EUVC

Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast where we go behind the craft of building and backing venture-scale companies in Europe.Today, we’re joined by Sean Mullaney, Founder & CEO of Seapoint, and Will Prendergast, as the Founding Partner at Frontline Ventures.Seapoint has just come out of stealth with a $3M pre-seed to rebuild the fragile and fragmented financial stack that European startups (and later: mid-market companies) rely on. With a Stripe-forged team, AI-native development culture, and operators from Revolut, Tines & more on board, Seapoint wants to become the financial home for European startups.This conversation dives deep into founder pain, broken tooling, AI-native product building, engineering culture, the changing shape of startup teams, syndicate-building, and why Frontline backed Sean with high conviction.Here’s what’s covered:01:07 The Mission: “The financial home for European startups”03:32 Frontline’s conviction moment06:24 The founder pain: 5 tools, 5 accounts, zero clarity08:07 The invisible tax: fragmentation, reconciliation hell, no real-time view10:14 Why this problem is structurally important12:19 European vs US lens: why Seapoint is ahead13:18 AI-native engineering: “We rebuild the stack from processes, not accounts”15:19 AI agents allow senior engineers to ship full-stack features alone — compressing timelines that previously required 2–3× more engineers.17:19 Rethinking teams: fewer people, more senior, more generalist19:33 Productivity does NOT reduce funding needs — it increases ambition21:27 Culture: curiosity, experimentation, and founder-led technical push36:11 Syndicate design: Angels as a go-to-market weapon.40:23 From startup financial home → to powering Europe’s mid-market backbone: lending, treasury, automation, embedded finance.

Welcome back to another episode of the EUVC Podcast. Today, Jeppe sits down with Emil Eifrem, founder & CEO of Neo4j, the world’s leading graph database and a core infrastructure layer for AI applications used by all 20 of the top US banks, 9 of 10 global pharma giants, and every major automotive OEM.Emil recently announced a $100M global startup program to back founders building the next generation of AI-native products on top of graph technology — from knowledge graphs to hallucination-free LLMs.We delve into why graph thinking matters now, how Neo4j came of age during the Panama Papers investigation, and why Europe is better positioned than people think to compete in the AI platform shift.Here’s what’s covered:02:00 — The Panama Papers “Coming Out Party”How journalists used Neo4j to uncover 7-layer-deep financial relationships invisible to traditional databases — and why it triggered a wave of global adoption.06:40 — Why Graphs Are the Missing Link for AIKnowledge, meaning, context, and relationships: why LLMs without structured knowledge graphs hallucinate.08:50 — The $100M Startup ProgramWhy Neo4j is returning to its roots to support AI-native founders — and why the packaging for startups had to change.12:00 — What Founders GetFree Aura credits, dedicated graph engineers, joint GTM, and access to the world’s largest graph developer community.14:30 — Early Traction: 300+ Startups in WeeksWhy early demand is far ahead of expectations — and the kinds of companies applying.16:10 — Community as a Strategic Moat500+ annual global events, deep developer love, and why skill availability is now a CIO-level buying criterion.19:00 — Building Deep Tech in EuropeWhy Neo4j kept engineering in Europe, how the ecosystem matured, and what today’s founders can learn.22:00 — Regulation & CompetitivenessWill Europe overregulate itself out of the AI race? Emil’s perspective on models vs infrastructure vs applications.23:40 — The Future of AI InfrastructureWhy every company must rethink its stack — and why the biggest threat is assuming your business will survive without change.

In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm speaks with Oskar Hartmann, legendary operator turned super angel. From Kazakhstan to Germany, Russia, Japan, and now Dubai and Silicon Valley, Oskar has built and exited more than 10 companies, invested in 150+ ventures (14 unicorns among them), and today is pioneering a new way to solve concentration risk for founders and angels: Accumulator, a share-pooling model unlocking liquidity and diversification.They dive into Oskar’s “beast mode” founder philosophy, his candid battles with burnout, the importance of product–soul fit, and why Europe doesn’t just need more unicorns, it needs deca- and hectocorns. Along the way, Oskar shares his learnings from India’s ecosystem, his obsession with avoiding adverse selection, and his belief that communities, not individuals, create enduring success.

