Sebastian Johnson interviews Europe's top founders and investors each week, discussing the latest trends and developments in European tech. Past guests include founders from companies like Lovable, Cleo, Voi, and Zilch, as well as prominent VCs from 20VC, Index, Balderton, and Creandum. The podcast provides insights into the European startup ecosystem and investment landscape.
Episodes
Nicolas Kopp, CEO & Founder, Rillet: Raising $100m in 48 hours
Rillet is an AI accounting platform that records a company’s finances automatically and in real time. It became a unicorn in the US earlier this year and now works with more than 700 customers, from fast-growing startups to some of the largest accounting firms.Nicolas Kopp is the CEO and founder of Rillet. He moved to the US from Europe to build the company, and its new office in London now brings
Pascar Sivam, Co-Founder & CEO at Sumary: BREAKING: Sumary raised $25m Seed
Sumary is building an AI operating system for accounting firms, covering their core work from bookkeeping and VAT returns to annual accounts and client advisory. The Copenhagen-based company has just raised a $25m seed round led by Singular.Pascar Sivam is the co-founder and CEO of Sumary. The platform has been taken up by most of the top 20 accounting firms in the Nordics within a year, and the c
Carl Johann Simon-Gabriel, Co-founder and CEO at Mirelo.AI: NVIDIA backed Mirelo.ai to build frontier audio models for every creator
Mirelo is a Berlin-based audio AI company that creates sound for videos, adding the sound effects and ambience that match what’s happening on screen. It has just received investment from NVIDIA to help scale their operations.Carl Johann Simon-Gabriel is the co-founder and CEO of Mirelo. He and his co-founder are both musicians, and the company is one of the few in Europe training its own audio mod
Dimitris Samouris, Co-Founder and CEO at Junior: Junior has just surpassed $30m ARR fully bootstrapped
Junior is voice AI tool for M&A, helping consulting firms and private equity funds turn their calls with experts and clients into clean, automated summaries and notes. It’s scaled to $30m ARR while being fully bootstrapped, and the platform is now used by over 60 customers across the largest firms in the industry.Dimitris Samouris is the co-founder and CEO of Junior. He spent ten years in cons
Margarethe Böhme, Managing partner at Wave Ventures: Wave is Europe’s largest Gen Z-run VC firm
Wave Ventures is a Nordic venture firm that invests in young founders right from the start. It's now on its third and biggest fund at €10m, and people who built some of the region's unicorns are among its backers.Margarethe Böhme is Managing Partner at Wave Ventures. The firm started at Slush in Helsinki in 2016 as Europe's first student-run fund, and everyone on the team is under 25.
Thore Graepel, CEO & Co-Founder at Metis Reasoning: AI needs to reason like a scientist before we can trust it
Metis Reasoning just launched with a white paper on building AI that reasons the way a scientist does. Its answers come with the evidence and steps behind them, so people can check exactly how it got there.Thore Graepel is CEO and Co-Founder at Metis Reasoning. The system works through a question the way a researcher would, coming up with possible answers and checking each one against evidence bef
Yinon Costica, Co-Founder and VP of Product at Wiz: Wiz’s AI agents protect companies from cyber attacks around the clock
Wiz keeps the cloud systems of thousands of companies safe, and it has kept running as its own business since Google bought it earlier this year. It just launched Scan for Good, which uses its AI agents to find weak spots in critical services like hospitals and national archives before anyone can exploit them.Yinon Costica is Co-Founder and VP of Product at Wiz. Hackers are using AI to find securi
Carlos Trenchs Sainz de la Maza, Co-Founder at Masia: BREAKING: Masia closed first €18m fund
Masia just closed its first fund at €18m, backed by more than 70 founders, tech leaders and investors from Barcelona. It invests in startups with ties to the city at the very earliest stage, and connects them with some of the best funds from around the world.Carlos Trenchs Sainz de la Maza is Co-Founder and Chairman at Masia. The city now has a growing number of founders who have already built and
Omer Kaplan, Co-Founder & CEO at ZyG: Helping e-commerce brands scale faster with AI agents
It’s easy to start selling online today, but growing an e-commerce brand into a much bigger business is still really hard. ZyG takes over the work of scaling for brands with great products, and its AI agents run everything from marketing to customer support.Omer Kaplan is Co-Founder and CEO, and they just launched ZyG Score to help online brands see their growth potential. Brands selling over $1 m
Nicolas Sharp, Founder & CEO of Attio: BREAKING: Attio powers 1.6 billion API calls a month
