EUVC

Europe is not facing a crisis of ideas — it is facing a crisis of industrial depth.In this EUVC episode, Danijel Višević (Co-Founder & General Partner, World Fund), Heidi Lindvall (Founder & General Partner, Pale Blue Dot), Narina Mnatsakanian (Partner & Chief Impact Officer at Regeneration VC), Dr. Isabella Fandrych (Co-Founder and General Partner at Nucleus Capital), and Moritz Jungmann (GP at Future Energy Ventures) confront one of the defining questions of 2025:What does sovereignty actually mean?Danijel opens with history. In 1951, coal and steel powered conflict — so Europe integrated them. That integration was not symbolic. It was structural coordination under pressure. Europe repeated this reflex after the Berlin Wall, during COVID, and following the Russian gas shock. Europe does not collapse under pressure. It coordinates. But today, coordination must extend beyond policy — into capital markets and industrial systems.The structural gaps are stark. Europe produces less than 10% of the semiconductors it consumes. It imports the vast majority of rare earth materials. It raises significantly less venture capital than the United States. Only a fraction of European climate tech startups reach Series B. Europe can invent. It struggles to industrialize.Heidi reframes venture capital itself. Performance is necessary, but insufficient. Her equation is clear: Success = Performance × Trust. Trust — expressed through brand, values, and measurable impact — acts as a multiplier. Venture does not simply fund companies. It allocates the future. Narina reinforces the LP perspective: pension funds seek returns, but pensioners also seek stability, sustainability, and systemic resilience. Capital allocation is no longer purely financial. It is strategic.Dr. Isabella Fandrych shifts the conversation to materials. The energy transition is not just about electrons — it is about minerals: copper, lithium, nickel, manganese. Extraction today is geopolitically concentrated and environmentally destructive. Biology offers alternatives: microbes separating metals from rock, engineered proteins extracting minerals from waste streams, plants accumulating metals for harvest. Industrial decarbonisation is chemistry as much as energy policy.Jordan makes the case for baseload energy. Europe has reduced emissions partly through deindustrialization and outsourcing production. If Europe wants manufacturing, AI data centres, electrified transport, and economic resilience, it needs dense, dispatchable power. Renewables are essential — but intermittent. Nuclear remains one of the few proven zero-carbon baseload sources operating at scale. The debate, he argues, should be practical — not ideological.Moritz closes on infrastructure. Europe has built renewable capacity quickly. The constraint is no longer generation. It is grid orchestration. As energy systems decentralize, operators must manage volatile, distributed flows. The opportunity lies in software: orchestration, optimization, dynamic throughput management. Energy sovereignty is not just about producing electrons. It is about system design.Sovereignty in 2025 is not a slogan.It is an investment strategy.What’s covered:00:30 Sovereignty redefined — from symbols to supply chains03:00 Europe under pressure — integration as a structural reflex06:00 The industrial gap — semiconductors, rare earths, and scale-up capital10:30 Venture as allocator — Success = Performance × Trust15:00 The LP lens — systemic capital and long-term responsibility19:00 The materials bottleneck — why decarbonisation is mineral-intensive23:00 Biology as infrastructure — new extraction paradigms27:00 Baseload power — nuclear as industrial policy32:00 The grid constraint — orchestration, optimization, software-defined systems38:00 Sovereignty as coordinated capital and industrial depth