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where ⁠Dan Bowyer⁠,⁠ Mads Jensen⁠ of ⁠SuperSeed⁠ and ⁠Lomax Ward⁠ of ⁠Outsized Ventures⁠⁠⁠ cut through the noise shaping tech, venture, and geopolitics in Europe and beyond.This week starts lightly, as all good episodes do, with kids, illness paranoia, and the small joys of enforced medical naps. It escalates quickly.From OpenAI’s new health-focused ChatGPT and the FDA’s sudden sprint toward deregulation to Trump’s Greenland fixation and what it really signals about European sovereignty to Meta buying its way into the AI application layer, pension funds destroying value at scale, and Nvidia’s push into physical AI. This is one of those episodes where everything connects.The common thread is power. Who has it? Who’s losing it? And who’s still pretending nothing has changed?This is Upside, where the takes are sharp, the systems are breaking, and the optimism is… cautiously conditional.ShareWhat’s covered:00:00 Intro: ChatGPT Health launch, privacy/encryption, “use with skepticism”00:03 FDA shifts: deregulation + faster approvals for AI medical devices / wearables00:09 Trump + Greenland + NATO: geopolitics, minerals, defense, European sovereignty00:18 France proposing social media ban for under-15s; phones in schools; EU vs US regulation00:23 Meta reportedly buying Manus (AI agents / applications layer)00:25 Octopus Energy’s Kraken spin-out: valuation, contracted revenue, European “hidden champion”00:27 Discord IPO chatter: nearing ~$1B ARR; monetization model00:32 UK pensions: pressure to allocate to privates; constraints + risk/return tradeoffs00:42 FTSE 100 hits 10,000; UK vs S&P; defense-driven rally; low tech weighting00:50 CES: Nvidia autonomous driving + open sourcing; “physical AI” + Mercedes partnership00:54 China & Nvidia H20 pressures; AMD vs Nvidia software gap; Intel relevance

Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast where we connect and champion the people building European venture.In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with two pillars of Italy’s modern tech ecosystem:Giovanni Daprà, CEO & co-founder of Moneyfarm, one of Europe’s leading digital wealth management platformsPaolo Gesess, co-founder & GP at United Ventures, one of Italy’s premier early-stage VC firmsTogether, they unpack how Moneyfarm went from a Milan-founded startup to a pan-European fintech player; how Italy’s ecosystem has evolved; how United Ventures backed Giovanni through multiple strategic inflection points; why the shift from Blitzscaling to Default Alive made Moneyfarm stronger; and how European fintech is entering an era of consolidation and acquisition-led expansion.This is an episode full of concrete frameworks, real founder–VC dynamics, and hard-earned lessons from building across Italy, the UK, and Europe.Here’s what’s covered:04:00 | Moneyfarm as a digital wealth manager built to make investing simple, guided + discretionary, now managing £6.5B across Italy & the UK04:54 | Why United Ventures backed them: early conviction in a massive savings problem, founder clarity from day one, and a mission that remained unchanged for 13 years06:31 | Building from Italy first: leveraging local regulatory fluency + talent cost advantages while keeping a pan-European vision from day zero08:59 | Italy today vs. 2012 — more capital, more repeat founders, more international operators returning, and a dramatically deeper talent pool13:21 | The “tipping point” moments — moments where the board must choose: buy back shares, bring in global investors, widen the model (e.g., B2B2C)17:45 | Where Moneyfarm is now — strong in Italy + UK, product expansion complete (brokerage + pensions), and preparing for the next geographic phase18:37 | Surviving the capital cycle: seeing interest rates spike in real-time, shifting from burn to profitability in 24 months, and reshaping the framework for Europe19:50 | The Europe playbook: “default alive” — why blitzscaling never fit most of Europe, and how disciplined scaling becomes a competitive advantage22:25 | Founders vs. VCs on growth vs. profit — debunking the myth: alignment, capital structure, and long-term value trump forcing hypergrowth23:09 | Managing founder stress & incentives — secondaries, refreshed equity plans, changing founder roles, and adapting governance over a 10-year journey25:41 | The cap table reality — Moneyfarm with VCs, PEs, and industrials: why no one could force a “burn it all” strategy even if they wanted to27:41 | Building European-style VC — United Ventures’ thesis: European standards, European ambition, and preparing founders for international Series B/C investors30:09 | The next frontier: pan-European expansion, from product expansion → to commercial optimization → to cross-border consolidation34:13 | Growing into M&A as a founder — Moneyfarm’s three acquisitions, building the muscle, and using M&A as a growth lever when organic slows36:11 | The M&A playbook — when to build vs. buy, why scale matters, and the founder’s job in orchestrating product-led acquisitions37:40 | What founders often underestimate — M&A is expensive, cognitively draining, and requires dedicated people so you don’t destroy core execution39:47 | The board’s role — independent perspectives, long-term value thinking, and helping the CEO avoid deal fever or tunnel vision41:00 | The hard question: exits & fund cycles — how VCs manage tail-end holdings, DPI realities, continuation funds, and why selling is not betrayal43:48 | DPI explained simply — why some funds need liquidity earlier, and why United didn’t (strong DPI → more patience → no forced exit)