Attio just launched a new version of its CRM built for a world where AI agents do more and more of the work. Attio now handles 1.6 billion API calls a month, with usage growing 50% every month.Nicolas Sharp is Founder and CEO of Attio. Agents now handle the busy work, from routing leads to prepping calls, while sales teams spend more of their time with customers. In its first year on Attio, the ty
Raffi Kamber, General Partner & Co-Founder at Singular: Europe has unique talent for building AI and science companies
Singular is a Paris and London based venture firm backing some of Europe's most exciting early stage companies, from Basecamp Research to Aikido.Raffi Kamber is General Partner and Co-Founder at Singular. Europe is especially strong at combining AI and science, and a new generation of researchers is now starting companies of their own. Singular has made this one of its biggest bets and helps t
Laura Connell, Partner at Atomico: Deep tech is reshaping Europe’s growth stage funding
Atomico is one of Europe's best known venture firms, backing tech companies from their early days all the way to going public. Europe now produces as many new tech companies as the US, and a lot of them will need big funding rounds as they grow.Laura Connell is a Managing Partner at Atomico, where she works with founders at the growth stage. More investors from the US, Asia and the Middle East
Siadhal Magos, Co-founder & CEO at Metaview: BREAKING: Metaview Raised $60M Series C
Metaview just raised a $60m Series C led by Insight Partners, only a year after their previous round, bringing total funding to $110 million.Siadhal Magos is Co-founder and CEO of Metaview, which has grown from a tool for making sense of hiring conversations into a full set of AI agents for recruiting. They just launched their newest agent, fillmore, which finds and reaches out to candidates and b
Alex Higginbottom, Founder at Zenithon AI: BREAKING: Zenithon AI raised $10m
Zenithon AI just raised $10m from Backed, Lunar, Seraphim, MMC, SOSV and others. It's building AI that runs complex physics simulations a million times faster than today's tools, so engineers can test far more designs before building anything.Alex Higginbottom is Founder at Zenithon AI. With the new funding, his team is training larger AI models and getting them into the hands of their fir
Oliver Vince, Co-Founder at Basecamp Research: BREAKING: Basecamp Research raised $140m Series C
Basecamp Research just raised a $140m Series C led by S32. It's teaching AI to read and write DNA, using huge amounts of genetic data it collects all over the world. It has been working with NVIDIA and Anthropic on its models, and both have now come in as investors too.Oliver Vince is Co-Founder at Basecamp Research, which is using this AI to design new medicines for cancer, rare genetic disea
Hugo da Silva, CEO at Morphotonics: Morphotonics raised over €40m Series B
Morphotonics just raised over €40m Series B to build the machinery behind AI smart glasses and data center optics.Hugo da Silva is CEO of Morphotonics, and they make equipment that imprints microscopic displays onto AI smart glasses, combining high precision with mass manufacturing scale. The new funding will go toward delivering their next-gen equipment and growing across Asia.The Scaling Europe
Neil Daly, CEO of Skin Analytics: Helping detect skin cancer using a phone
Skin Analytics has built AI technology that can spot skin cancer from a photo, and health systems use it to check patients faster and catch more cases early. Earlier this year, it got approval across Europe to check for skin cancer using just a smartphone camera, with no doctor needed to review each case. It has already found more than 25,000 cancers across the NHS.Neil Daly is Founder and CEO of
Gustav Bang, Co-founder & CEO of Complir: BREAKING: Complir raised $11m Seed
Complir just raised an $11m Seed led by General Catalyst, with new and existing investors joining the round, just eight to nine months after its pre-seed round. They are growing rapidly and the revenue has grown 40% month over month for the last six months.Gustav Bang is Co-founder and CEO of Complir. It helps retailers and brands sell physical products anywhere in the world, handling the complian
Matt Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Jack & Jill: BREAKING: Jack and Jill raised $40m Series A
Jack and Jill just raised a $40m Series A led by Air Street Capital with Madrona joining the round, and participation from existing investors. This brings total funding to $60m, just ten months after their $20m Seed. Revenue has grown 40x since the seed round.Matt Wilson is Co-Founder and CEO of Jack & Jill. They are two AI agents, where Jack works for the person looking for the next step in t
Gianni Cuozzo, Founder & CEO at Exein: BREAKING: Exein raised $270M at a $1.7B valuation
