EUVC

Jonathan Sibilia, a Partner at Molten Ventures, shares insights on exit strategies in VC, the impact of AI, and the importance of collaboration. He discusses the evolution of venture capital, the role of founders and VCs in exit strategies, and the reality of today's investment environment. The podcast explores the significance of strategic planning, fostering trust in the ecosystem, and the value of uniqueness and vision in fundraising.

Join us for a new episode of the NEUVC series dedicated to those embarking on their journey in the VC. In this episode, Freddie Macpherson, Associate at Isomer Capital, and Linda Võeras, Investment Manager at Karma Ventures, are joined by Ondrej Bartos, General Partner at Credo Ventures.Ondrej is the Founding GP at Credo Ventures, a 75m€ Seed stage venture fund in Prague (and a bit elsewhere!) to back Central Eastern European Tech Startups.Credo is investing out of Fund IV with a total €250M AUM and an established portfolio of 60 companies and notable investments, including UI Path, ProductBoard, PriceFX, Resistant AI, and Eleven Labs.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀Chapters:00:02:00 - Focus on Early Stage Investments00:04:10 - Spotting Patterns in Venture Capital00:06:17 - The Beginning of Venture Investing in the Region00:08:39 - The Growth of Tech Talent in the Region00:11:00 - The Growth and Progress of the CE Region00:12:59 - Building Relationships through Networking00:15:08 - Finding Great Deals in the Startup World00:17:25 - Learning from Investments and Founders00:19:49 - Evaluating the Right Investment00:21:50 - The Risk of Investing in Startups00:24:13 - The Role of Luck in Success00:28:26 - The Importance of Founder in Startup Investment00:30:45 - The Importance of Respect and Honesty in Relationships00:35:16 - Listening and adding value in boardrooms00:37:38 - The Role of a Board Member00:39:53 - Skills for Success in Venture Capital00:41:53 - The Importance of People in Venture Capital

Today, we are joined by Tej Panesar. Tej is a Partner at Prism Ventures, the UK-based institutional investor focused on the life sciences and healthcare sectors.Prism invests in the best-of-breed funds managed in the US, UK, and Europe through fund of funds and co-investment programs. He previously worked as an Investment Director at British Patient Capital, a UK government-backed institution very similar to the EIF and one of the largest investors in UK venture capital.With +425M pounds invested in the UK and Europe, Tej led investments into famed firms like IQ Capital and SV Health. Tej and his team have a wide lens across the life sciences and healthcare industries but a strong focus on traditional biopharma and areas like tech bio.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction about Prism Ventures00:03:55 - From Crowdfund Platforms to Venture Capital00:11:09 - LP Perspective on High-Tech Work00:14:50 - The Non-Binary Nature of the Life Sciences Sector00:18:34 - The Exciting Opportunities in Biotechnology and Healthcare00:26:28 - Adoption Challenges in the Health Sector00:30:23 - The Value Equation of Learning Technologies00:34:01 - Symbiotic Approaches in Life Sciences00:37:50 - Focus on Life Science and Healthcare00:41:36 - Investing in Europe vs the US00:45:18 - Portfolio Construction and Diversification00:49:18 - Building a Long-Term Institution00:53:04 - Diversity and Culture in VC Firms00:56:50 - Evaluating Team Culture and Portfolio Construction01:00:29 - The Importance of a Viable Business Plan01:04:04 - Scaling the Fund Size01:07:48 - Investing as a Team

Experts from venture capital firms share key strategies for managing relationships with LPs, emphasizing transparency and communication. They discuss streamlining LP onboarding, evolving market dynamics, data in investment decisions, and strategies for fund liquidity. The importance of education and transparency in private markets is highlighted, along with real-world experiences and lessons from leading professionals in the field.