In this episode, Andreas sits down with Michael Sackler, founder of Supernode Global, to unpack the thesis behind Supernode’s Fund II: backing application-layer software with great UI/UX — the tools people actually use every day at home and at work — at a time when most European funds avoid consumer and default to “AI-infra everything.” Michael shares how his background in film shaped his view on tech leverage, why Supernode focuses on consumer-grade experiences applied to B2B, what their six theme areas are (wellbeing, productivity, community, creative and professional augmentation), and why they’re putting unusually strong skin in the game with a 34% GP commit.

Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast where we dive deep into the craft of building and backing venture-scale companies in Europe.Modern software doesn’t fail quietly.It fails on Black Friday.It fails while the CFO is in a board meeting.It fails when your biggest customer is mid-way through a critical workflow.And when it does, there’s one brutal reality:The data is there but nobody has time to interpret it.Today we’re exploring one of the most under-discussed yet mission-critical parts of building modern software: reliability in production.Joining Andreas are:👩🏻‍💻 Poone Mokari: CEO & Co-Founder, ewakeParis-based startup building AI agents for software production reliability, fresh off a $2M pre-seed led by Connect Ventures.💥 Pietro Bezza — Managing Partner, Connect VenturesEurope’s most product-obsessed early-stage investors (Aikido, Typeform, TrueLayer), backing ewake as their next agentic AI investment in observability.We unpack why observability is overdue for a rewrite, how AI agents finally provide the “reasoning layer” that logs & metrics never could, and how ewake is building a global devtools company out of Paris.Here’s what’s covered:01:12 | What ewake does — AI agents for software production reliability that reason across logs, metrics & code to cut through observability overload02:32 | Why Connect backed them — trusted intros, a massive category (post-cloud, multi-$B), and founders with rare insider insight into reliability engineering05:18 | The shift AI enables — from reactive data dashboards to an intelligence layer that correlates structured + unstructured data and finds root causes07:48 | The hidden layers of tech — why deep, unglamorous infrastructure (observability, reliability, SRE workflows) is a massive opportunity for new entrants08:52 | The wedge — LLMs as reasoning engines over infrastructure data: not more dashboards, but an operator that collaborates with engineers in critical moments11:48 | Production ≠ code on your laptop — the real-world complexity: business context, urgency, multi-team coordination, and why semantic reasoning matters14:38 | “Can we trust AI?” — why agentic workflows differ from ChatGPT, how ewake constrains context, guards against hallucinations & enforces “don’t know” responses16:38 | Founder–market fit — living the pain at Criteo, deep SRE experience, and product instincts that made ewake’s pitch compelling pre-product17:16 | Connect’s thesis — product-first founders, problem insight over pedigree, and why product is the highest leverage driver of venture-scale outcomes22:31 | Product-led ≠ PLG — clarifying the difference between product-first strategy and the specific go-to-market motion of product-led growth26:02 | How Awake raised $2M pre-product — insight clarity, storytelling from lived experience, fast-moving investors, and a clear “teammate, not dashboard” vision30:40 | What Connect looks for — opinionated founders with singular insight, UX instincts, and a tinkerer’s mindset for frontier-tech categories38:20 | Why build in Paris — deep AI talent pools, strong engineering culture, global problem space, and a shift toward France as a magnet for AI founders42:15 | Geography myths — why great companies emerge anywhere, Europe’s deep industry advantage, and dual-hub (EU + US GTM) playbooks47:23 | Where ewake is now — out of stealth, hiring, in design partnerships, building alongside early users, and stress-testing agents in real incidents51:52 | Final reflections — design-led vs. tinker-led founders, why ewake fits the frontier-tech profile, and what the next wave of AI infra looks like