Exein just raised $270m at a $1.7bn valuation. The round was led by Headline, with participation from Sofina, Goldman Sachs, European Investment Bank Group ETCI, KfW Capital and T.Capital, with involvement from previous investors.Gianni Cuozzo is Founder and CEO of Exein. It builds on-device security software for connected systems, running on everything from coffee machines to satellites. The comp
Lukas Saari, Co-Founder & CEO of Tandem Health: BREAKING: Tandem Health raised $100M Series B
Tandem Health just raised a $100m Series B led by the Scale-up Europe Fund, managed by EQT. Its AI medical assistant handles clinical documentation and admin work for doctors, from transcribing patient visits and drafting medical notes to handling referrals, coding, and prescriptions.Lukas Saari is Co-founder and CEO of Tandem Health. The company has grown from three co-founders to about 230 peopl
Christoph Klink, GP at Antler: Europe's funding gap is also its biggest opportunity
Antler just released a new report recently on the state of European tech. It shows the biggest companies scaling faster and raising more money than ever, while funding for new companies at the earliest stages keeps shrinking.Christoph Klink is General Partner at Antler, an early stage venture firm. To him, the funding gap is one of the best opportunities in venture right now. Plenty of good compan
Simon Schaefer, Co-initiator at EU-INC: EU INC unlocks the simplest way to fund and scale a company in Europe
EU-INC is a grassroots initiative pushing to establish a unified corporate law framework across Europe. By creating a virtual "28th regime," the movement aims to eliminate fragmented national bureaucracy and simplify how tech startups are founded, scaled, and funded.Simon Schaefer is a co-initiator of EU-INC who has been driving the movement from the ground up. They just launched a new c
Jack Miller and John Daley, Co-Founders of HelmGuard AI: BREAKING: Helmguard raised $7.3M Seed
HelmGuard just raised a $7.3m Seed round led by Infinity Ventures and Frontline. Its AI agents handle a company's security and compliance work automatically, checking everything all the time instead of relying on manual paperwork and periodic reviews.John Daley and Jack Miller are HelmGuard's co-founders, John as CEO and Jack as CTO. It took them just nine months to hit a million dollars i
Zeynep Yavuz-Willson, Partner at General Catalyst: GC is an early stage investor and AI transformation firm
General Catalyst has built one of the most active investment theses in Europe around artificial intelligence transforming massive service industries like law, property management, accounting, and insurance. Their portfolio features companies tackling this shift from different angles, including Legora selling software directly to law firms and Dwelly scaling through hands-on growth in real estate.Z
Quddus Pativada and Dominic Raab, Founder and Founding advisor of Index Law: BREAKING: Dominic Raab joins Index Law
Dominic Raab, the former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, has just joined IndexLaw as a founding advisor.IndexLaw helps businesses and individuals handle legal work, review contracts, and build legal strategies using artificial intelligence. The platform automates routine tasks while connecting users with real lawyers for final review.Quddus Pativada is founder and CEO , and Dominic
Gabriel Le Roux, Co-founder & CEO at Primer: Primer gives companies more control over how they accept customer payments
Primer gives merchants one place to manage and optimise every part of their payments. Through a single integration, businesses can connect payment providers, payment methods, and fraud tools, then control how payments are routed and processed. By bringing payment data and AI-powered intelligence together, Primer helps businesses reduce failed payments, lower costs, and expand into new markets.Gabr
Erik Bernhardsson, CEO of Modal: Modal powers cloud infrastructure for AI
Modal gives AI startups the computing power they need to run their products, and a safe way to run code their AI writes on its own. Its revenue has grown 5x this year and is now closing in on $1bn annually, backed by a recent $355m raise to keep up with demand.Erik Bernhardsson is CEO at Modal. He's certain AI startups will keep needing more computing power than anyone expects, and that demand
Hendrik Van Hove, Co-founder of Conveo: BREAKING: Conveo raised $50M Series A
Conveo just raised a $50m Series A from DST Global, Balderton Capital, Visionaries, 6 Degrees Capital and Y Combinator, bringing its total funding to $55.8m.Conveo helps large companies understand what their customers want, using AI to run the research and get the findings to the teams that need them. The company has grown from 12 to 80 people in less than a year.Hendrik Van Hove is Co-founder of
Danyal Akarca, Co-founder at Callosum: BREAKING: Callosum raised $100m Seed
Callosum just raised $100m led by Atomico, Plural and DCVC. It's one of the largest seed-stage rounds in UK history, coming just five months after Callosum came out of stealth. Callosum builds software that lets AI run across many different types of chips at the same time, making it faster, cheaper and more capable.Danyal Akarca is Co-founder at Callosum. He believes AI can only have a real ec
