EUVC

Today we are happy to welcome Marvin Liao, Partner at Diaspora VC and Board member at Game Groove Capital, an International Gaming Holding Company. He was previously a Partner at VC Fund 500 Startups. Marvin has invested in over 414 Pre-seed & Seed stage startups and we were lucky enough to record this episode with him during How To Web.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why Marvin as a successful Silicon Valley investor doubles down on Europe and what he brings to his founders– A very honest conversation about the collaboration environment in Europe and the US – How the best European founders can get juiced up by seeing the US ecosystem and experiencing that they're just as good as those backed by the world renowned firms– Learnings from investing in 414 pre-seed & seed startups over the last decade and why Marvin calls himself the Forest Gump of Silicon Valley

Today, we are happy to welcome Hampus Jakobsson, General Partner at the early stage climate tech venture fund Pale Blue Dot. Prior to co-founding Pale Blue Dot, Hampus was a Venture Partner at science fund Blue Yard and a prolific angel investor with more than 100 angel investments. He is a software engineer turned founder, turned angel investor, turned VC. When not working with ambitious climate people Hampus cooks and reads.In this episode you’ll learn:– The hilarious story behind Hampus’ first entrepreneurial ventures and route into venture, all the way to founding one of the signature climate funds in Europe– The magic of being focused and absurdly curious as a VC – How Hampus walked into his first VC meeting dressed up in a suit thinking he’d fit in, only to be proven that VC is actually a group of cool people doing amazing things– How Hampus thinks as a thesis driven investor, first with BlueYard and then with Pale Blue Dot

This is the last of a four episode long special on the MENA region here at The European VC. This special series of episodes focuses on everything MENA VC, bridging the gap with its European counterparts. We intend to shed light on the ins and outs of venture in the region and promote collaboration between Europe and MENA.For this special series of episodes we welcome our dear friend and special co-host Mostafa Gado.And as a guest, we welcome Sharif, Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Future District Fund, the evergreen venture capital fund of funds of Dubai, anchored by the Dubai International Finance Centre and the Dubai Future Foundation with an initial 1 billion Dirham in committed capital.In this episode you’ll learn:– How Sharif built a stellar operator career in Silicon Valley and came back to the MENA region with the ambition, skills and network to make a true difference– The most complete overview of what Dubai Future District Fund as one of the region’s most powerful LPs have in store for us – Sharif’s views on the state of VC in MENA, where we’re headed and how European VCs should think about raising from MENA-based LPs

Today, we are happy to welcome Peter Sandberg, Founding Partner & Managing Director of Nordic Secondary Fund, the first and only fund in the Nordics to exclusively invest in secondaries. Peter has 35 years’ experience from investments and asset management; 5 years’ experience as an early-stage investor and 30+ investments in a.o. LegalDesk & Sky. We had the pleasure to be together with Peter, recording this episode during TechBBQ in Kopenhagen.In this episode you'll learn:– The origin story of Nordic Secondaries Fund – The inner workings of one of Europe’s first secondary funds and how they think about pricing, investment strategy and negotiation– Why Peter Sandberg sees a future with much more secondary activity in Europe – Fundraising advice from a natural talent solidly rooted in the angel world– The importance of karma in venture capital and especially the secondaries market

Welcome to yet another Memo-episode where we dive deep on one of the funds that we’re raising an EUVC community syndicate for - in other words; one of the funds that you can join us in backing, with minimum tickets at just 1k€.For this, we’re talking to Cristobal Alonso from Startup Wise Guys. You’ve met him before in past episodes, so you know he’s quite a personality and that it’s an incredible mission they’re in. Join us as we look behind the scenes of the Startup Wise Guys investment into Fractory and the journey from pre-seed to series A leading to a 120x multiple.

This episode is completely different. Actually, it’s not even an EUVC episode! We’ve just launched a new partnerpodcast “The UrbanTech VC” which is hosted by KJ and Mark. This is the go-to podcast for European Founders in the UrbanTech space. So give it a listen and if you don’t think it’s for you - share it with someone else!For this debut, we're happy to welcome you to Thibault Chavanat, Senior Project Manager at the SIGNA Group. He is in charge of the development project ‘Karstadt am Hermannplatz’ in Berlin and shared some super interesting insights about the project, Circular Construction and sustainable buildings.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why “waste” in old buildings is of surprising high value– How challenging it is to find architects who don’t see the re-use of materials from the building itself as limitation, but as opportunity– How discussions about future regulations like the outlook of the CO2 tax coming can lead to creating something new beyond known paths– How the availability of historical, detailed plans of a building can come with both advantages and disadvantages for developers