Introduced by our very own Andreas Munk Holm, this EUVC Live at GoWest session brings together policymakers, institutional investors, GPs, corporates, and public capital leaders around one defining question:How does Europe mobilise its own capital to secure its technological future?Across every session, one theme emerges repeatedly: Europe does not lack talent. It does not lack innovation. It does not lack savings. It lacks coordination.In The Case for a United European LP Strategy, Philippe Tibi (The Tibi Initiative; French Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Recovery; Professor at École Polytechnique Paris) lays out the macro argument. Europe holds more than €35 trillion in household assets, yet its top companies often scale under foreign ownership. The problem is not capital scarcity — it is capital allocation. Pension funds and insurers must treat venture and technology as core asset classes — for returns and sovereignty.In The Path to a United European LP Strategy, Chris Elphick (BVCA) and Philippe Tibi explore why mobilisation is slow: regulatory conservatism, fragmented mandates, cultural risk aversion, and weak cross-border coordination. Institutional allocations to venture remain near zero in many countries. Reform is structural, not optional.Succeeding in Venture as a Long-Term Capital Investor shifts from policy to portfolio construction. Christina Brinck (Volvo Group VC), Daniel Keiper-Knorr (Speedinvest), and Joe Schorge (Isomer) examine how to underwrite European venture in a fragmented but maturing ecosystem. Themes include diversification across cycles, power-law return dynamics, patience as structural advantage, and strategic alignment with industrial direction. Venture is positioned not as optional exposure — but as infrastructure for technological transformation.Public capital enters the equation in The Role of Public Capital in European Venture Outcomes, where Michiel Scheffer (European Innovation Council) explains how the EIC funds deep tech, underserved geographies, and growth-stage gaps. Public capital, he argues, is not distortion — it is market completion.In Catalyst or Competitor? Adem Yakisirer (European Investment Fund) outlines how EIF has backed more than 1,600 fund managers, building a financing continuum from pre-seed to pre-IPO. In a candid exchange with Mia Grosen (Venture Partner, SuperSeed) moderated by Andreas, the tension surfaces: Is Europe becoming too dependent on public anchors? Does institutional backing signal quality or complacency?From LP mobilisation to cross-border collaboration, one message is clear:If Europe wants technological sovereignty and long-term competitiveness, capital must move with intent, alignment, and scale.What’s covered:02:30 Europe’s savings paradox — why the issue is allocation, not scarcity05:00 Philippe Tibi — €35T in household assets and the case for a united European LP strategy10:30 Venture as sovereignty infrastructure — why pensions and insurers must move15:30 Chris Elphick + Tibi — the real blockers: regulation, mandates, culture, coordination22:30 Why allocations stay near zero — institutional inertia across Europe27:30 Christina Brinck — underwriting venture across cycles33:00 Daniel Keiper-Knorr — power-law returns, patience, and portfolio construction38:00 Joe Schorge — long-term capital behaviour and strategic alignment43:00 Michiel Scheffer — the EIC as market completion in deep tech and underserved geographies49:00 Growth-stage gaps — why public capital anchors where private markets hesitate53:30 Adem Yakışırer — EIF’s role: 1,600+ managers backed from pre-seed to pre-IPO58:30 Mia Grosen — dependency vs signal: when public anchoring becomes a crutch1:02:30 Final takeaway — Europe’s challenge is coordination: capital must move with scale and intent

Sam Marchant, investor and AI-focused founder recently based in Dubai, brings regional capital-market perspective. Conversation jumps from Anthropic’s huge raise to enterprise AI sticking in workflows. Gulf investment patterns and Claude vs ChatGPT adoption get examined. They also probe AI’s work-intensifying effects, Europe’s tech sovereignty dilemmas, and high-variance space projects.

Pedro Ribeiro Santos, Partner at Armilar and 16+ year veteran investor, reflects on a 25-year Iberian tech journey and the launch of Fund IV. He discusses Armilar’s origins, its pan‑European early-stage focus with a strong Portugal and Spain allocation. Conversations cover sector DNA in data, digitization and connectivity, team succession and how Iberia’s startup scene is evolving.