Thomas Bigagli, EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures: Europe needs bigger and faster capital to keep startups home
Plug and Play Ventures invests in startups across Europe and runs a platform connecting them with large corporate partners. It has grown from a family office into an institutional investor with nine funds, and now runs 65 offices with more than 700 people worldwide.Thomas Bigagli is EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures. He believes Europe already has the talent and ideas, and just needs investor
Srdjan Kovacevic, CEO & Co-Founder of Orqa: Building leading drone hardware in Europe
Orqa is a Croatian company that designs and manufactures drones, components and ground stations entirely in Europe, a rare setup in an industry that mostly relies on China. Orqa now builds primarily for defence customers across NATO and the West, and shipped 250,000 products last year, a number it's on track to double in 2026.Srdjan Kovacevic is CEO and Co-Founder of Orqa. He believes most Wes
Shahriar Tajbakhsh, Co-founder & CTO of Metaview: BREAKING: Metaview acquired Reval
Metaview just acquired Reval, a recruiting agency built to run entirely on AI. The deal brings more talent and technology into Fillmore, Metaview's AI recruiting co-worker. Metaview's platform is already used by more than 5,000 companies, and Fillmore works by researching, sourcing and reaching out to candidates without any human involvement.Shahriar Tajbakhsh is Co-founder and CTO of Meta
Ameera Patel, CEO at TidalSense: TidalSense diagnoses lung disease in under 4 minutes
TidalSense has built a handheld device that diagnoses COPD, a common lung disease, in under four minutes. It's already used across the NHS and has drawn interest from more than 60 countries since launching last year. The Cambridge-based company just raised $19m to expand into new markets.Ameera Patel is CEO of TidalSense. She believes what matters most to healthcare providers is a better patie
Jan Oberhauser, Founder & CEO at n8n: Freeing employees from repetitive boring tasks
n8n is a workflow automation platform that frees employees from repetitive, boring tasks. SAP recently made a strategic investment in the company, valuing it at €5.2bn, more than double what it was worth seven months ago.Jan Oberhauser is Founder and CEO of n8n. He believes the real value isn't the time saved, but the chance to give employees more meaningful work instead of repetitive tasks.Th
Zaya Kadyrova, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Aspire11: Unlocking Europe's pension money for tech growth
Aspire11 invests European pension money into some of the world's biggest private tech companies, unlocking capital that's historically stayed on the sidelines. Its first fund raised €500m, and backs both early-stage VC funds and late-stage tech companies such as Revolut, Databricks, ElevenLabs and Vinted.Zaya Kadyrova is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Aspire11. She believes much of the
Patrick Murphy, Partner at Tapestry VC: Backing the repeat founders behind Europe's unicorns
Tapestry VC backs repeat founders who are already building their second or third company. Around 60% of Europe's new unicorns in the past couple of years have come from exactly that group, and Tapestry just closed an $80m third fund to keep backing them.Patrick Murphy is a Partner at Tapestry VC. Seven of the roughly 70 investments he's made in his career have grown into $100m+ revenue com
Dan Lifshits & Ilia Drozdov, Co-founders of Dwelly: BREAKING: Dwelly raised $170m Series B
Dwelly just raised a $170m Series B led by EQT Growth and General Catalyst, five months after its last round, taking total funding to around $250m. Dwelly acquires traditional letting agencies across the UK and moves them onto a shared AI system. The AI handles compliance and admin work, so staff can focus on landlords and tenants instead.Dan Lifshits and Ilia Drozdov are Co-founders of Dwelly. Th
Linus Eriksson Noren and Resat Ozutok, Co-founders of TechCredit Partners: TechCredit Partners helps founders raise debt to scale faster
TechCredit Partners helps tech founders raise debt capital to fund growth without giving up more of their company. The firm has raised close to $1 billion for clients across more than 20 countries in the last three years.Linus Eriksson Noren and Resat Ozutok are Co-founders of TechCredit Partners. Most founders don't realize how much of their business, like contracts or equipment, can be used
Oana Jinga, Co-founder of Dexory: Dexory’s robots save warehouses millions
Dexory builds robots that scan warehouses and track everything inside them in real time. Companies use that data to know exactly what stock they have and where, resulting in massive savings.Oana Jinga is Co-founder of Dexory. The company has scanned over 1.3 billion warehouse locations so far, using real data collected directly from customer sites. Dexory recently raised a $165m Series C to scale