Today we are happy to welcome Audrey Soussan, General Partner at Ventech in its Paris office. The firm is deeply implicated in the evolution and diversity of European tech. Audrey focuses on Product Led Growth, Retail Tech, HR Tech and Marketplaces. She has unique insights on entrepreneurs’ business development, impact investing, and women in tech. She has joined the company since 2011, starting as an analyst and grew all the way through to General Partner.In this episode you’ll learn:– All about Audrey’s journey from analyst to partner inside Ventech– How long term orientation has shaped every part of Audrey’s life and path as a VC– How Audrey thinks about culture, carry and leadership in VC – Succession preparation in VC firm-building

This is the third of a four episode long special on the MENA region here at The European VC. Today, we’re welcoming Laila Hassan, General Partner at Algebra Ventures. She has joined their second, $90 million fund, and her appointment marks progress in Egypt’s VC ecosystem, becoming the country’s second female partner at a VC.This special series of episodes focuses on everything MENA VC, bridging the gap with its European counterparts. We intend to shed light on the ins and outs of venture in the MENA region and promote collaboration between these two beautiful regions.For this special series of episodes we welcome our dear friend and special co-host Mostafa Gado.In this episode you’ll learn:- The conditions that give the Egyptian Market a kind of crystal ball effect- The trends and opportunities in the MENA region through the eyes of a first-time fund manager- Why relationship-building is key in such a small ecosystem like VC- Laila's values, core learnings and suggestions for emerging managers

Today we are happy to welcome Maria, founding managing partner of Beacon, a London-based fund that invests with a laser-sharp focus in enterprise tech venture across Europe. Maria is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD Business School and serves on the Committee of the Chairs in Emerging Technologies as well as the Enterprise Hub of The Royal Academy of Engineering. She is also angel investing and on the board of a number of fast growing companies. This greek engineer used to fence the foil so watch out for her ripostes! In this episode you’ll learn:– How Beacon accelerates the J-curve by focusing on capital gap of founder secondary investments at pre-series B to complement their pre-series A primary investments in enterprise tech– Why off-cycle founder secondaries are an integral part to build a strong ecosystem that can generate 1 bn€ exits - and why the big sovereign LPs need to wake up to this– How Maria thinks the preference stack, discounts and terms for secondary transactions– The three core stakeholders of putting together a secondary transaction and how to make them reach an agreement that all see as a win-win– Why the founder CEO is central to putting together a secondary transaction

Welcome to another hot-off-the-press episode in our special series on navigating the current market with Europe's absolute VC elites.Today, we welcome back Lindsay and Kemper from Industry Ventures. They certainly had a lot more to share.Lindsay is the Managing Director at Industry, and focuses on originating, valuing and managing primary fund commitments and direct co-investment opportunities for the Tech Buyout team. Kemper is the Vice President at Industry and focuses on the firm’s Secondary and Tech Buyout investments, as well as driving business development efforts across their platform.Brace yourselves for some new and exciting advices.

Today, we are happy to welcome Francisco, Partner and Executive Director of Bynd Venture Capital, an Iberian VC investor with more than 30 active investments in the portfolio in different funds. Bynd is dedicated to seed / early stage technology companies in different verticals strongly connected to Iberia.In this episode you’ll learn:– All about Francisco and Bynd’s journey from being an angel club to a VC firm– Why Bynd focuses on all of Iberia & the Iberian diaspora– How Francisco thinks about divesting and sourcing buyers for partial exits– Why Francisco thinks consistency is central to being a successful VC

This is the second of a four episode long special on the MENA region here at The European VC. This special series focuses on everything MENA VC, bridging the gap with its European counterparts. We intend to shed light on the ins and outs and promote collaboration between these two beautiful regions.For this special series of episodes we welcome our dear friend and special co-host Mostafa Gado.And as our guest, we're happy to welcome Omar Almajdouie. He is the founding partner and CEO of Raed Ventures, a Saudi venture capital firm that invests in seed and early stage startups. Raed has invested in more than 40 companies. Omar believed early on that corporations must adapt in order to survive in the digital age, and that tech startups will have a transformative and disruptive impact on the traditional business landscape.In this episode you’ll learn:– The founding story of Raed charting the path from family office to CVC to finally become a strictly financial and independent VC– An insider’s view on VC in MENA and specifically Saudi Arabia - and what’s going on with market there these days?– How Omar has devised their strategy to double down on the strongest tech hubs in MENA– Omar’s advice to European managers learning how to navigate geopolitical risk