Welcome back to another EUVC Podcast, where we explore the lessons, frameworks, and insights shaping venture ecosystems across the globe.In this special Southeast Asia edition this week, David Cruz e Silva from EUVC and Ambika from Circle Capital sit down with Binh Tran from AVV (Ascend Vietnam Ventures) - a VC firm headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, backing tech founders across Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and the U.S.A serial founder turned VC, Binh sold his first company Klout for $200M in 2014 before launching 500 Startups Vietnam and later AVV, which has now backed about 500 startups, including unicorns Turing, Skymavis, and ApplyBoard.Together, they unpack Vietnam’s ecosystem growth, power-law returns in emerging markets, government catalysts, and how to back founders with both grit and global ambition.🎧 Here’s what’s covered03:24 “Build Boldly, Scale Faster” — The story behind AVV’s tagline and how speed correlates with ambition and performance.06:29 Vietnam’s ecosystem in one decade — 60% of startups founded between 2015–2025; how AVV rode the first wave.07:47 From founder to funder — Binh’s journey from the Bay Area’s AI wave to seeding Vietnam’s first generation of tech startups.09:42 Power law in Southeast Asia — Why it absolutely applies, and how maturing cycles in India, China, and now Vietnam prove it.12:26 Government as catalyst — From post-embargo GDP per capita of $300 to 8% growth; early signs of state-backed VC emerging.14:46 Vietnam’s startup data points — Six unicorns in under five years and a domestic ecosystem hungry for risk and innovation.17:14 Investment focus: Vietnam+ — Why AVV backs tech talent, not just local markets; global mindset, local execution.17:59 VC learnings: It’s hands-on — From operator to builder of ecosystems; why early-stage in developing markets means getting your hands dirty.20:54 Impact meets returns — How government collaboration enables “ecosystem shaping” as part of the VC mandate.23:37 Advice for global LPs — Think India 10 years ago: early, cheap, high-talent markets; AI as the great equalizer.26:23 LP mix: 45% U.S., 45% East Asia, 10% Europe; corporates using AVV for China+1 exposure and tech-talent pipelines.28:50 Working with founders — From hacker houses in Da Nang to U.S. rounds; AVV’s boutique, founder-first approach.33:26 Cultural calibration — Helping Vietnamese founders learn storytelling, global GTM, and hiring for scale.34:04 Changing beliefs — From Valley-style hypergrowth to Vietnam-style resourcefulness and grit; building despite constraints.37:31 Next five years — Mobile gaming, Web3 for developing markets, AI developer tools, and agri-tech as Vietnam’s global edge.42:09 Final reflection — “Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t” — why Southeast Asia’s next decade is ripe for breakout returns.

If you’ve spent any time in European venture lately, you’ve probably noticed two things:Everyone says they “do AI now.”Almost nobody wants to touch consumer.That’s exactly where Michael Sackler and Supernode Global are leaning in.Michael started his career not in venture, but in film. He founded and ran Rook’s Nest Entertainment in London, producing and executive producing 12 feature films, including cult horror hit “The Witch”, which still makes the rounds every Halloween.As the streamers rose in the early 2010s, he watched technology companies steamroll the media value chain. At the same time, he began angel investing around the edges of content and tech. It didn’t take long before it was obvious where the real leverage was.Today, Michael runs Supernode Global, an early-stage fund focused on application-layer software that people use every day at home and at work. Fund I proved out the model. Fund II is where it scales.This episode is essentially Michael’s Fund II pitch and it’s a good one.Here’s what’s covered:02:40 | Fund I → Fund II — expanding from “content + tech” to technologies that enhance daily personal and professional life03:55 | The thesis shift — six themes across wellbeing, productivity, vitality, life-ops, community, and creative/pro-work augmentation05:27 | The unifying thread — application-layer software + UI/UX obsession (consumer-grade experiences applied to enterprise)07:50 | Fund II in motion — 13 companies already deployed and why the portfolio itself tells the story10:36 | Sourcing edge — 50/50 inbound/outbound, a gender-balanced team, and why that drives deal flow from overlooked founders12:57 | Speed as a superpower — winning competitive deals through fast conviction, aggressive execution, and deep consumer focus14:42 | Value add in practice — growth support, fundraising pathways, and SuperNode’s “connector” identity (with a shoutout to Naomi)15:33 | 34% GP commit — why Michael and Gina put unusually large personal capital into the fund (and what it signals to LPs)18:51 | The AI elephant — where AI enhances work vs. where it risks erasing human craft (with the Graswold example)21:56 | Human creativity vs. automation — why AI will reshape the menial, not the art, and why stories still anchor value23:32 | AI art, authenticity & meaning — when fully AI-generated output loses emotional value, and where hybrid human–AI creation wins