Issie James, Co-founder at Onstage: BREAKING: Onstage has been acquired by Sifted
Onstage has just been acquired by Sifted. The company runs Demo Day, an early-stage pitch event that connects founders with VCs, backed by a network of 350 venture capital partners who select the finalists.Issie James is Co-founder at Onstage. Onstage's strategy has always been to build an audience its founders and VC partners can use to reach more customers, and joining Sifted was the natural
Stanislaw Kastory and Mikolaj Firlej, Co-founders and General Partners at Expeditions: Backing Europe's defence startups with €197m fund
Expeditions is one of Europe's only venture funds dedicated to defence and security startups. The firm recently closed its second fund at €197m.Stanislaw Kastory and Mikolaj Firlej are Co-founders and General Partners at Expeditions. The firm backs early-stage teams across defence, cybersecurity, quantum and space technology. The new fund plans to make around 40 early-stage investments, with h
Jacomo Corbo, CEO & Co-Founder at PhysicsX: Helping companies design & manufacture industrial products faster
PhysicsX helps companies design and manufacture industrial products faster, using AI instead of traditional physics simulation.Jacomo Corbo is CEO and Co-Founder of PhysicsX. Its technology helps manufacturers cut defects and lower costs, from casting aerospace parts to smelting aluminum more efficiently. The company recently raised a $300m Series C at a $2.4bn valuation, more than doubling its Se
Francesco Sciortino, Co-Founder & CEO of Proxima Fusion: Building the critical power infrastructure for clean energy
Proxima Fusion recently raised €411m at a €2.4bn valuation, the largest funding round in European fusion. The company is building a fusion reactor designed to produce clean, safe energy continuously, without the risk of a runaway reaction.Francesco Sciortino is Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion. The company has around 200 people working across Munich, Zurich and Oxford. Proxima's next miles
Max Buchan, CEO of Valarian: BREAKING: Valarian raised $50m Series A
Valarian has raised a $50m Series A led by NEA, just over a year after a $20m Seed. The company built Acra, an infrastructure layer that lets organizations run sensitive AI systems securely on any cloud, from public cloud to on-prem or the edge.Max Buchan is Founder and CEO of Valarian. The company signed $43m in contracts in its first quarter alone and expects to do about $100m this year.The Scal
Jon Steinback, Co-Founder and CEO at Marker: BREAKING: Marker raised $13m Seed
Marker just came out of stealth and raised a $13m Seed led by Index Ventures. Marker is an AI editor built to help writers develop their ideas and get feedback throughout the writing process. Jon Steinback is Co-Founder and CEO of Marker. He and co-founder Ryan Bowman built it to support the whole writing process, from thinking through drafting to editing. The result is a modern word processor mad
Laura McGinnis, Partner at Singular: Growing Singular's London office to back UK founders
Singular is a European early-stage venture capital firm investing from Seed through Series B, with portfolio companies including Aikido, Vibe, Basecamp and Spore.Bio. Laura McGinnis is joining Singular as a Partner. She previously spent several years in venture at Balderton Capital. In London, she'll focus on building out the firm's presence and backing UK and Ireland founders earlier in t
Sai Shivareddy, Founder and CEO at Nyobolt: Building the critical power infrastructure for the AI world
Nyobolt is building fast energy storage systems for AI infrastructure, where data centres and robotics require far higher power density and faster charging than conventional technologies can provide.Sai Shivareddy is Founder and CEO at Nyobolt. The company spent years developing its technology before AI infrastructure created demand for it, and is now deploying its systems in robotics, with data c
Carla Gómez Cano, Co-founder at THEKER: Theker Robotics’ generalist robots automate any factory task
THEKER Robotics builds robots that takes over the hardest physical labor inside heavy factories.Carla Gómez Cano is Co-founder at THEKER. Their robots that do manual, physical work, like moving packages, assembling parts and folding garments, and use smart software to handle any task or material on a single platform. The company recently raised an $85m Series A, one of the largest robotics rounds
Toby Mather, Co-Founder of Rig: BREAKING: Rig raised $2.8 Pre-seed
Rig just raised $2.8 pre-Seed led by Emerge Capital to build infrastructure that helps companies use their internal data with AI. The platform connects existing data systems so teams can build AI apps, workflows and agents more easily.Toby Mather is Co-founder of Rig. He says the biggest challenge is no longer building AI applications, but giving them secure access to the right internal context. R