Today we are happy to introduce you to Gesa, General Partner of Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund and Board Member of the German Startups Association. Auxxo is a venture capital firm co-investing into startups with at least one female founder in Europe. Besides that, Gesa founded the Evangelistas, a network of female business angels with more than 170 members in Germany.In this episode you’ll learn:– Gesa’s perspective on the biases for and against female focused funds – Why Auxxo invests in female founders and how that focus gives Auxxo a competitive advantage in winning competitive deals– How Auxxo is thinking about their co-invest strategy in the light of the new market– How Auxxo managed to raise their fund with more than 50% of their LPs being women (in terms of €€ as well headcount)– How Gesa thinks about firm development, fund II, and what’s in store for Auxxo

In today's episode you will meet Daniel Tomov, Founding Partner of Eleven Ventures. Daniel is a pioneer in seed investments in Bulgaria and an entrepreneur in technology, cleantech, and consumer retail. Following his passion for building successful companies, he co-founded Eleven together with Ivaylo Simov in 2012.We first met Daniel at HowToWeb last year and can’t wait to reconnect for this year’s event on the 21st and 22nd of September in Bucharest, Romania. Will we be seeing you there?In this episode you’ll learn:– Reaching escape velocity and the story behind the name “Eleven Ventures” – The story of how Eleven Ventures have grown from being an accelerator to fund III of 60M€– Daniel’s eye on the the LP scene in Eastern Europe and how it’s developing– Why Eleven Ventures are investing out of their own pocket to double down on building their value add platform– Why emerging managers must be wary with overpromising to founders

In this episode, we're happy to welcome you to Rando Rannus, General Partner of Siena Secondary Fund. Rando is a founding member of Estonian Startup Leaders Club, a leading figure in EstBan, and is an excited entrepreneur with a portfolio of 30+ startups. With everyone talking about secondaries these days, we thought it was natural to sit down Rando to talk about talk about the opportunity he's capturing, the market he's navigating and the fund he's building. In this episode you’ll learn:– The founding story and opportunity that led to the raise of Siena Secondary Fund - and the surprising story behind the name– Juxtaposition of the early stage market and secondaries market - and why defaults in the portfolio are a complete no-go– Why Rando prefers to buy secondaries off of founders, early employees or local champions

This is the first of a four episode long special on the MENA region here at The European VC. This special series focuses on everything MENA VC, bridging the gap with its European counterparts. We intend to shed light and promote collaboration between these two beautiful regions.For this special series we welcome our dear friend and special co-host Mostafa Gado - Venture Builder, Innovation Strategist and Tech Enthusiast. Mostafa has led the Project Management and Business Development for Fetchr, the #1 MENA startup in 2017 according to Forbes, in Saudi Arabia. He is a former Innovation Strategist at Accenture Middle East and Advisory Manager at PWC Middle East.Our first guest is Kenza Lahlou, co-founder and General Partner at Outlierz Ventures, an early-stage Africa-focused VC fund dedicated to Seed and Pre-Series A companies.In this episode you’ll learn:– How Kenza broke into VC in the first place and how the journey into VC in MENA differs from that in Europe– Why the rise of certain startup ecosystems is promising in the Morocco region– How Kenza thinks about helping take MENA startups go global– Why Africa's near-boundless VC opportunities if approached in the right way

Today's episode marks the 100th episode of The European VC so we’ve shifted things up and turned the tables on your usual hosts. This time, David and Andreas are the interviewees, lifting the covers on the vision behind The European VC and how an incurably optimistic former Danish bodybuilder and over-thinking Portuguese VC protégé ended up betting everything and tying themselves and their families’ fortunes together by the hip. To interview them, nobody better than Tom, Affinity's European Regional Director and one of EUVCs long-standing supporters and friends. Besides that, Tom is a Data and Technology leader with 18 years experience in the European Venture Capital and Private Equity industry. We cannot wait to bring you this story and hope you’ll enjoy hearing a bit more about your usual hosts. In this episode you’ll learn:– The vision and origin story of The European VC – Why angels, VCs and ecosystem champions should connect around LP syndicates– What’s been learnt from 100 interviews with European VCs and which episodes are the hottest!?– How the team behind The European VC is working to connect and democratize European VC - and what the pitfalls are.