Welcome back to another EUVC Podcast, where we explore the lessons, frameworks, and insights shaping Europe’s venture ecosystem.Today, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Matti Hautsalo, Founding Partner at Nordic Science Investments (NSI), a €60M early-stage fund dedicated to university spin-outs across the Nordics and Europe. With a team spanning tech transfer, research, founding, VC, and investment banking, NSI backs science-powered companies at pre-seed and seed, then helps recruit commercial leaders, navigate TTOs, and transfer IP cleanly so these companies can raise from broader deep-tech syndicates.🎧 Here’s what’s covered03:23 Why spin-outs now? - Conventional wisdom flipped: great companies can start with researchers — provided you build the tech + commercial duo early.05:14 The “Dynamic Duo” model - Founder-scientist stays CSO/CTO; bring in an external CEO/CBO early. Titles are flexible, execution isn’t.06:50 Why a dedicated spin-out fund? - Traditional VCs pass when boxes aren’t ticked (team/IP). NSI bridges the Death Valley with first private capital.10:17 Working with TTOs - Best practices, process vs. policy, and what’s “OK” on ownership (≈10% fine; >20% gets tricky — but context matters).12:56 Reality check - Hard negotiations happen — but good deals get done; the constraint is resourcing, not intent.14:42 How VCs should navigate universities - It’s a people & trust business; adapt to each campus, don’t try to rewrite policy from the outside.17:25 Team building - Two paths: (1) interim CEO from within; (2) recruit CEO fast — and set expectations from day one.20:51 Attracting CEOs - Offer meaningful equity and a credible follow-on plan; industry operators will take risk if the tech is real.21:27 Incentives & cap table - Set a ~20% option pool early; avoid dead equity for non-operating senior academics; educate on vesting.23:27 Terms that fail - Over-allocating to passive contributors; unclear vesting; under-sizing option pools for key hires.24:55 When founders return to academia - Standard 12-month cliff, then linear vesting; cap table rewards future commitment, not past papers.26:39 Beyond silos = alpha - Why the best spin-outs are multidisciplinary — and why most investors miss them.28:10 Case: Perfect Technologies - Physics × food science; ultrasound-structured oils mimicking butter at ~0% saturated fats; small Series A just closed with food-tech co-investors.32:51 Tranching & milestones—Pre-seed is small and milestone-based (one tech + one commercial); Nordics soft funding extends runway.35:37 Ticket sizes - ~€100k pre-seed, ~€500k seed (case-by-case); “From seed onwards we act like any other VC.”44:58 Why specialization wins - Networks to validate state-of-the-art, patience with TTOs, and willingness to roll up sleeves on team building.

Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast.Today Andreas is joined by Stefan Roebel, Co‑Founder & CEO of ARX Robotics — one of Europe’s fastest-rising defense tech startups.From his 12 years in the German Armed Forces to leadership roles at Amazon, eBay, and Grover, Stefan has lived both sides: the military front line and the global business battlefield. Now, he’s combining that experience to tackle one of the most pressing challenges of our time: Europe’s ability to defend itself in a new era of war.In this episode, Stefan shares ARX’s journey from DIY decoy robots to NATO-backed modular robotic systems already deployed in Ukraine. We dive deep into why Europe must break with its slow procurement culture, how startups can become the “new primes,” and what it really takes to build dual-use autonomy in a defense-first world.Here’s what’s covered:00:56 | From Afghanistan to Amazon to ARX Robotics: Stefan’s unlikely founder journey02:30 | The broomstick that became a digital decoy — ARX’s origin story06:34 | The first breakthrough: selling duct-taped prototypes that worked08:30 | ARX’s modular robotics suite explained (500kg payload, autonomy, retrofits)10:47 | Educating VCs: how defense tech went from “too weird” to oversubscribed13:55 | Picking investors: big names vs true believers with military insight16:53 | Real deployments in Ukraine: ammo supply & medevac in the kill zone19:49 | Why Ukraine’s lessons are shaping Europe’s defense future23:24 | The drone war changed everything: solving Europe’s “lack of mass”27:31 | Will ARX become a “new prime”? Why incumbents can’t move fast enough29:17 | Dual use beyond defense: disaster relief, critical infrastructure & NGOs32:36 | AI in defense robotics: solving missions, not chasing the holy grail35:21 | Hiring for defense: when military background matters (and when it doesn’t)40:57 | Why Stefan is hopeful for Europe’s defense tech ecosystem44:56 | Veterans, perception, and why “peace comes from strength”