Jonathan Godwin, CEO at Orbital: Orbital raised $50m Series B
Orbital recently raised a $50m Series B led by Plural to scale its AI platform for developing advanced materials.Jonathan Godwin is Co-founder and CEO at Orbital Industries. The company is using AI to discover a new GPU cooling material for data centres, with plans to apply the same technology to hardware and manufacturing across sectors such as semiconductors, energy and aerospace.The Scaling Eur
Seltz raised $12.5M seed: Antonio Mallia, CEO at Seltz
Seltz just raised a $12.5m Seed as it launches its first product and looks to build a new generation of web infrastructure for AI.Antonio Mallia is Founder and CEO at Seltz. The company is building for a world where AI agents become a new type of web user, requiring a completely different way to access information online. Instead of returning a list of links, Seltz is rebuilding the entire search
Will Bennett, Principal at Seedcamp: BREAKING: Seedcamp closed $220M + $100M Funds
Seedcamp just closed $220M + $100M funds as it looks to support European founders from their first cheque through to later stages of company building. The new $220M core fund will continue backing early-stage companies, while the $100M select fund allows Seedcamp to double down on breakout portfolio companies from Series B onwards.Will Bennett is Principal at Seedcamp. He believes the definition o
Matteo Benedetti, Founder at Debtist: Debtist scaled to €15M ARR in just 3 years
Debtist scaled to €15M ARR in just 3 years as it builds an AI-powered receivables management platform across Europe.Matteo Benedetti is Founder at Debtist. The company started from identifying a gap in traditional debt collection and built an end-to-end software platform that automates receivables management using AI across email, calling, document handling, and legal workflows. It now serves arou
Jacob Houlberg, Co-founder of Evertrace: Evertrace helps early stage funds identify new investment opportunities
Venture funds are becoming more systematic about finding founders before anyone else has seen them. As more firms build internal sourcing tools, the real advantage is shifting from collecting signals to knowing which opportunities are actually worth chasing.Jacob Houlberg is Co-founder of Evertrace, which helps more than 220 venture funds identify founders at the earliest stages of company creatio
JP Haas, Co-Founder & CEO at Conduct: BREAKING: Conduct just raised $60m in a Series A
Conduct just raised $60m in a Series A co-led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ, with strategic investment from SAP and participation from existing investors.JP Haas is Co-Founder and CEO at Conduct. The company builds an AI operating system for enterprise software that maps heavily customised systems like SAP and Salesforce and helps enterprises execute changes across them faster.The Scaling Europe sh
Pablo Palafox, CEO at HappyRobot: HappyRobot helps enterprises run core operations with AI
Many of the industries that keep the economy running still rely on emails, phone calls and manual coordination between people. AI is starting to change that, allowing companies to automate work that previously required large operational teams.Pablo Palafox, CEO at HappyRobot, believes the biggest opportunity in AI is not building better chatbots, but helping businesses actually get work done. As m
Judith Dada, General Partner, Visionaries Club: How Europe can stay competitive in the age of AI
AI is becoming one of the most important questions facing Europe, yet many leaders still underestimate both the speed and scale of the transformation.Judith Dada is General Partner at Visionaries Club and one of the authors behind Europe 2031, a new scenario exploring how Europe could fall behind in an AI-driven world over the next five years. The solution, she believes, is for Europe to move fast
Nad Chishtie, Founding Designer, Head of Design at Lovable: Turning non-technical people into builders
More people than ever before can now build software, as AI removes many of the technical barriers that previously stood in the way. Lovable is helping lead that shift, with two-thirds of its builders coming from outside the tech industry.Nad Chishtie is Founding Designer and Head of Design at Lovable. He believes the next generation of software will be built by far more people than ever before, wi
Johannes von Borries and Benjamin Erhart, GPs at UVC Partners: Backing Europe’s next deep tech champions
UVC Partners is a European venture capital firm investing in early-stage deep tech companies in Europe, including Proxima Fusion and Isar Aerospace.Johannes von Borries and Benjamin Erhart, GPs at UVC Partners, back companies working on fusion energy and space systems, where development takes long cycles and requires high capital and coordination between research and industry.The Scaling Europe sh