Today we are happy to welcome Jamie, CEO and Founder of Creator Fund - Europe’s leading university student focused fund. Jamie launched the fund in 2019 and has since grown its presence to more than 25 UK universities. The inspiration for the model came from his time at Stanford where he was an investor at Dorm Room Fund. Jamie is a true thought leader in the space and is leading the charge pioneering a new generation of funds that we expect to see from in the future! Buckle up, ‘cos Jamie is going places - fast.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why the Creator Fund is investing in top European universities and the new founder's profile coming out of those academic environments– Their strategy of not just backing great founders but supporting a generation of student investors, leaders and technology talent– How can phD founders have more ownership of the IP in their universities with Creator's alternative negotiations– Why transparency is a key value on a VC's relationship with its LPs

Today we're happy to welcome John Frankel and Maciej Skarul.John founded ffVC back in 2008. ffVC is a leading New York City-based VC firm which has demonstrated success scaling global tech business. And you might be asking: “A US based fund in The European VC pod?!”. Listen to this episode and you’ll understand why.Maciej, our other guest, is a partner at ffVC and has over 12 years of experience in investment banking and M&A. Based in Poland, he is one of the two partners leading ffVC’s European arm in Warsaw. ffVC Warsaw works in conjunction with the rest of the ffVC network to bring to Poland everything that ffVC has done over the past twelve years in the US.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why a US focused VC decided to invest in Poland and the ecosystem challenges they are facing with more conservative investors– How the European culture can grow from million to billion-dollar exits– How their early investments are turning into a global seed stage footprint– The attraction of building US focused businesses using European tools and teams, since CE startups are 3x more cost efficient than their western pears

In today's episode, we're talking to Anthony Danon, co-founder of Cocoa, one of the hottest emerging managers in Europe these days pioneering a strategy of being VCs turned angels. Cocoa are deliberately small (17 M€ and nearly 3x oversubscribed). They are backed by some of Europe's top decacorn and unicorn founders. Prior to launching Cocoa, Anthony has been with Anthemis and Speedinvest and his partner Carmen Alfonso Rico with Samaipata and Blossom. They’ve both led high-profiled investments into companies like Hopin, TrueLayer, Primer, Wayflyer, Tide, and many more. In this episode you’ll learn:– The investment thesis of being VCs turned angels and Anthony’s reflections on the rise of micro funds – The fundraising tactics and narrative excellence that allowed Cocoa to close their fund in record time and heavily oversubscribed– Why Cocoa said no to VC money in their LP base and prioritized founders and operators– How Anthony thinks about the current market and the need to adapt as VCs

In this episode, we're happy to introduce you to Lindsay and Kemper, the UK-based team from Industry Ventures, a global 5 bn euro Fund of Funds. Lindsay is the Managing Director at Industry, and focuses on originating, valuing and managing primary fund commitments and direct co-investment opportunities for the Tech Buyout team. Kemper is the Vice President at Industry and focuses on the firm’s Secondary and Tech Buyout investments, as well as driving business development efforts across their platform.In this episode you’ll learn:– All about Industry Ventures, the 5 bn € quiet giant investing into early stage funds– Why Industry run 4 strategies in parallel and how they work together to yield a competitive edge for their LPs as well as managers– The state of the secondaries market and how Industry navigates it in Europe– What the future holds for Industry in Europe

Today, we're happy to welcome Apostolos Apostolakis, founding partner of VentureFriends, a leading European VC firm based out of beautiful and sunny Greece. Apostolos is a founder, turned angel, turned VC and has been investing and supporting startups since 2010, and focuses on consumer software and marketplaces.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why tech plays such an important part in the democratization of venture– All about the thesis and strategy of VentureFriends and why they focus globally– An insider's view on the Greek Market and the effects of the pandemic – The essential value of having people on the ground, cultivating a network and creating awareness

Join us as we're talking to Laurens Groenendijk, co-founder of Dutch Founders Fund, an founder-led early-stage venture capital firm from Amsterdam and focuses on marketplace businesses and products or services with strong network effects. Just as the rest of the founding team behind Dutch Founders Fund, Laurens is a successful entrepreneur having previously founded Just-Eat, Treatwell, Miinto and nano-satellite challenger Hiber. In this episode you’ll learn:– Why Laurens love markets that are considered unorthodox or unusual – What’s behind Laurens’ thesis of letting crazy ideas flourish and why it’s important to remember that just 1 line item can make all the difference– Why Laurens built an LP base 100+ founders and operators– How Dutch Founders Fund manages and serves their LP base via weekly updates and whatsapps

Welcome to another hot-off-the-press episode in our special series on navigating the current market with Europe's absolute VC elites.For today’s episode, we sat down with Tom Wilson, Partner at Seedcamp. Seedcamp requires little intro, so suffice it to say that he team has backed more than 430 companies and are early investors in European successes like Hopin, Wise, Revolut, Sorare, wefox, Pleo, UiPath, viz.ai and Grover. So with that, let’s dive in!