This week on the EUVC Podcast, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Matthew Wilson, co-founder of Jack & Jill, and Peter Specht, General Partner at Creandum. Fresh off a $20M seed to take their AI recruiting agents global, they dig into how conviction is built in Europe, from founding insight to investor belief, and what it now takes to scale an agent-native company with speed, precision, and craft.Jack helps candidates find and optimize their careers. Jill helps companies hire brilliantly. Together, the two agents form a high-signal, two-sided network that aims to become the world’s most networked AI-powered recruitment agency — without the classical incentive conflicts of human middlemen.Here’s what’s covered:02:35 | Why Creandum leaned in, conviction on voice-based interfaces and why recruiting is a massive, broken vertical for agent AI03:38 | The founding moment: leaving Omnipresent, 18 months in the wilderness, and the February insight that agents make talent marketplaces finally viable07:07 | Recruiting is broken (and AI made it worse): why first-principles thinking is needed to avoid “more noise, not more signal.”09:15 | Investor conviction: founder/market fit, why this moment is different, and the defensibility of a two-sided agentic marketplace12:22 | The user experience: the “coffee chat” with an AI recruiter: deep voice conversation → matching, prep, coaching, introductions16:30 | Solving the incentives trap: why Jack works 100% for candidates and Jill works 100% for companies (fixing agency conflicts)19:10 | Coaching as core: how AI unlocks career guidance, interview prep, and hands-on support that humans rarely get today22:47 | Building fast in the AI era: talent density, global expansion, and why a 20M seed makes sense for a dual-product marketplace26:35 | Two companies in one: scaling Jack (consumer) + Jill (B2B) simultaneously, across markets, with AI leverage34:02 | The GTM playbook: engineering-led marketing, AI-driven creative testing, instant value, and rethinking B2B buying entirely37:47 | The new AI go-to-market: speed, PLG dominance, virality-by-design, and why distribution now matters more than ever43:52 | Two GTM worlds: viral AI products vs. slow, enterprise-heavy AI deployments (and why both will coexist)47:15 | The “productization” of marketing — why engineering now powers growth, not headcount-heavy marketing orgs50:29 | Final advice (VC POV) — start with a unique insight, not a trend; think in 5–10 year arcs, not quick ARR bumps

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where ⁠Dan Bowyer⁠,⁠ Mads Jensen⁠ of ⁠SuperSeed⁠ and ⁠Lomax Ward⁠ of ⁠Outsized Ventures⁠⁠⁠ gather for a holiday-home special to cut through the noise around Europe’s tech, geopolitics and AI shifts. What begins as an innocent debate about whether DeepMind is “still a UK company” quickly spirals into a tour of sovereign AI strategy, the SpaceX mega-raise, Europe’s increasingly uncomfortable place between China and the US, defence-spending reality checks and a surprisingly uplifting set of deep-tech deals across the continent.It is classic Upside: the takes are sharp, the geopolitics gets spiky, and the optimism… well, it arrives eventually.What’s covered:04:36 AI-for-Science, robotics and the new “AI scientist” era06:50 A national-curriculum Gemini and the vision of a tutor for every child09:39 The SpaceX 2026 IPO: what investors are actually buying14:00 Starship, orbital compute and the trillion-dollar imagination gap18:07 Why Europe missed the space race once again19:43 Portugal flips the script: “Economy of the Year”22:58 Europe between China’s export tsunami and America’s cold shoulder32:07 Defence budgets: the hype, the delay and the reality for startups34:25 AI Corner: bubble fears, Mistral’s comeback, Meta goes closed, China goes full-stackComms Strategy Expert SessionApply or share the opportunity with a founder or investor in your network: https://luma.com/euvc-comms-expert-session