Michael Bajwa, CEO and Co-founder of Zaro: BREAKING: Zaro just raised $5.1m pre-seed
AI agents are becoming more capable, but most companies still rely on software built for a different era. Zaro just raised a $5.1 million pre-Seed round led by Cherry Ventures to build infrastructure designed specifically for the agentic era.Michael Bajwa is CEO and Co-founder of Zaro. Following the sale of Convergence to Salesforce, he believes enterprises have not yet had their ChatGPT moment, a
Hadrien Canter, CEO and Co-founder of Alta Ares: BREAKING: Alta Ares just raised $50m
Cheap drones are changing modern warfare, creating demand for new air defence systems that can operate at scale. Alta Ares just raised $50 million to help countries defend against emerging aerial threats.Hadrien Canter is CEO and Co-founder of Alta Ares. Drawing on his experience working in Ukraine and the Middle East, he believes Europe has a unique opportunity to build a stronger defence ecosyst
Jordi Romero, Founder and CEO at Factorial: Factorial raised $150m at a $2.5b valuation
Factorial just raised $150m from General Catalyst at a $2.5bn valuation as the company enters its next phase as an AI-native business. The new capital will be used to accelerate growth through acquisitions across Europe.Jordi Romero is Founder and CEO of Factorial, which recently turned 10 years old. He believes AI is changing how software companies serve their customers and sees Europe as one of
Oliver Molander, Founding General Partner of Inception Fund: Europe needs to build indispensable technology.
European investors are moving faster, while global funds are becoming increasingly active across the Nordics. As competition for the best founders intensifies, technical talent is attracting more attention than ever at the earliest stages.Oliver Molander is Founding General Partner of Inception Fund, which recently expanded to €30 million. Drawing on his experience as both a founder and investor,
Alex McCracken, Head of Venture Capital Relationships, EMEA at J.P.Morgan: European AI startups are raising bigger rounds than ever
European AI startups are raising billion-dollar rounds, while defence and deep tech companies are attracting far larger rounds than the market was seeing a few years ago.Alex McCracken is Head of Venture Capital Relationships, EMEA at J.P. Morgan, where he is seeing US investors move into Europe earlier and more technical AI founders raise capital across the market.The Scaling Europe show is prese
David Helgason, Co-founder at Transition Ventures: Raising $150m Fund II
Transition VC raised a new $150m fund to back highly technical founders building the next generation of energy, compute and industrial companies.David Helgason, Co-founder at Transition VC, says AI is increasing demand for compute, power and industrial systems at a time when venture is moving beyond traditional software. The new fund will focus on companies building across energy, hardware and ind
Ashley Paulus, VP of Revenue (UK & EEA) at Checkout.com: Checkout.com reached 78% growth in the UK and 60% in Europe
Checkout.com is one of Europe’s leading payments companies, powering transactions for some of the world’s biggest digital businesses.Ashley Paulus, VP of Revenue (UK & EEA) at Checkout.com, is leading the company’s growth across two of its most important markets after 78% growth in the UK and around 60% growth in Europe last year. As merchants look for better acceptance rates, global coverage
Philipp Schröder, Co-founder and CEO at 1KOMMA5°: Delivering the cheapest and cleanest electricity in the world
1KOMMA5° is working to deliver the cheapest and cleanest electricity in the world, at a time when energy is becoming one of the biggest questions behind the AI boom.Philipp Schröder, Co-founder and CEO at 1KOMMA5°, has grown the company from home electrification into one of Europe’s most important energy players. It is already managing one gigawatt of capacity, with a much larger ambition: making
Jonathan Low, CEO at Scope: BREAKING: Scope raised $20m
Scope is building AI for the people who inspect the physical world, from factories and industrial equipment to the assets companies rely on every day.Jonathan Low is CEO at Scope, and the company has just raised $20m led by Index Ventures after growing more than 10x since relaunching last year. Much of this work still runs on pen, paper, Word and Excel, and Scope is turning inspection work into us
Manuel Silva Martinez, GP at Mouro Capital: BREAKING: Mouro Capital closed $400m fund
Mouro Capital is a fintech-focused venture firm investing at the intersection of financial services and technology.Manuel Silva Martinez is a GP at Mouro Capital, and they just announced a new $400m fund backed by Banco Santander, giving the firm more capital to back fintech entrepreneurs across the US, Europe and Latin America. Mouro’s thesis has stayed close to financial services, but the opport
Martin Mignot, Partner at Index Ventures: How founders are building and leading companies in the AI era
