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 covered
03:24 “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 life
03:55 | The thesis shift — six themes across wellbeing, productivity, vitality, life-ops, community, and creative/pro-work augmentation
05:27 | 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 story
10:36 | Sourcing edge — 50/50 inbound/outbound, a gender-balanced team, and why that drives deal flow from overlooked founders
12:57 | Speed as a superpower — winning competitive deals through fast conviction, aggressive execution, and deep consumer focus
14:42 | 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 value
23:32 | 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 covered
03:23 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 journey
02:30 | The broomstick that became a digital decoy — ARX’s origin story
06:34 | The first breakthrough: selling duct-taped prototypes that worked
08:30 | ARX’s modular robotics suite explained (500kg payload, autonomy, retrofits)
10:47 | Educating VCs: how defense tech went from “too weird” to oversubscribed
13:55 | Picking investors: big names vs true believers with military insight
16:53 | Real deployments in Ukraine: ammo supply & medevac in the kill zone
19:49 | Why Ukraine’s lessons are shaping Europe’s defense future
23:24 | 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 enough
29:17 | Dual use beyond defense: disaster relief, critical infrastructure & NGOs
32:36 | AI in defense robotics: solving missions, not chasing the holy grail
35:21 | Hiring for defense: when military background matters (and when it doesn’t)
40:57 | Why Stefan is hopeful for Europe’s defense tech ecosystem
44:56 | 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 AI
03:38 | The founding moment: leaving Omnipresent, 18 months in the wilderness, and the February insight that agents make talent marketplaces finally viable
07:07 | 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 marketplace
12:22 | The user experience: the “coffee chat” with an AI recruiter: deep voice conversation → matching, prep, coaching, introductions
16:30 | 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 today
22:47 | Building fast in the AI era: talent density, global expansion, and why a 20M seed makes sense for a dual-product marketplace
26:35 | Two companies in one: scaling Jack (consumer) + Jill (B2B) simultaneously, across markets, with AI leverage
34:02 | The GTM playbook: engineering-led marketing, AI-driven creative testing, instant value, and rethinking B2B buying entirely
37:47 | The new AI go-to-market: speed, PLG dominance, virality-by-design, and why distribution now matters more than ever
43:52 | 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 orgs
50:29 | 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” era
06:50 A national-curriculum Gemini and the vision of a tutor for every child
09:39 The SpaceX 2026 IPO: what investors are actually buying
14:00 Starship, orbital compute and the trillion-dollar imagination gap
18:07 Why Europe missed the space race once again
19:43 Portugal flips the script: “Economy of the Year”
22:58 Europe between China’s export tsunami and America’s cold shoulder
32:07 Defence budgets: the hype, the delay and the reality for startups
34:25 AI Corner: bubble fears, Mistral’s comeback, Meta goes closed, China goes full-stack
Comms Strategy Expert Session
Apply 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 account
01:32 | Paddle origins → the first-principles GTM problem that later became GoodFit
03:31 | 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 exists
08:29 | Choosing investors — why Notion, avoiding echo chambers, and constructing a syndicate
13:24 | Bootstrapping for four years — optionality, profitability curiosity, and knowing when VC is the right path
18:34 | AI’s real impact on go-to-market — why most teams are just automating bad outreach
22:25 | 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 around
46:40 | 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 covered
01:15 – Who is Sergey Jakimov? From biotech entrepreneur to longevity investor
03:00 – What is LongeVC: thesis, structure, and Fund II snapshot
06:20 – The market for longevity & age-related disease: a $1.6 trillion opportunity
09:30 – Track record: Fund I’s 3x+ MOIC, 0 write-offs, 20 portfolio companies
12:40 – How LongeVC sources deals: scientific advisory board and AI-driven diligence
15:15 – Ecosystem advantage: from nonprofits to physician networks
18:00 – Case study 1 – Insilico Medicine, the $1.5 billion AI-drug-discovery unicorn
20:15 – Case study 2 – Turn Biotechnologies and $300 million + HanAll partnership
22:30 – Case study 3 – Rubedo Life Sciences and Beiersdorf’s dermatology deal
25:00 – How pharma’s pipeline erosion fuels biotech M&A
28:10 – Fund II: $120 million target, 20 % carry, 10-year term
31:20 – LP privileges: access, co-investments, and semi-annual IC observation
34:00 – 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 Education
03:57 Crypto Disillusionment & the Promise of Blockchain Infrastructure
10:08 Inside the Solopreneur Mindset: Freedom, Curiosity & Leverage
16:32 Content Market Fit > Product Market Fit: A New Way to Build
21:18 Why Interest Graphs Beat Follower Counts in 2025
28:43 A New Class of Founders—and the Portfolio Play to Back Them
39:10 How AI Tools Empower a One-Person Media Company
43:31 Building in Europe: More Than a Narrative Play
47:05 The Cultural and Regulatory Hurdles Still Holding Europe Back
50:08 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 model
04:00 Arbitrage: firing US teams, rehiring elite Italian engineers
06:00 Do rollups really work? Tech debt, distribution, and execution risk
07:00 Brexit revisited: GDP losses, trade collapse, and political reality
08:00 The myth of “you can’t know the counterfactual” — and why you actually can
10:00 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 exceptionalism
15:00 China’s shift: stop importing, start replicating
17:00 Welfare-state complacency and the European stagnation problem
20:00 The bitter truth about Europe’s carbon “success story”
22:00 How to actually fix European tech: R&D, immigration, procurement, capital markets
24:00 Why 0.02% pension allocation to VC is Europe’s biggest structural handicap
26:00 Should we “Farage-pill” Europe into a tech-first agenda?