In today’s episode, we’re talking to Jimmy, co-founder and partner of Heartcore Capital. He founded Heartcore in 2007 to challenge the traditional venture landscape which today’s conversation will also show you is still very much on his mind as we’ll be talking about the macro trends driving European VC today and how Jimmy thinks about how to navigate these. In this episode, you'll learn: - Where Jimmy sees the venture capital market going long-term- Why the LP/GP model is an era of the past- How globalization and the entry of players will affect European venture- Why the time of illiquidity will come to an end- Why being small and nimble will become more difficult- Jimmy's key learnings from founding Heartcore

For today’s special series episode on navigating the current market with Europe's absolute VC elites we’re talking to Chris Wade, Founding Partner of Isomer Capital - The O.G. of European LP investing. With investments in more than 50 European early stage VC funds counting anything from first time managers to the known greats like Seedcamp, Semantic, Hoxton, and Kindred, we thought Chris would be the perfect guest to dive deep on the effects on the current market on VC fundraising. On a final note, we should say that this episode is an edited version of a virtual event earlier hosted on LinkedIn, so in case you missed it; enjoy! and in case you’re part of the 5.000 VCs that have seen it thus far; we hope it’ll be worth revisiting.

Today we’re talking to Alex Santos, founding partner of Chamaeleon, an early stage fund based in Silicon Valley doing first checks between 1 and 5 million primarily in the US and Europe but can invest globally. Chamaeleon invest on the basis of a thesis revolving around product-led companies, with technology differentiation and clear end-user flows that the team can test. Alex is an experienced investor and operational handler having spent 15 years in telco and tech and 6 years as an angel & VC. Alex has also co-founded the Portuguese corporate venture builder studio Bright Pixel.In this episode you'll learn: - How to raise successfully from corporates and use them actively afterwards- How Alex and his team have innovated on the LP value add model - Why Alex never reached out to FoFs and large institutional investors - A sneak peek into Chamaeleon's quant and tech stack strategy

Welcome to another hot-off-the-press episode in our special series on navigating the current market with Europe's absolute VC elites. For today’s episode, we sat down with Jimmy Fussing, founding partner of Heartcore - one of Europe's leading consumer VCs. Heartcore has invested in more than 90 companies counting the likes of Templafy, Podimo, Peakon, Reddit and many more. What a team. Let's dive into it!

Today we’re happy to introduce you to David Braga Malta, a Life Sciences Entrepreneur, Inventor and Investor, currently managing the health focused fund of Pictet Group, one of Europe’s largest private banks. He was previously a Venture Partner of Vesalius Biocapital III, one of Europe’s leading Life science funds and got his experiences in VC with Caixa capital investing in a mix of funds and startups.What you'll learn in this episode: - How being an LP formed the foundation for a solid VC career and why everyone should seek to get VC LP exposure in their own wealth management- David's reflections on fund investment policies in Europe and why reformation is integral to reduce societal asymmetries- The business case for life sciences in Europe and David’s reflections on why we’re not capturing the opportunity

For this episode of our special series on navigating the current market, we’re talking to an old friend of The European VC; Oliver Holle, founding and managing partner of Speedinvest. As one of Europe’s leading seed funds with 6 teams investing across as many verticals and great exposure to both the early and the late stage in their portfolio, Oliver has the perfect vantage point to comment on the status of the current market.

Join us as we're talking to Tom Wilson, Partner at Seedcamp and recovering lawyer. Seedcamp requires little introduction to most, but let’s do it anyway; Seedcamp was founded in 2007 with the strong belief that exceptional talent can come from anywhere, a belief that remains deep-rooted in the firm’s DNA and actions today. The team has backed more than 430 companies and are early investors in European successes like Hopin, Wise, Revolut, Sorare, wefox, Pleo, UiPath, viz.ai and Grover. In otherwords; say welcome to one of the greats.In this episode, you'll learn: - Tom's route into venture as a lawyer and how his background has helped him as a VC- How Seedcamp pioneered the investment strategy of building a large portfolio of small tickets & ownership in European VC- What's behind the concept of "Seedcamp Nation" and how network effects help drive the outlier performance that Seedcamp has achieved- What Tom misses from the early days of Seedcamp and where he sees opportunity in the future- Tom's best advise for emerging managers raising their capita for their first funds.

Today, we’re excited to bring you the first episode of a Special Series on navigating the current market. For this episode, we sat down with Shmuel Chafets, Chairman and Founder of Target Global, one the largest and most successful venture funds in Europe with more than €3 billion under management. They invests in companies across all stages, from pre-seed to pre-IPO and have backed global winners including Delivery Hero, Revolut, Auto 1 Group, Copper, Rapyd, Wefox, Flink, Cazoo, and many others. Their portfolio includes 15 unicorns, 19 exits and 7 IPOs - a European force to be reckoned with. So listen up, ‘cos Shmuel knows what he’s talking about.