If you’re in B2B SaaS, you probably feel it already: the old way of “just hire more SDRs and send more emails” is broken.Everyone has the same tooling. Everyone is running the same sequences. Everyone is “personalising at scale” with the same prompts. Yet pipeline quality is down, efficiency is under scrutiny, and suddenly… go-to-market (GTM) design has become a first-class strategic problem.Few people are better positioned to talk about this shift than Harrison Rose.Harrison co-founded Paddle, helped turn it into one of the UK’s fastest-growing software companies, and has now raised a $13M Series A (led by Notion Capital, with participation from Robin Capital, Inovia, Salicap, Common Magic, Andrena and more) to build GoodFit – an AI-driven GTM data platform.Here’s what’s covered:00:47 | What GoodFit actually does — mapping your entire market and scoring every account01:32 | Paddle origins → the first-principles GTM problem that later became GoodFit03:31 | From internal tool to standalone company — recognizing the “product inside Paddle”04:18 | Who buys GoodFit — why B2B tech is the first adopter (and why the market is much bigger)06:28 | Second-time founder advantage — credibility, networks, and selling before the product exists08:29 | Choosing investors — why Notion, avoiding echo chambers, and constructing a syndicate13:24 | Bootstrapping for four years — optionality, profitability curiosity, and knowing when VC is the right path18:34 | AI’s real impact on go-to-market — why most teams are just automating bad outreach22:25 | The GoodFit vision — deciding who to sell to, why, and how (and leaving execution to others)35:34 | Leaving Paddle — identity, founder evolution, and learning to lead differently the second time around46:40 | Giving back — why Harrison opens his inbox for “weird, gnarly, unsaid” founder questions

This week, Andreas Munk Holm talks with Sergey Jakimov, Co-founder and Managing Partner at LongeVC, a leading longevity-focused venture fund backing breakthroughs in biotech, AI-driven drug discovery, and the science of healthy aging.From pre-seed biotech spin-outs to multi-hundred-million-dollar exits with Big Pharma, LongeVC is building the category-defining fund at the frontier of life extension. In this episode, Sergey walks us through the team’s 3x+ MOIC track record, how LongeVC’s scientific advisory board unlocks proprietary deal flow, and why longevity and healthspan investing could be venture’s next trillion-dollar frontier.🎧 Here’s what’s covered01:15 – Who is Sergey Jakimov? From biotech entrepreneur to longevity investor03:00 – What is LongeVC: thesis, structure, and Fund II snapshot06:20 – The market for longevity & age-related disease: a $1.6 trillion opportunity09:30 – Track record: Fund I’s 3x+ MOIC, 0 write-offs, 20 portfolio companies12:40 – How LongeVC sources deals: scientific advisory board and AI-driven diligence15:15 – Ecosystem advantage: from nonprofits to physician networks18:00 – Case study 1 – Insilico Medicine, the $1.5 billion AI-drug-discovery unicorn20:15 – Case study 2 – Turn Biotechnologies and $300 million + HanAll partnership22:30 – Case study 3 – Rubedo Life Sciences and Beiersdorf’s dermatology deal25:00 – How pharma’s pipeline erosion fuels biotech M&A28:10 – Fund II: $120 million target, 20 % carry, 10-year term31:20 – LP privileges: access, co-investments, and semi-annual IC observation34:00 – Sergey’s vision: longevity as both moral and financial imperative

In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Ole Lehmann to explore the rise of the solopreneur movement, what AI unlocks for solo founders, and how blockchain may finally have its moment as the infrastructure layer for AI. Ole also unpacks his new initiative, Built in Europe, and why he’s betting on a future where ambitious company builders thrive without moving to the U.S.Here’s what’s covered:00:52 Ole’s Journey: From Music Production to Crypto to AI Education03:57 Crypto Disillusionment & the Promise of Blockchain Infrastructure10:08 Inside the Solopreneur Mindset: Freedom, Curiosity & Leverage16:32 Content Market Fit > Product Market Fit: A New Way to Build21:18 Why Interest Graphs Beat Follower Counts in 202528:43 A New Class of Founders—and the Portfolio Play to Back Them39:10 How AI Tools Empower a One-Person Media Company43:31 Building in Europe: More Than a Narrative Play47:05 The Cultural and Regulatory Hurdles Still Holding Europe Back50:08 Why European Tech Founders Need to Enter the Political Arena