33:00 Distribution vs. loyalty: why consumers don’t care about brand
36:00 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 cycle
42:00 Deals of the Week: Black Forest Labs, ICEYE, Expedition Growth Capital
44:00 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.
Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast, your inside track on the people, models, and math reshaping European venture.
This week, Andreas talks with Damian Cristian and Guy Conway, co-founders of Rule 30 - an AI research lab building what they claim is the world’s first fully systematic venture strategy. We go deep on the difference between “data-driven” (hygiene) and decision-driven (engine), why labels matter, and how portfolio math crushes intuition.
They unpack founder-trajectory signals, graph-based network evolution, market topology (yes, biology-inspired stats), and a portfolio design targeting 3x+ minimum returns with 97.5% confidence. We also debate the “access myth,” party rounds, and why they won’t sell their alpha.
Whether you’re an LP testing managers, a GP rethinking reserves, or a founder curious how algorithms “see” you - this one’s for the nerds and the pragmatists.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:46 | What is “Quant VC” and how it differs from traditional venture
06:39 | Why pre-seed isn’t an access problem — it’s a triage problem
09:55 | Can AI really make investment decisions at pre-seed?
14:13 | Training the model on 15 years of startup data to find top-decile winners
20:55 | The “Outlier Trajectory” of founders — decoding team evolution through data
26:42 | Why Rule 30 calls itself an AI Research Lab, not a VC fund
35:36 | Portfolio construction math: the danger of the “middle” strategy
55:57 | Follow-ons vs upfront bets — why they avoid reserves entirely
61:40 | Access myth-busting — why 99 % of pre-seed deals are open to smart capital
This week, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Jack Leeney, co-founder of 7GC, the transatlantic growth fund bridging Silicon Valley and Europe and a backer of AI giants like Anthropic, alongside European rising stars Poolside and Fluidstack.
From IPOs at Morgan Stanley to running Telefónica’s US venture arm and now operating a dual-continental fund, Jack shares how 7GC reads the AI supercycle, why infrastructure and platforms win first, and what Europe must fix to unlock the next wave of venture liquidity.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered:
02:00 7GC’s transatlantic model: investing where liquidity lives
05:00 AI’s stack order: infra → platforms → horizontal → vertical
10:40 Hype vs. compute cycles: why this time is different
11:30 OpenAI vs. Anthropic vs. Mistral: the new map of winners
17:40 Llama, open source, and Meta’s defensive play
19:00 European AI bets: Poolside, Fluidstack, and dual-market strategies
22:40 The EU AI Act: noise, nuance, and why customers still decide
26:30 IPOs are back: US windows, European silence
33:00 Liquidity, secondaries, and when 7GC hands stock to LPs
37:40 Europe’s missing link: scaled M&A
43:00 What policymakers and corporates must do next
Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen of SuperSeed, Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures, and this week’s special guest Robin Haak break down the real stories behind the headlines shaping European tech and venture.
Robin joins us as the founder of Robin Capital, an early employee at SmartRecruiters, angel in 100+ companies, including eight unicorns, and one of the most active emerging GPs in Europe. He brings deep operator insight, especially into the German ecosystem, politics, and economy, which this episode leans heavily into.
We cover everything from UK policy signals to German recession warnings, AI dominance to Europe’s bureaucratic drag, the rise of solo GPs, and why the next decade of tech will be won or lost on energy availability more than anything else.
What’s covered:
04:00 EU wants to restrict social media for minors
The team debates the proposals to ban or limit social media for children under 16, the mental health case, and the tension between safety and overreach.
06:00 Surveillance creep & messaging regulation
Robin explains concerning drafts that would’ve allowed governments to read private messages. The group breaks down the slippery slope of “protect the children” legislation.