Welcome to yet another Memo-episode where we dive deep on one of the funds that we’re raising an EUVC community syndicate for - in other words; one of the funds that you can join us in backing, with minimum tickets at just 1k€. For this, we’re talking to Cristobal Alonso from Startup Wise Guys. You’ve met him before, in episode 49, so you know he’s quite a personality and that it’s an incredible mission they’re on with Startup Wise Guys. Today, we’re zoning in on the fund we’re investing in; Challenger Fund II, a 20 M€ fund to back and double down on the amazing startups coming out of the Europe-wide Startup Wise Guys accelerator program.

We’ve assembled a panel of LPs to discuss the current turbulent climate and give some insight into how they advise their VCs to act and react. Please welcome Marcus Börner, founding partner of AlphaQ, João Vale de Almedia, Investment director at August and an old friend of EUVC; Jeroen Van Doornik from Pacenotes. We hope you’ll enjoy this roundtable and invite you to DM us with topics you’d like us to bring for future LP roundtables. We’re here to serve you.

Today we’re joined by Maria Palma, the latest addition to the famed Kindred partnership. She joined Kindred from NY-based VC fund RRE, where she spent five years, both building their platform team from scratch and leading investments into some of their most exciting break-out companies. Prior to that she had a decade long operating career spanning roles in startups and large corporations.In this episode you’ll learn:– How Maria broke into venture by creating FOMO and going deep– All about Kindred’s founder carry sharing scheme and how it helps drive 40% of their top of funnel deal flow and 60% of their end of funnel!– A deep dive on how Maria and Kindred works with founder community development as a core value add– Marias views on the current market and what she feels most VCs are missing out on in crypto!

Dilek is the founding and managing partner of ScaleX Ventures, a 30M€ Turkey-based pan-European fund investing in B2B software, AI, bioinformatics, robotics, cyber and focuses her value-add on scaling and growing globally. In this episode we dive deep with Dilek on ScaleX’ founder carry sharing scheme, how they thought about initially, its reception with founders as well as LPs and how they optimize their founder portfolio community. What you’ll learn in this episode:- All about why and how the ScaleX team built their founder carry sharing scheme- How ScaleX works to build founder community in their portfolio and how the carry sharing scheme connects with that - Dilek’s learnings from the first years with the founder sharing scheme and how her narrative has changed towards LPs

Today we're happy to introduce you to Stephan Heller, founding partner of AlphaQ, a newly launched Fund of Fund in Berlin. The team is raising a 1 bn euro fund to back both emerging and established VCs in Europe and beyond. We dive deep on their model and mission to democratize access to the asset class, what they look for and what you can expect from them. So strap in and welcome Stephan and his team to the European VC scene. In this episode, you’ll learn: - All about the on-going journey of raising a 1bn€ FoF- What AlphaQ are looking for in managers- What mega trends Stephan see changing the world (and have the most potential!)- What AlphaQ are bringing to the table besides capital

The hosts of The NextGen VC, Audrey and Ved, are joined by Michelangelo Valtancoli of Stride VC. The Stride team have invested in the likes of Cazoo, Zefir and Unibuddy. Before Stride, Michelangelo interned at PayPal and Wayra, Telefonica’s accelerator, and was also a student partner at Entrepreneur First. With his contagious energy and love for acting, Michelangelo is one of the few people we know that broke into VC straight out of university.In this episode you’ll learn: - How Michelangelo broke into VC straight out of university- How his acting career made him a better VC- Michelangelo’s advice for those who want to break into venture

Breaking news: First time Isomer Capital talks openly about their emerging manager cornerstone program. For our in-person interview with Joe Schorge, founding and managing partner of Isomer Capital, at TEDxAthens, Joe Schorge revealed yet undisclosed details about their cornerstone program for emerging managers. In this episode you'll learn: - How Joe thinks about being an optimist in the current market- What advice he gives to managers - A first-ever lift of the curtain for a sneak peak into Isomer’s extremely selective cornerstone program for emerging managers We also want to give a huge shout out to Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, founding of Velocity Partners for having invited us to host this talk with Joe Schorge at TEDxAthens this weekend.