Andreas Munk Holm opens the episode by introducing Charles Dunn, Principal at SV Health Investors, and Ruth McKernan, CBE and Operating Partner at SV Health, former CEO of Innovate UK. SV Health is a transatlantic healthcare specialist with a focus on company creation and full-spectrum biotech investing. Notable wins include the exit of SV-created EyeBio to Merck & Co for up to $3bn including $1.3bn upfront, and the recent launch of SV’s newest company creation Driag Therapeutics, a UK-based neuropsychiatry company, which recently announced its $140m Series A financing.SV Health’s approach blends early-stage company creation with later-stage venture investment. Charles emphasizes that this structure allows:Diversified risk for LPs: Early-stage opportunities carry higher risk but higher upside; later-stage investments provide more stability.Learning across stages: Experience in late-stage investing informs early-stage decision-making, and vice versa.Flexible company formation: SV Health creates companies across different development stages, sometimes even after Phase 1 data exists, as with Draig Therapeutics.

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where ⁠Dan Bowyer⁠,⁠ Mads Jensen⁠ of ⁠SuperSeed⁠, ⁠Lomax Ward⁠ of ⁠Outsized Ventures⁠⁠⁠, and Andrew Scott of 7percent Ventures to break down the real stories behind the headlines shaping European tech and venture.From Bending Spoons’ audacious European rollup strategy, to Brexit’s economic hangover, to the existential challenges facing Volkswagen, to Google vs. OpenAI’s new “Code Red”, and finally whether Europe has had its long-overdue shock moment — this episode goes wide, fast, and deep.This is Upside, where the takes are sharp, the macro is messy, and the optimism is… conditional.What’s covered:02:00 The valuation reset, debt-fuelled M&A, and the Italian PE–VC hybrid model04:00 Arbitrage: firing US teams, rehiring elite Italian engineers06:00 Do rollups really work? Tech debt, distribution, and execution risk07:00 Brexit revisited: GDP losses, trade collapse, and political reality08:00 The myth of “you can’t know the counterfactual” — and why you actually can10:00 Will the UK rejoin the customs union? And would Europe even take us back?12:00 Europe’s manufacturing crisis: Porsche, Volkswagen, BYD and the end of German exceptionalism15:00 China’s shift: stop importing, start replicating17:00 Welfare-state complacency and the European stagnation problem20:00 The bitter truth about Europe’s carbon “success story”22:00 How to actually fix European tech: R&D, immigration, procurement, capital markets24:00 Why 0.02% pension allocation to VC is Europe’s biggest structural handicap26:00 Should we “Farage-pill” Europe into a tech-first agenda?33:00 Distribution vs. loyalty: why consumers don’t care about brand36:00 Who wins the cost base war: Google, Amazon, Meta, or OpenAI?38:00 Anthropic’s IPO plans and what they signal about the private capital cycle42:00 Deals of the Week: Black Forest Labs, ICEYE, Expedition Growth Capital44:00 Robotics is the next AI wave — and the picks-and-shovels startups emerging now

This week on the EUVC Podcast, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Mikael Johnsson, Co-founder & General Partner at Oxx, one of Europe’s leading specialist B2B software investors.Mikael has a very clear-eyed view on the current AI wave: he’s seeing valuation discipline slip, fundamentals being stretched, and a real risk that the market mistakes pilot-driven excitement for lasting enterprise value.In this episode, they explore how to distinguish hype from substance, what “real” AI adoption looks like within a business process, and how both founders and investors can remain level-headed when everyone else is losing theirs.

Welcome back to another episode of the EUVC Podcast. Today, we’re thrilled to feature Leyla Holterud, partner at Vintage Investment Partners. Many know Leyla from her years at StepStone, where she led venture growth across EMEA. Now, at Vintage, she’s helping deploy $4.3 billion from their global platform to double down on Europe, anchored by the firm’s new London office. With a strategy spanning fund-of-funds, growth, and secondaries, Leyla offers a rare vantage point on the European VC landscape.