10:00 UK Budget: surprisingly startup-friendly
Dan and Lomax unpack EMI reforms, EIS/VCT clarity, and why the market reacted calmly. Signals of a more innovation-forward UK emerge.
12:45 Lovable.ai’s VAT scandal & Europe’s compliance maze
A Swedish engineer’s viral post on LinkedIn sparks a discussion on Europe’s inconsistent VAT rules, compliance complexity, and whether hypergrowth and European regulation can co-exist.
17:00 N26’s long struggle with German regulators
Robin, an early angel, offers an insider's view on the fintech’s challenges—BaFin restrictions, governance issues, and the counterfactual: “Would N26 be worth €20B if it were French?”
20:00 Germany’s big macro problem: stagnation + overload
A brutally honest breakdown of the German economy: energy scarcity, migration overload, rising welfare costs, labor shortages, and political paralysis.
28:00 Education, welfare, pensions & the cost structure crisis
Robin explains why Germany’s systems are buckling: the collapse of PISA scores, overloaded municipalities, and an economic model no longer supported by productivity.
33:00 Nuclear shutdowns & Europe’s AI energy deficit
Why Germany shut down its safest reactors, how it backfired, and why France and the Nordics will become the new AI infrastructure hubs.
40:00 Startup ecosystem: the good, the bad, the bureaucratic
From Munich’s deep tech boom to notary nightmares, ESOP fixes, GmbH limitations, and how founders are learning to hack the system.
55:00 The rise of Solo GPs
The team discusses the American roots, European trajectory, operator funds, fund-of-funds appetite, and why founders increasingly prefer solo GPs.
01:00:00 AI Corner
OpenAI’s trillion-dollar capex future, Google’s TPU resurgence, Anthropic momentum, Michael Burry shorting AI (and why it’s misguided), and the geopolitics of compute.
Welcome back to another episode of the EUVC Podcast, your trusted inside track on the people, deals, and dynamics shaping European venture.
This week, Andreas Munk Holm is joined by Max Kufner, Co-Founder and CEO of again, and Jan Miczaika, Partner at HV Capital.
again is one of those rare European deep-tech stories that blends academic brilliance, industrial execution, and venture pace. Born out of DTU, with roots at Stanford and MIT, again uses gas-eating microbes to turn CO₂ emissions into valuable chemicals and materials. In plain English: they take carbon that’s already in the air (not the ground) and repurpose it into things we use every day, from plastics to fertilizers.
Backed by HV Capital, GV, and a handful of top European and US investors, again is on a mission to decouple industrial growth from fossil carbon. But the conversation goes far beyond climate tech.
Max and Jan unpack what it takes to build deep tech at venture speed, the reality of talent scarcity in Europe, the cultural differences between US and EU deep-tech ecosystems, and how to navigate board dynamics, milestone-based investing, and the journey to a Series B in a capital-intensive world.
Whether you’re a founder, investor, or LP curious about deep tech’s reindustrialisation wave — this one’s for you.
Here what’s covered:
01:24 | again in one line — gas-eating microbes → chemicals (no oil out of the ground)
02:53 | Why HV Capital backed again — climate upside and a chance to redefine European chemicals
04:31 | Investor → founder pendulum — why Max went from Atlantic Labs partner back to operator
06:20 | The serial founder advantage (and its hidden trap)
10:17 | Building deep tech in Europe — talent constraints, optimism gaps, and moving early to the US
15:30 | Multipolarity — global operations, risk appetite, and where to spend your time
23:38 | Boardcraft — how to use your board (and avoid being over-managed)
28:39 | On-air sparring — asset-heavy vs. platform-heavy business models
33:17 | Prepping for Series B — risk, IRR, and the difference between validation and scale
36:59 | Milestone-based investing in deep tech — bridges, binaries, and how to keep momentum
43:12 | LPs and VCs — why deep tech is high-risk and high-alpha
46:08 | Founder lessons — customer co-creation, speed, and building fast with scientists
48:06 | Final reflections — Europe’s industrial renewal through deep tech
Corporate venture capital isn’t just having “a bit of VC on the side.”
Done well, it’s a strategic lens on the future. Done badly, it’s a short-lived pet project with a half-life of 3.7 years and a trail of confused founders and annoyed co-investors.
In this episode, we sit down with Martin Scherrer, Partner & Head of Managed Funds at Redstone, alongside our own CVC lead Jeppe Høier, to unpack what really happens when corporates leave venture — and how to do it without destroying value or reputation.