European founders are still going to the US earlier than ever, but AI is now changing how the companies they build actually operate.Martin Mignot, Partner at Index Ventures, looks at this shift from inside a global firm working with founders on both sides of the Atlantic. For founders and CEOs, AI is becoming much bigger than a tooling question. The challenge is to rethink how the company works be
James Regan, CEO of Oriole Networks: Building radically faster networks for AI
AI data centres are running into a network bottleneck as models demand more bandwidth, more connected processors and dramatically more power.James Regan, CEO of Oriole Networks, thinks the industry is still trying to scale architectures that fundamentally do not work at the size AI is heading towards. Oriole’s approach replaces electrical packet switches with photonic switching technology designed
Kevin Smith, CEO at Venture Comet: Helping founders unlock equity earlier in their startup journey
Founders can spend years building valuable companies while paying themselves almost nothing, with all of the upside locked away until an exit that may still be years off.Kevin Smith, CEO at Venture Comet, is building a platform that helps founders release a small amount of equity earlier in the journey instead of waiting for a single make-or-break outcome at the end. One of the biggest shifts he p
June Angelides MBE, Founder of the Portfolio Method and Venture Partner at Samos Investments: Building a platform to manage multiple roles and income streams
Most people running multiple roles have no clear way to price their work or decide what is actually worth their time.June Angelides MBE, Founder of the Portfolio Method and Venture Partner at Samos Investments, is building a product around that problem after seeing it play out in her first workshop, where most participants realised they were underpricing themselves once they broke everything down.
Andre Retterath, General Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital: Earlybird’s €360m fund and the future of European deep tech
Earlybird raised a €360 million early-stage fund, its largest yet, after extending the hard cap during the raise to bring in an additional institutional LP.Andre Retterath, General Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, talks about how that number is decided before the fund is even raised, with ownership targets and follow-on reserves shaping the size more than anything else in a market where liqui
Stefan Bader: CEO on Cello on automating growth and GTM
Stefan Bader is a the co-founder and CEO of Cello, a tech company focused on user-led growth through referral-based marketing for B2B software companies. He is also running the GTM10 awards - an awards programme for the best GTM operators. Check it out here: https://thegtm10.com/The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here:]https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjkAlso by:Mishcon: ht
Dan Westgarth, Chief Operating Officer at Deel: From Revolut to Deel: inside two hypergrowth companies
Deel has grown into one of the fastest scaling SaaS companies globally, building a fully remote organisation of over 7,000 people and reaching more than $1 billion in annual revenue.Dan Westgarth, COO at Deel, shares how he went from customer support at Revolut to leading operations at Deel, and why scaling a company at that speed comes down to constant reinvention, high talent density and a cultu
Harvey Hodd, founder at Rivan: Rivan raised a £25 million Series A
Rivan has just raised a £25 million Series A to scale its synthetic fuel technology, after building and operating the UK’s largest synthetic natural gas plant in under a year.Harvey Hodd, Founder at Rivan, shares how the company built and proved its first plant and is now focused on scaling manufacturing to bring synthetic fuels into the grid at costs that compete with fossil fuels.The Scaling Eur
Roxanne Varza, Director at Station F: Station F became a launchpad for Europe’s top startups
Station F has become one of the defining institutions in French tech, housing 1,000 early-stage startups in Paris and launching F/ai, a new AI programme bringing together major labs, top funds and a sharper focus on commercial acceleration.Roxanne Varza, Director at Station F, shares how Station F grew alongside the rise of the French ecosystem and why the focus is now shifting toward helping stro
Sarah Fleischer & Ksenija Milicevic Neumann, Co-founders at tozero: Building Europe’s first battery recycling plant
tozero is building Europe’s first industrial battery recycling demonstration plant, taking lithium-ion battery recycling from research to a live facility running in the real world.Sarah Fleischer and Ksenija Milicevic Neumann, Co-founders at tozero, share how the team built and launched the plant from scratch, now processing end-of-life batteries into critical materials like lithium and graphite,