In this episode of our NEUVC series dedicated to those embarking on their VC journey, Freddie Macpherson, Assoicate at Isomer Capital, and Linda Võeras, Associate at Karma Ventures, are joined by Helery Pops, co-founder and Honey Pot Guardian at Honey Badger Capital. However, things move quickly in this world, so since the recording of the episode, Helery has joined Practica Capital as an Investment Manager whilst still working with and supporting the Honey Badger Capital portfolio and team 🦡 .Helery has mastered the customer's language by doing sales and customer research in Pipedrive before moving to the product team to help build the tool that Pipedrive is today. With a love for good product design for both software and hardware, she joined the ranks of Ampler Bikes with the mission to help make the cities less car-centered.Speaking to about 20 start-ups every week, Helery has seen pitch decks in all shapes and sizes and will definitely ask how much research went into figuring out the problem space that the start-up is solving.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀Chapters:00:00:00 - A Conversation On Investing in Sustainability and Impact00:01:42 - Helery’s Professional Background and Evolution in Career00:03:05 - Discovering a Superpower in Starting from Zero00:06:05 - The Importance of Inbound Deal Flow00:07:36 - Providing Value without Control00:09:10 - Flexibility and Expectations in VC Investments00:10:36 - Leveraging Value in Product Management00:13:29 - Understanding What Partners Want00:15:03 - Making Money and Impact00:16:33 - Combining Science and Business to Make an Impact00:17:59 - Supporting Founders without Investment00:19:25 - Learning from Others' Knowledge of Geothermal Energy00:20:52 - The Importance of Having Like-minded People00:24:01 - Impact Investing in Green Tech00:25:35 - Constraints on Impact Investing and the Future00:27:15 - Creating a Deel Flow for Ourselves00:28:39 - Crucial Skills in the VC Industry

Nicholas Nelson, an internationally recognised defence investor and thought leader, discusses the rise of defence tech in Europe and the potential missed investment opportunities in the sector. He also talks about the impact of changing geopolitics on technology and venture capital, as well as the reception of defence tech investments by various types of limited partners.

Edwina Johnson, Head of Global at Alloy, shares insights on angel investing, evaluating investment opportunities, and collaborating with VCs. The importance of strong founders and building a network are also discussed. International investments and the role of angels in the investment network are highlighted. Quick buy round on angel investing.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we’ve partnered with our friends at Isomer Capital, HSBC Innovation Banking and SuperVenture to launch The European VC Awards on Day 1 of SuperVenture 🏆 When we set out to build eu.vc our mission was to connect and champion The European VC industry, so coming together with three good friends and partners to launch The European VC awards is nothing short of a dream come true 💗. We’ve so looked forward to this day when we can finally invite you all to join us in the endeavor and you can do so by nominating to the awards, joining in the conversation on social media, and inviting your peers to nominate 🌟. We will of course also cover select nominees as well as all the finalists and winners here on the eu.vc pod as well as host virtual fireside events so that you can get up close and personal with the European VC champions. Stay tuned 👀.And last but not least, you’ll of course also be able to attend the awards in person as they’re the concluding session at this year’s SuperVenture in Berlin 🏆.Your Voice Matters - Nominate Now!Now, let’s get into the categories, the process and the judging panel ⚖️. Five Awards to Celebrate Our ChampionsDesigned to celebrate change-makers in European VC, the awards are dedicated to recognize and honor the firms and individuals that truly stand out and make a difference. We will do so across five categories:Hall of Fame: Celebrating a lifetime of achievement in European Venture, this award is for those who have shaped the industry through their investments, contributions, and thought leadership over 20+ years and is stepping back from an active investing role and/or entering into a portfolio career of multiple firms. Nominate here 🏆.Firm of the Year: This accolade recognizes a firm from a fully holistic view, including pure financial performance and portfolio performance as well as innovation, impact on the ecosystem, diversity, transparency and fairness as well as team and culture. Nominate here 🏆. Newcomer of the Year: Honoring emerging managers, this award goes to a fund that has had its first close in the past year, recognizing their remarkable success in bringing something new and innovative to the European Venture market while building traction around their fund and vision. Nominate here 🏆. Achievement of the Year: This category is for the outstanding achievements and contributions in the European VC ecosystem in the given year, whether from an individual, company, or fund. This is the wild one where anything can happen. Nominate here 🏆. Exit of the Year: Honoring the firm that has had a company that has exited and created the most value back to the VC and therefore back to the European Venture ecosystem. This is about venture capital returns as opposed to “the biggest exit” and will also encompass strategic aspects of the exit such as timing in relation to market conditions and exit strategy.Nominate here 🏆.The judging panelIn assembling the judging panel, we’ve looked for LPs with decade-long investing excellence and experience that together would form a panel all of the European ecosystem will recognize as capable and just.Thomas Kristensen, Partner at LGT Capital PartnersJonathan Sibilia, Partner & Head of FoFs at Molten VenturesGiulia Van Waeyenberge, Member of the Executive Committee at SofinaStephen Lowery, Head of Investor Coverage & Business Development at HSBC Innovation BankingJoe Schorge, Founding Managing Partner at Isomer Capital (co-chair)Chris Wade, Founding General Partner at Isomer Capital (co-chair)Read much more on eu.vc and go nominate on isomercapital.com/awards

