Ventures

Fresh off a massive $20M Series A, Mikkel, a repeat founder who sold his last company at age 26, breaks down how at spektr they are completely automating compliance for tier-one banks, and why building an AI company is both vastly more complex and wildly more fun.

Fred Soneya of Haatch talks about how they scaled from a small angel group to a powerhouse firm. This is a masterclass in B2B SaaS and the "operator-led" fund model. We discuss the mechanics of pre-seed investing, why "boring" industries are goldmines, and how they run the firm 24/7.

Berhan is a serial founder who practically invented the on-chain lending vertical with ARV and is now tackling the $4 trillion "trapped cash" problem in global finance. This is a masterclass in the invisible plumbing that powers the world economy and a rare look into the future of programmable money. We break down the evolution of Keyrails, the strategic power of the "Genius Act,&qu...

From teenage horse trading to managing a $107M fund, Camilla Dolan’s runs a masterclass in the "obsession" required to build category-defining brands. This conversation pulls back the curtain on how she and the Eka Ventures team are deploying their second fund to reshape the future of consumer health and sustainability. We discuss the launch of Eka Fund II, the evolution of consumer beha...

It's Thursday 16th April & today on VENTURES we have a stellar slate. On the show today: Stephen Johnson: Investor, Mercia Ventures Camilla Dolan: General Partner, Eka Ventures Berhan Kongel: Co-Founder and CEO, Keyrails Mikkel Skarnager, Co-Founder and CEO, spektr Rishabh Kaul: Venture Partner, Hoxton Ventures Fred Soneya: Co-Founder and General Partner, Haatch Ollie Bone: Vice President,...

Jarek Pilarczyk went from building and selling multi-million dollar companies in Poland to funding the next generation of European “tech sovereignty.” He reveals why hardware is now a safer bet than software and how Poland’s education system accidentally created a global hub for math genius. We dive into the “energy bottleneck” of AI, the future of drones with Balnord, and why selling to Scandinav...

Mio Fagerhäll is the co-founder of eve, an AI matchmaker that’s removing the swipe entirely and is now Sweden’s fastest-growing dating app. We dive deep into why 80% of users are burnt out on swiping and how AI is finally fixing the "endless choice" paradox. Timestamps: 0:00 - From Pokemon expert to AI matchmaker 2:27 - The 12-year stagnation of dating app innovation 4:35 - Decoding the...

Boris Paskalev is the co-founder of Logicstar AI and the former founder of Deep Code, which was successfully acquired by snyk. A x5 serial entrepreneur, he is currently building predictive maintenance to fix the "leaky bucket" of modern software applications. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to Boris Paskalev and Logicstar AI 02:21 - Building ML for code in the pre-GPT era 03:40 - The &qu...

Andrea Gennarini is the Co-Founder and GP of 2100Ventures, a €30M micro-VC proving that Italy is the place to build. This conversation dives into why the world’s 8th largest economy is currently the biggest untapped opportunity in the European tech ecosystem. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction to Andrea and the launch of 2100 Ventures 2:12 - Why Micro VCs are better for early-stage alignment 4:04 - B...

George Darrah, partner at Systemiq capital and a biologist by training, is revolutionizing how we invest in the intersection of nature and technology. We discuss the future of AI-driven biotech, the cost curves of genomic sequencing, and the portfolio companies transforming everything from soybeans to lab-grown fat. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction and George’s roots in industrial farming. 0:51 - T...

Jon Coker has built a reputation for spotting consumer giants early, and this deep dive follows the massive news of Eka Ventures closing their $107M second fund. In this episode, we discuss the evolution of early-stage investing, the proprietary tech stack powering their deal flow, and why the most valuable consumer users are often found in the "back of the churn curve." Timestmaps 0:00...

11:30 Jon Coker : Founding Partner, Eka Ventures 12:00 George Darrah : General Partner, Systemiq Capital 12:30 Andrea Gennarini : Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 2100 Ventures 13:00 Boris Paskalev : Co-Founder and CEO, LogicStar AI 13:30 Mio Fagerhäll : CEO, eve 14:00 Jarek Pilarczyk : Partner, Balnord

Timestamps: 0:00 - Raising $110M and the "Most Expensive Sofa Ever" 1:01 - The 80s Gaming Era: Writing code for Nintendo at 13 2:53 - The shift to Manna: Why drone delivery became an obvious bet in 2018 4:34 - Identifying "Regulatory Unlock" as the ultimate market signal 6:53 - Hacking the first prototype: From back gardens to aviation grade 9:15 - Breaking the "Travelling...

