other words, the startup gets €50k extra without giving away any more ownership, explains Filip Dames, founding partner at Cherry, who’s leading the scheme.

It isn’t mandatory for founders, but it is strongly encouraged. 

“The power of a coach can be quite transformational if you’re in a role with a lot of responsibility and way too young for the job, with many people looking at you for decisions and leadership,” says Dames. 

Founders with coaches tend to be much more reflective, he says. 

“They ask themselves questions like: ‘How can I be a better CEO? A better leader? What are the things I need to work on? How do I manage conflicts?’” 

Cherry’s curated a network of coaches with varying specialisms — from life coaches to speech coaches, leadership coaches to fundraising coaches — and negotiated prices for packages of 10 sessions.

The idea is that it’ll cover founders for one, if not two years, says Dames — and then they’ll hopefully continue paying for it themselves.

What’s in it for Cherry? Not just PR, insists Dames: “We’re definitely not doing this because we need another marketing argument.”

He says he wishes he’d had a coach back when he was in the Zalando C-suite, working towards an IPO. 

“Towards the end, I was so stressed, working day and night and it wasn’t healthy.”

Fellow VCs, do you encourage your founders to get coaches? Do you see a big difference in those that have them? And — do you see enough of a difference to fork out a few million on getting them coaches? Let me know. Hit reply.

How do you create a values-driven company?

Being a values-driven company is increasingly important to customers — and investors. So how do you build values while staying realistic? We interview speakers from Morgan Stanley’s Inclusive Ventures group, Cult Mia and Automated Architecture to find out.

⚽️ Teampact Ventures, a Paris-based VC, has raised €20m of a €50m fund to invest in climate tech and healthtech. Its LPs include footballers like Manchester United’s Raphaël Varane and Real Madrid’s Aurélien Tchouaméni, rugby player Julien Marchand and mixed martial arts champion Ciryl Gane; entrepreneurs like Alan cofounder Jean-Charles Samuelian and former La Redoute CEO Eric Courteille; and investors like Index partner Dominique Vidal. 

💰 Verdane, the PE firm, has closed its third growth fund at €1.1bn. It invests between €20m-€150m, and can take minority or majority stakes. It also does VC secondaries; most recently, acquiring ownership stakes in four companies (including Poland’s Booksy) from VNV Global.

🤖 New-ish: Spain is setting up a new body to consolidate the management of several government funds tasked with backing deeptech startups and, hopefully, get €20bn invested into companies.

🏦 Santander plans to buy up to a third of Madrid-based Seaya Ventures, which is an investor in Glovo, Cabify and Wallbox, according to La Información.

Maria Raga, former CEO of Depop (which sold to Etsy in 2021) has joined Creandum as a venture partner. She’s also an advisor to Felix Capital. 

Camille Cros has joined Yellow, the Paris- and Barcelona-based VC started by the founders of Glovo, as an investor. She’s based in Paris. 

Floriane de Maupeou has been promoted to principal at Paris-based VC Serena, where she’s focused on deeptech. 

Norway-based VC and accelerator programme Katapult Group, which focuses on climate and oceantech startups, has let go of eight employees. They include Katapult Group’s CEO, Linn-Cecilie Linnemann, and investment director and partner Jørn Haanæs. The firm will continue its Katapult Ocean and Katapult Africa programmes, but its Katapult Climate fund will be discontinued. 

😬 Accel-backed fintech kevin failed to pay staff for two months, say sources.

💳 Klarna reduces losses by two-thirds in 2023.

🌤️ Europe’s climate tech soonicorns.

🥐 We bought Point Nine’s Christoph Janz breakfast. He told us about the many businesses he’s started, some of the best investments he’s made and why he’s moving his family to San Francisco soon.

What VCs need to know about the M&A wave

After a slow year, M&A activity is predicted to rebound. Who will be the big buyers? Which startups are predicted to sell? I'll ask experts from Latham & Watkins, Octopus Ventures, Bloom and FaceIt just that in our next Sifted Talks. Sign up, it's free!