Today’s episode is a bit different as we’re joined by Catherine Dupere, Partner at Isomer Capital and John Dutton, head of the World Economic Forum’s Uplink to talk about the Forum’s “Innovative Funds for Our Future”-challenge which calls for innovative VC funds who invest in people and planet-focused entrepreneurs that can strengthen innovation ecosystems and strive for the achievement of the 2030 Global Goals. Selected funds will receive the magical recognition and visibility that only highly acclaimed organizations like the WEF can give you. So pay attention to see if this challenge is something for you and apply here 👉 [https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o0000136S2vAAE/innovative-funds-for-our-future](https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o0000136S2vAAE/innovative-funds-for-our-future)In this episode you’ll learn:– Why and how the WEF is involved in startup and VC finance – Exactly what is WEF’s “Innovative Funds for Our Future”-challenge– How the challenge can give GPs recognition, visibility, access to LPs and deal flow– A deep dive on the application process and the thinking behind it- Why Isomer Capital is supporting the project

Today, we're happy to welcome Will Klippgen, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Cocoon Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm focusing on early-stage enterprise tech companies across Southeast Asia, specifically focused on B2B enterprise and deep tech. The fund prefers to act as lead investor and normally takes a board seat. Will has also invested in over 35 companies since 2004 after co-founding Zoomit.com which was sold to Yahoo in 2004 through Kelkoo.com in one of Europe’s largest internet transactions to date.What you’ll learn in this episode- What made Will double down on Southeast Asia - What trends and verticals to watch in SEA - Key learnings from raising a fund in emerging markets - How Will has adapted his investment thesis and ops to the SEA markets

Today, we're happy to welcome you to Danijel, founding partner at the World Fund. The fund was launched just this October 2021 focusing on funding climate-tech companies and has the ambition to be there largest climate-focused VC fund in Europe at 350M€. In their investment criteria, they have the amazingly ambitious rule of only backing startups that have the potential to save at least 100Mt CO2e per year. The fund focus on the key emitting sectors Energy, Food & Agriculture, Manufacturing, Buildings and Transport aiming to fill two significant investment gaps for climate tech: when it goes from lab to market and when it leaves the pilot stage to scale. What you’ll learn in this episode:- Why Danijel and his team believe the time is right for a 350 M€ climate fund in Europe - The origin story of World Fund and key learnings from their fundraise- Where the World Fund team sees the biggest climate opportunities in Europe- What metrics really matter when it comes to climate and sustainability

Today we’re happy to welcome Pedro Ribeiro Santos, Partner at Armilar Venture Partners, a Portuguese VC firm with a history of more than 20 years, a high-performance track record and an international footprint with 300 million under management. Pedro leads Armilar’s sustainability investments and has a strong focus on enterprise software, SaaS and IoT technologies. Pedro has a BSc in Physics Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico and started his career as a Researcher in Physics for the University of Oxford (UK), and holds an MBA and an MSc in Economics from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.In this episode you’ll learn: - All about the MBO story of Armilar and how you can think of spinning out of a corporate/captive VC- How to think about putting together a syndicate for a big secondary transaction and balancing the interests on both sides of the deal- The journey of Armilar from founding in early 2000 when Portugal could hardly be placed on a map by international VCs to today where Portugal seems to be on the lips of almost everyone.

Today, we're happy to welcome you to Mathias Ockenfels and Julian Blessin, general partner and partner at Speedinvest’s Marketplaces & Consumer team. Speedinvest is one of Europe’s most active early stage investors with more than €600m of assets under management and Mathias’ and Julian’s investment team focuses on backing startups who are shaping the future across B2B and B2C at the intersection of marketplaces, eCommerce 2.0 and consumer subscriptions. Not only are Speedinvest one of Europe's top VC players, they're also experts in building community and network effects which is something we can't get enough of here at The European VC!What you’ll learn in this episode- What Mathias & Julian believe is the secret behind Speedinvest’s success in the consumer & marketplaces vertical.- Where Mathias & Julian believe the next great European marketplace & consumer startups will spawn.- How Speedinvest evaluates early stage deals and how they think about evaluating and committing to startups prior to traction.- A deep dive on the cold start problem and how to overcome it.- How the team thinks about Web 3.0, DAO and the crypto-hype.

Today, we're happy to introduce you to Mads Jensen, managing partner of SuperSeed, a UK-based fund seed fund backing B2B software startups that use software and machine learning to automate the way the world does business 🤖 Mads and his partner Dan Bowyer are doing amazing work and we love them for the fact that they’ve democratized access to their fund by listing it on the stock exchange 😍 So effing awesome! In this episode, you’ll learn:- All about SuperSeeds journey listing on the Aquis Stock Exchange- How SuperSeed thinks about differentiating themselves in one of Europe’s most competitive places and spaces- How Mads thinks about the adjusting to the market - higher ticket sizes? Lower equity stakes? Early stage investments? 🤷‍♂️- How Mads thinks about funding hardware startups and overcoming the problems of securing financing for CAPEX heavy business models.- Why Mads believes in the statement “sales solve all problems for early stage startups” and how it informs their value add strategy.

