The European VC

At the EUVC Summit 2025, the “Impact Leader of the Year” award went to a voice that’s impossible to ignore—and equally impossible to copy. Hampus Jakobsson , General Partner at Pale Blue Dot , was honored for his relentless push to bring urgency, clarity, and conviction to climate investing. The award, presented by Google Cloud , recognized not just a fund or a firm, but a force in the ecosystem—s...

When Hampus Jakobsson and Romain Diaz took the stage at EUVC Summit 2025, the conversation wasn’t about convincing people that climate matters. That part’s done. This was about the harder bit:→ How do we fund the climate transition without compromising ambition ?→ How do we handle LPs who see impact as indulgence, or carbon reporting as box-ticking?→ And how do we build conviction-led portfolios i...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Cherry Ventures ’ Christian and Elsa Deseilligny from Cambridge Associates offered a behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to stay true to your mission while building a firm that lasts. At the center of it all? The founder. A Platform Built Around “Founders First” For Cherry, “Founders First” isn’t just a slogan. It’s a system. “Putting the founder at the center—doing ev...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Mehmet Atici from Bek Ventures aimed a popular narrative—that Europe is underperforming as a tech region. Not because it’s untrue, but because it’s incomplete. “Yes, there’s catching up to do. But you can’t argue there’s no dynamism in Europe—it’s just not evenly distributed.” And once you look closer, the picture changes fast. Not Just Paris, London, Berlin Much of the “E...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Kerry Baldwin ( IQ Capital ) and Chris Elphick led one of the most urgent conversations of the year: Can Europe mobilize its pension capital to fund innovation—or will it stay stuck on the sidelines? With £1 trillion expected to be funneled into innovation, growth, and venture by 2030, the opportunity is massive. But unlocking it will take more than speeches and slogans. I...

At this year’s EUVC Summit Awards, the “Exit of the Year” category drew intense debate—and for good reason. Europe is finally entering its outcome era , and this year brought no shortage of competitive contenders. But one exit stood out. Winner: SV Health Investors , for the exit of EyeBio Celebrating More Than Just Returns As the host reminded us, this award isn’t just about a number on a term sh...

At EUVC Summit 2025, Joe Schorge of Isomer Capital didn’t come with slides—he came with a metaphor. And it stuck. He asked the room to imagine orchards of fruit. Not just apples or oranges, but a whole harvest cultivated over 12 to 14 years . Venture-backed companies. GPs. Fund positions. GP stakes. A record crop, grown with care across the UK and Europe. “We’ve never had this much high-quality fr...

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast , where Dan Bowyer , Mads Jensen of SuperSeed and this week’s special guest Joe Knowles from Smedvig Ventures unpack what’s happening in European venture capital. This week: Are we doomed to lag the US in wealth creation or is Europe finally closing the gap? Why a record $100B of M&A matters for exits and recycling capital, and how foun...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Stephen Lowery of HSBC Innovation Banking laid out a vision that wasn’t just about capital—it was about building the infrastructure to unlock the next wave of innovation. “The future is not going to finance itself.” And the tools we need? Most of them don’t exist yet. The Problem: Our Financial Stack Is Outdated We’re entering a new era—one where emerging categories like r...

Carlos Moreira da Silva brings a rare blend of insight: a deep B2B operator, a specialist investor at 33N , and a leading force behind Europe’s cybersecurity coordination efforts through ECSO . Together, we explore why cybersecurity is Europe’s opportunity to lead, not follow, in the new geopolitical tech stack. Here’s what’s covered: * 01:15 What is ECSO and Why It Matters for European Cyber * 03...

Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast , where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping venture — this time with a lens on Southeast Asia and India. This week, David from EUVC and Ambika from Circle Capital sit down with Tanuja Rajah , Partner at M Venture Partners (MVP) in Singapore — an early-stage fund backing founders from day zero across Southeast Asia and India. Tanuja’s path i...

Welcome to a new episode of the Impact Highlight Series , powered by EUVC, Impact VC and Impact Supporters. Today, we’re joined by Tony Jamous , founder and CEO of Oyster . Oyster is on a mission to reverse brain drain and reduce wealth inequality by democratizing access to global job opportunities. Before founding Oyster in 2020, Tony took his previous software API company public on the New York...