Welcome to another episode of the EUVC Podcast! Today, we’re diving into How Corporates Might just be able Beat VCs in the AI Race. Or maybe more importantly, how we can collaborate.Our guest is Alex Dang, co-author of the bestselling book The Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth. Alex is a seasoned technology executive and innovation advisor with over two decades of experience. He was a product leader at Amazon, where he launched new businesses across e-commerce, supply chain, and AI; a partner at McKinsey, helping Fortune 500 companies build digital ventures; and today advises corporate leaders and investors on AI strategies, venture building, and applying VC principles to large organizations.In this conversation, Alex shares provocative insights on why the venture mindset is now non-negotiable for corporates in the AI era, where incumbents hold hidden advantages over VCs, and how to avoid “innovation theater” while turning data, distribution, and scale into real venture wins.Let’s jump in!Here’s what’s covered:01:56 | The Venture Mindset in one frame with nine principles from 20 years of Stanford VC research: uncertainty → portfolios → outliers03:44 | The post-book update Alex wishes he had added time compression: “days, not weeks,” and the rise of the “one slice team”05:53 | Venture mindset applied to AI 07:34 | Why “adding AI” is the wrong framing; start customer-backward, not tech-backward08:43 | “AI theater”, innovation theater and press release strategies vs real product value11:19 | The European corporate trap: regulation, consensus, and downside protection as the enemy of transformation11:56 | The right AI rollout sequence with start in back office to learn and protect trust, then go customer-facing at scale15:21 | Why CVCs die after 3.7 years: incentives, leadership fear, and why corporate venturing fails structurally17:24 | AI is now the world’s most democratized intelligence: everyone has the same tools; the gap is execution18:47 | Where corporates fit in venture + startup ecosystems: strengths: data, distribution, enterprise scale20:38 | When corporates should build in-house, when to partner, and why AI must become an internal muscle25:24 | Incentives drive behavior: why executives won’t take venture-style risks unless failure is structurally safe28:18 | AI-native teams and corporate reskilling among smaller, senior teams + digital workers replacing junior tasks35:24 | What happens to the average corporate employee: tasks disappear, workflows evolve, but people still matter38:50 | If Alex were CEO: how to move a workforce into an AI-safe future and target 25% profit uplift through AI44:01 | Most counterintuitive venture principle — “drop bad ideas fast” and why persistence is sometimes the wrong discipline46:05 | What top CEOs are doing right now: coding with Claude, learning by building, and staying close to users49:00 | The compounding effect: “what was impossible 6 months ago is normal today” and why constant feedback loops win

Europe’s debate about gender equity in venture has moved beyond awareness and intention. The real question now is much sharper: how does capital actually move, where does it get stuck, and what genuinely changes outcomes for women building companies today?In this episode, Andreas sits down with Debbie Wosskow, a serial founder, investor, and Chair of the UK’s Invest in Women Task Force, to discuss what she has learned from 25 years inside the system. This is a conversation about incentives, power, institutional capital, and why gender equity in venture is not a “nice to have” but a performance strategy.We move from founder mindset to investor behavior to ecosystem and government-level levers and end with a clear-eyed reflection on DEI, ESG, and feminism. At a moment when many are retreating, but the case for backing women has never been stronger.Context: the data doesn’t lie, and it isn’t improving fast enough

Fast breakdown of the AI model arms race and why Anthropic and OpenAI releases matter. A look at China’s rising open models and low‑cost swarm capabilities. Discussion of hyperscaler capex and whether infrastructure can be monetized. Debate over a looming SaaS repricing and early signs of EU–US tech uncoupling. Wild Musk‑linked ideas about space data centers and the financing narrative behind them.

Sacha Michaud, serial entrepreneur and Glovo co-founder who scaled the on-demand delivery platform across multiple continents. He recounts his unlikely start as a racehorse jockey, rapid product launches, ruthless market selection, and the playbook for scaling fast. The conversation covers exit decisions, extreme delivery network effects, adapting in emerging markets, and building operator-first funds and talent hubs.

Simon Thomas, founder and CEO of Paragraf, who turned graphene lab breakthroughs into a wafer-scale electronics foundry. He talks about building the first graphene electronics foundry, how graphene could cut device energy use, the challenges of scaling single-atom materials into manufacturing, the dual foundry-plus-product strategy, financing heavy capex in deep tech, and why AI helps discovery but not the grind of fabrication.

An energetic roundtable on Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and whether Europe can find a similar unifying mission. They dig into autonomous AI agents that negotiate deals and manage inboxes, plus safety and deployment tradeoffs. A look at the $100B contest between major AI players, ASML’s orders as a signal for AI hardware durability, and why rising European defence spending could be a lasting tech opportunity.