Redstone runs a dual model: classic VC funds + “VC-as-a-Service” for corporates and family offices. Martin himself has lived three lives:
Inside Swiss Re’s CVC (later shut down)
As a founder of an insurtech in Switzerland
Now as VC & fund manager at Redstone across multiple corporate mandates.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered:
01:37 Why Martin? Why now? — Jeppe on Redstone’s VC-as-a-service role, his history with them, and why Martin is the go-to voice on CVC secondaries.
02:50 Redstone in both worlds — Martin explains Redstone as a VC + CVC-as-a-service platform with deep corporate, VC, and founder roots.
06:12 Portfolio thinking 101 — Why corporates underestimate startup investing, ignore the J-curve, and must commit to true portfolio construction + financial KPIs.
09:37 Runoff vs. selling the bag — Score case: options to sell the whole portfolio at a 50–80% NAV discount vs. patient value-maximising runoff.
13:54 Spin-outs & resilience — How CVCs can evolve into mixed-LP or fully independent VC funds (Swisscom Ventures, Berliner Volksbank → Redstone Fintech III).
18:27 Follow-ons in “shutdown mode” — Why corporates sometimes should still fund follow-ons in runoff to unlock new investors and protect upside.
20:25 Designing the partnership — Governance, IC design, reporting (e.g. IFRS 9), and performance-based structures that align Redstone and corporates.
31:41 Managing vs. buying portfolios — How Redstone runs CVC runoff as an external manager with fees + carry, versus secondary buyers who acquire the assets outright.
44:02 How to avoid a wind-down — The “gold standard”: bring in third-party LPs, avoid annual-budget setups, ringfence capital in a dedicated entity, and keep exec sponsors close.
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 Jan Lozek, Co-Founder and Managing Director and Founder of Future Energy Ventures (FEV), the Berlin-based climate-tech investor born from the carve-out of E.ON’s corporate venture arm.
With a 50-company track record and a new €235M fund, Jan shares what it takes to spin out from a corporate, how to invest across the energy transition with venture discipline, and why Europe’s renewable leadership is creating both opportunity and complexity.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered
01:41 Jan’s personal journey from Berlin’s early tech scene to shaping E.ON’s venture arm.
04:02 The moment FEV’s carve-out became inevitable and how independence was structured.
09:33 Inside the two-fund model: managing E.ON’s legacy portfolio while launching a new EU fund.
11:27 FEV’s thesis: software-first, Series A–B investments driving the energy transition.
13:33 Grid intelligence - trading flexibility, AI for grid balance, and the battery boom.
16:35 The economics of renewables: why decarbonization now pays for itself.
21:11 Data centers and AI’s energy demand - the US urgency vs. Europe’s slow policy gears.
24:16 Electrifying cities - EV fleets, industrial decarbonization, and heat-pump adoption.
33:24 How FEV supports founders through market turbulence, pivots, and bridge rounds.
46:32 Scaling to billions: fund growth, LP lessons, and advice to Europe’s climate founders.
Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen of SuperSeed, Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures dissect the stories reshaping European venture, from Helsinki’s Slush takeover to China’s rising leverage, TPU vs GPU battles, the UK’s AI money wave, and why immigrants found half the unicorns in the Western world.
This week’s episode ranges from Germany’s €35B space ambitions to Meta’s TPU dealmaking, from cookie law rollbacks to Lithuania’s secondhand unicorn, all culminating in one conclusion: Europe’s window for action is open, but narrowing.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered
00:26 Slush recap: from Nokia’s fall to Europe’s most founder-first event.
05:11 Web Summit vs Slush: why nonprofit incentives matter.
07:52 Germany’s €35B space strategy: defense, procurement & sovereignty.
10:21 The immigrant founder effect: 50–90% of unicorns built by newcomers.
13:12 The political backlash: skilled vs low-skilled migration confusion.
17:22 Defense stocks boom: tanks, night vision, gearboxes — and 200%+ gains.
20:51 Vinted’s €8B secondary: Lithuania’s marketplace becomes half the ecosystem.
22:58 Cookie banners may finally die: EU proposes a digital omnibus rollback.
25:07 UK’s AI investment wave: growth zones, sovereign AI, drug discovery.
31:20 China’s new posture: rare earth leverage, Belarus factories & new red lines.
35:41 Europe’s multipolar dilemma: squeezed between the US and China.
40:14 AI Corner: 70% of AI startups now using Chinese open source models.
42:00 Google’s TPU moment: Gemini 3 beats frontier models across 19/20 benchmarks.
43:20 Meta & Anthropic commit to TPUs — a major shift in compute economics.
44:20 Nvidia’s blowout quarter: $57B Q3, 75% margins, sold out through 2026.
46:15 Deals of the Week: Voice (Germany) raises $50M; nursing workflows go AI.