Today, we're happy to introduce you to Andris Berzins, Managing Partner at Change Ventures, the first and largest truly pan-Baltic pre-seed/seed fund. Change Ventures backs ambitious Baltic founders and are searching for founding teams that have the "grit" to succeed. Andris was also recently awarded the Human Development Award by the President of Latvia for an outstanding contribution to the future of the nation, what a guy 😍.What you’ll learn in this episode: - All about the Baltic ecosystem - what’s happening, what to look out for and how to approach the market- Why Andris sees many commonalities between the Baltics and the Israeli ecosystem and how this informs Change Ventures’ thesis & strategy- How Andris collaborates with Angels in the region and have brought them into his fund for a close and vested relationship- Important reflections on building a remote-first VC firm, living on slack and key learnings for anyone looking to grow their firm internationally.

Today, we're happy to introduce you to David Ventzel, formerly a founder and the GP of not one, but TWO VC funds, Accelerace Invest and Overkill Ventures 👏 In this episode, we dive deep on Accelerace Invest, being the pre-seed fund backing Denmark’s leading startup accelerators’ amazing alumni. Accelerace has helped spawn more than 800 Danish and international startups and David’s learnings from being an integral part of the team cannot be overstated. 🚨 Do tune in for one of the best “breaking into venture”-stories on the pod so far 😍 and an amazing walk-through of David’s framework for diligencing founding teams pre-traction. In this episode you’ll learn: - How David has transitioned from being a founder to a VC and key learnings from going through this - including how to build a GP team that can complement each other.- Key learnings from having accelerated >800 startups and all about the “Accelerace Invest Framework” distinguishing between entry criteria and the excellence criteria of Impact, Smartness, Leadership and Crazy.- The importance of having original insight and the difference between investing in beta and alpha growth.- All about the “momentum-framework” and how to track progress in startups pre-revenue.

Today we’re joined by Mike Suprovici, Head of Acceleration at VC Lab, the 16 week VC Accelerator spun out of Founders Institute with a vision to help launch no less than 1.000 enduring VC firms by 2025. We’re excited to bring you this interview as Mike and his partner in crime Adeo Ressi have made quite a splash worldwide with their program helping more than 100 firms be launched across 5 cohorts and make important VC conceptual innovations like the Proof of Concept-fund, Fund-in-a-box and LP Love be disseminated in the ecosystem. Go register your application for the 7th VC Lab cohort on vcl.to/VC

Today, we're happy to welcome you to Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners. Since 1997, the firm has raised over $1bn for investment and used it to back more than 180 companies. Andrea’s experience as a VC is something to envy, having lived and invested through the boom and bust of three bubbles! What you’ll learn in this episode:- The views and reflections on the current market - by a man who has lived and invested through the boom and bust of three bubbles!- Why Andrea loves their operational model of having a strong in-house backoffice, involving them early and creating cross-fund deal teams for each investment.- Andrea’s thoughts on carry distribution in VC funds, why junior personnel should be included in the scheme and how they’re setting aside significant carry reserves for employees growing in the firm- Why they define DeepTech on the company level and what’s behind the three core pillars of 1) tech must be a key differentiator, 2) the startup must own the IP, and 3) tech must be the key to the company’s operational leverage.- How the 3 P’s of Power dynamics, Post-rationalization and Persistence creates a virtuous cycle for VCs building their fund narrative

Today we’re welcoming Johan van Mil, co-founder and managing partner of Peak to The European VC 😍 Johan is a life-long entrepreneur, who has built, bought, and sold over 11 companies, from data marketplaces and social marketing software, to email marketing platforms, and more. Making the move from founder to investor, Johan founded Peak with 5 fellow entrepreneurs in 2008, which now invests in fast growing marketplace, platforms and SaaS companies. And what we REALLY love, their LP base is all operators putting their money to work to change the world - absolutely amazing 💕😍In this episode you’ll learn: - All about Johan and Peak’s journey from their first fund to today.- How Johan thinks about brand building in VC (and they’re great at this! So pay attention! 👀)- What’s behind the quote “Don’t try to please everybody, look for alternative ways to get things done, give 100% on one big goal – and do not move on before it is done.”- Why Johan and Peak have chosen to build an LP base of operators and founders, what value that brings and how they use them to deliver value to founders