Hi friends,

Does it feel like consumer tech has become too easy to dismiss?

Europe has built some of its biggest outcomes in consumer. Yet the category is still often treated as too hard, too random or too exposed to whatever AI makes cheaper next.

Our latest special series, Consumer Tech Napkin, pushes against that lazy view.

The first three conversations all point to the same thing: great consumer companies are not built on hype. They are built on proof of behaviour.

That proof can take different forms. It can be unusually strong engagement, real customer love, growth that is not dependent on paid spend, a team with deep proximity to the user, proprietary data or a moat that becomes stronger as the company scales.

AI changes a lot around consumer tech. It helps teams build faster, test more, personalize better and do more with less. But it does not replace the hard parts. Founders still need to earn attention, create repeat usage, build trust and show why their product deserves to exist.

What makes these episodes useful is that they show what investors need to believe before funding a consumer company, and what builders need to do to create something people love and others cannot easily copy.

Consumer is not dead. The bar has simply moved.

Listen to the series so far below, and check out the additional resources we’ve included to help answer the questions our guests open up.

We hope you enjoy this edition, which also features more conversations that matter to the European tech and VC ecosystem, plus upcoming events where we hope to see many of you.

with 💖
David & Andreas

Consumer founders need to prove more than a good story. These resources help with the practical side: showing the right proof, building trust into AI products and finding distribution that does not depend only on paid spend.

Resources to use:

For investors, the question is not whether consumer is investable. It is where the next durable outcomes can come from, how broad the category really is and what AI changes in the market.

Resources to use:

Corporate venture is being asked to do more than source startups.

It is now part of how corporates understand AI, access emerging technology, build strategic partnerships and respond to Europe’s resilience agenda.

That is the focus of EUVC Corporate Summit 2026.

On September 10 in London, we’re bringing together corporates, CVCs, VCs and LPs for a focused day on industrial resilience, European sovereignty, corporate AI adoption, venture clienting and accessing startups through venture capital.

Speakers who will take the stage include:

More details and speakers will be announced soon.

The EUVC-curated investment stage at Love Tomorrow Summit is nearly finalised.

Confirmed speakers across the 90-minute Rose Garden Stage programme on July 23 and The Impact Circle Investor Lounge on July 24 include:

This is a very specific room. If you're working in impact, climate tech or sustainable capital, and you're not there, you'll hear about it second-hand.

Tomorrowland, Boom, Belgium. July 23–24, 2026.

Capital follows confidence. Innovation follows risk.

That's one of the central themes discussed by Mads Jensen and Dan Bowyer of SuperSeed and Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures in the latest episode of This Week in European Tech.

The conversation also explores UK technology policy, AI infrastructure, trade tensions, defence investing and what they mean for Europe's long-term competitiveness.

Highlights