Timestamps: 0:00 - The impact of morning sunlight on Vitamin D and mood 1:17 - Introduction to Maxime and the mission of Lucy 2:36 - The context problem: Why 100+ biomarkers need a lifestyle questionnaire 3:51 - Building the recommendation engine: AI vs. Doctor supervision 5:34 - Partnering with local labs: The logistics of the "Nurse at the Corner" 6:42 - Why you can’t have coffee befor...

Timestamps:0:00 - Introduction 0:48 - Barbados think tank 2:38 - The Integrated View: Why energy, compute, and AI are inseparable 7:11 - The Physical AI Frontier: Why data-capture flywheels win in the real world 11:00 - VLA Models vs. Dream Space: Pragmatism vs. the platonic ideal of simulation 14:03 - Oral Networks: Solving the GPU networking bottleneck with photonics 16:21 - Beyond Vector DBs: R...

Its Apple's bday

It's Thursday, 2nd April and Today on VENTURES we have a stellar slate. On the show today:11:30 Sebastian Hunte: Investment Director, AlbionVC12:30 Leo Lerach: Co-Founder and COO, ENAPI13:00 Maxime Berthelot: Founder and CEO, Lucis13:30 Luke Ramsden: Co-Founder and CPTO, Architect13:50 Jasper Deprez: Co-Founder and CEO, TerraSpark14:10 Vishal Chatrath: Co-Founder and CEO, QuantrolOx14:30 Bobby...

Luke Pappas spent his early career in the high-stakes trenches of Morgan Stanley, working under the "Godfather of Tech Banking," Michael Grimes. Now a Partner at NEA, he’s leveraging those "bake-off" battle scars to help European founders scale toward massive liquidity events. Timestamps 0:00 – Introduction 4:01 – The Lore of Michael Grimes: High standards and the Uber/Airbnb &...

Matt Francis spent his childhood watching his father struggle with supply chain bottlenecks in a coffee machine factory. Now, the Cambridge-educated engineer is using that early trauma to fuel Rama. Timestamps 0:00 – Introduction and the $3M seed announcement 1:43 – Why supply chain resilience is the key to solving species-level problems 2:11 – Watching the "epidemic" of broken factories...

Ankit is the founding partner at Riceberg Ventures a truly global early-stage deep tech fund that backs high-R&D breakthroughs across space tech, life sciences, energy, and AI robotics. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction to Ankit and the global deep tech thesis at Riceberg Ventures 1:29 - Sector-agnostic breakthroughs: Why focusing on one industry limits portfolio potentia l2:42 - Deep dive into...

Noel Hurley spent 30 years at the top of the semiconductor industry, joining Arm when it was a team of just 40 people. Now, he’s launching a direct challenge to the modern "brute force" AI model, arguing that we don’t need bigger chips—we need smarter logic. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction 01:53 – The early days of Arm with only 40 people 03:22 – Why team sizes have exploded from 30 to h...

Quantum Crypto Timelines

It's Tuesday, 31st March and today on VENTURES we have an outstanding line up. Show Op-ed: Quantum Crypto Timelines On the show today: 11:30 Noel Hurley: Co-Founder and CEO, Literal Labs 12:00 Ankit Anand: Founding Partner, Riceberg Ventures 12:25 Franziska Walde: Co-Founder and Co-CEO, refinq 12:35 Matt Francis: Co-Founder and CEO, Rama 13:00 Luke Pappas: Partner, New Enterprise Associates (NEA)...

Tom Powell is the co-founder and CEO of Bondaval, a London-based fintech redefining credit insurance through proprietary technology. A former professional rugby player for Harlequins and EnglandRugby, he transitioned into venture capital with PassionCapital before launching Bondaval to bring consumer-grade tech to complex B2B financial systems. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction: From professional ru...

Mirko Novakovic thought he was finished with startups after selling Instana to IBM, but a three-month break was all it took for boredom to set in. Now, the 26-year observability veteran is well and truly back with Dash0, with a $110M Series B at a $1B valuation to build the "AI nervous system" of production. We dive into the shift from big fat application servers to 1,000-microservice clusters, th...