Mike Maples Jr. , the legendary co-founder of Floodgate and early backer of Twitter, Lyft, and Twitch, joined EUVC to deliver a masterclass in contrarian venture investing. His message to European GPs and LPs was clear: the biggest winners don’t follow the rules — they break them. He not only challenged European venture capitalists to rethink their playbooks but also distilled years of hard-won wi...

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast , where Dan Bowyer , Mads Jensen of SuperSeed and Lomax from Outsized Ventures unpack what’s happening in European tech and venture capital. This week: Why Series A in Europe now often means “multi-seed” and what founders should do about it, Germany’s €100B industrial policy push and whether it can actually deliver, and the Bank of Engl...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Nirmesh Patel from Amino Collective took the stage with a message that felt less like a pitch and more like a call to arms. His focus? The intersection of AI, health, and bio—and why Europe is uniquely positioned to lead this next era. AI Has Already Transformed Research. The Market Impact Comes Next. We’re still waiting for the first blockbuster drug developed using large...

At this year’s EUVC Summit, the “Newcomer of the Year” award didn’t go to someone just making noise—it went to a team making real moves. A team built for the long game. A team proving that even when entering late, you can lead early. Shapers VC took home the honor. And in the words of Phil himself: “Being new is not easy. But this team makes it look easy.” Why It Matters: Community, Conviction & T...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Anthony Danon from Rerail and Sarah Drinkwater from Common Magic took the stage with what turned out to be one of the most intellectually charged exchanges of the day. The topic? Solo GPs, specialization, and the hard choices that define fund performance. Let’s just say—no consensus was reached. But the tension? That’s where the insight lived. The Case for the Solo GP: Pur...

At EUVC Summit 2025, Hampus Jakobsson ( Pale Blue Dot ) didn’t give a talk—he threw down a gauntlet. Forget polite panel chatter. This was part existential reckoning, part investor roast, and part Radiohead reference. It left the room laughing, nodding, and—if we’re honest—slightly uncomfortable. Which was the point. “Venture is lending money to people believing one future. That’s what I do at lea...

In this episode, Jeppe Høier and Andreas Munk Holm sit down with Julien Fredonie , Head of Europe & Africa at Honda Xcelerator Ventures , for a deep dive into how one of the world’s most iconic manufacturing giants is strategically navigating venture capital across Europe. They explore Honda’s global investment strategy, Julien’s views on Europe’s deeptech strengths, the nuanced role of corporate...

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast , where Dan Bowyer , Mads Jensen of SuperSeed and Lomax from Outsized Ventures unpack what’s happening in European tech and venture capital. This week: Why Meta and Microsoft are minting cash from AI, what Figma’s IPO signals for SaaS, whether the EU got rolled in its new trade deal with the US, and how Europe’s AI scene is finally deli...

At the EUVC Summit 2025, William McQuillan of Frontline Ventures delivered a data-backed reminder: If we’re serious about building global companies from Europe, we need to stop treating the US as a rival—and start treating it like the deeply connected partner it already is. Robin Klein & the Power of Ecosystem Builders The session opened with a heartfelt nod to Robin Klein , this year’s Hall of Fa...

This year at the EUVC Summit Awards, Robin Klein was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Backed by HSBC Innovation Banking, the award celebrates a lifetime of impact—and Robin’s legacy stands as a blueprint for what long-term conviction in European tech can look like. As Chris Adelsbach reminded us on stage, we’re no longer an emerging ecosystem. We’ve grown up. And few have helped shape that growth m...

In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Alexander Klyanitskiy and Valentina Zakirova , the founding partners of AdHoc Ventures , a brand-new fund laser-focused on what they call Human Interaction Tech . They explore why online communication, remote work, and AI are disrupting how we relate at work and in life, and why that opens a massive opportunity for a new kind of VC firm. With a tra...

At this year’s EUVC Summit, Oliver Holle from Speedinvest delivered a powerful call to arms . In a room filled with the ecosystem’s builders, he laid out a bold vision for European venture: one that embraces our values, recognizes our untapped capital strength, and demands we shift from fragmentation to scale. His words weren’t just timely—they captured a moment of reckoning for European VC. The m...

Welcome back to another episode of At the Cap Table , your trusted inside track on the people, ideas, and power dynamics shaping the future of European venture. This week, Savs sits down with Hannah Leach , Partner at Antler UK and Co-Founder of VentureESG , for a candid conversation about doing VC differently—from day-one investing and values-led portfolios to walking away from a fund that could...