Hemal Fraser-Rawal is the GP of White Star Capital, a global investment platform with 1.5B AUM housing venture capital, digital assets and now debt-led Hybrid growth financing for companies. White Star Capital backs exceptional entrepreneurs building ambitious, international businesses across multiple stages and operate out of London, New York, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Guernsey, Tokyo, and Singapore. By having such global presence, perspective, and people enable White Star are able to partner closely with their founders and them scale internationally.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀Chapters:00:03:18 - Turbocharging company growth through equity and debt00:06:01 - Leveraged finance and the great recession00:08:46 - The golden age of private credit is changing00:11:30 - Understanding the growth debt markets00:14:28 - Volatility in valuations and risk-reward in credit vs VC00:17:25 - The benefits of debt investments00:20:08 - The inevitability of write-offs in investing00:25:49 - Addressing the funding gap in Europe00:31:08 - Investing across different stages and asset classes00:33:44 - Considering different investment assets00:36:18 - Debt-based investment strategy00:39:07 - Liquidity events and talent in Europe's secondary investing sector00:41:49 - The availability of technical sector jobs00:44:33 - Finding Top VCs in Europe00:50:10 - Persistence in the face of rejection00:52:53 - Building the Future of machines and software

George is a General Partner at Phoenix Court Group, the group of funds home to LocalGlobe in Somers Town, London, building global businesses based on innovative science and technology to have the maximum positive impact on society.LocalGlobe is investing out of their fifth institutional fund, of approx. 150M pounds, with a total AUM of over 1b pounds. Local Globe has an established portfolio of +60 companies and notable investments, including Melio, TravelPerk, Tide, Hibob, Motorway, Wise and Oxford Nanopore, AvantArte, and Sorare.At LocalGlobe, George focuses on Marketplaces, E-commerce 2.0, and SaaS with a particular focus on SMEs across New Palo Alto, a region that encompasses a market of 40 million people and is roughly 4 hours train ride from Phoenix Court’s home next to St Pancras, London. George led the investments into Travelperk, Rekki, Taster, and Qogita.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀 Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction to Phoenix Court Group and Local Globe00:03:03 - Concentrating capital into the most exciting companies00:08:21 - The Rise of Social Media Platforms00:11:01 - P2P Marketplace for Local Activities00:13:44 - Hiring as a VC00:16:25 - EQ and relationships in the venture capital industry.00:21:55 - The Positive Aspects of Control and Humility00:24:51 - The Strength of Europe in the Technology Wave00:30:23 - The Relationship Between Culture, Technology, and Politics00:35:47 - The Role of AI in Society and Culture00:39:00 - The Value of Open Conversations in AI00:41:40 - The Importance of Teamwork in Venture Capital00:44:21 - The unique structure and mission of Local Globe00:47:01 - Lessons learned and the importance of focus00:49:42 - Investing Tips for Emerging VCs in Europe