EUVC Newsletter - 02.09.2025

Europe’s venture ecosystem is having a moment of clarity.

Sep 02, 2025

From Hampus Jakobsson’s call for “fewer emperors” in climate investing, to Omri Benayoun’s blueprint for growth equity rooted in capital efficiency, the message is consistent: substance over noise, long-term conviction over short-term hype.

This week’s stories span the stack: founders like Will Wells are pushing Europe’s deep tech sovereignty, LP voices like David Vlerick and Chloe Dagnell are reshaping how capital is mobilized, and Bernard Dallé remind us that even Index Ventures started with a $17M first fund and also belief.

It’s a reminder that European venture isn’t built on copy-paste playbooks. It’s built on builders, investors, and LPs willing to rethink the rules entirely.

With 💖
David & Andreas

🎧 Podcasts of The Week

EUVC Summit 2025 | Hampus Jakobsson, Pale Blue Dot: Impact Leader of the Year

At the EUVC Summit 2025, the “Impact Leader of the Year” award went to a voice that’s impossible to ignore—and equally impossible to copy.

Hampus Jakobsson, General Partner at Pale Blue Dot, was honored for his relentless push to bring urgency, clarity, and conviction to climate investing.

The award, presented by Google Cloud, recognized not just a fund or a firm, but a force in the ecosystem—someone who has helped reshape the narrative on impact itself.

Not Just Widgets. Not Just Warm Words.

As Google Cloud put it:

“Innovation isn’t just the next feature. It’s about who’s solving the world’s most pressing challenges.”

What Hampus and the Pale Blue Dot team have done is create a space—both intellectually and practically—that brings together VCs, LPs, founders, and operators who actually want to build things that matter.

From climate investing as a sector (not a virtue), to challenging LPs who see ESG as a checkbox, to advocating for clarity over carbon offsetting theatre—Hampus has never opted for the easy soundbite.

We Need Fewer Emperors

When he came back to the stage to accept the award, Hampus didn’t offer a speech. Just a sharp observation—about his T-shirt:

“Some smart people noticed my T-shirt today. It’s not the Zuckerberg one that says ‘We need more emperors.’ It’s the one that says—‘We need fewer emperors.’”

Because that’s the vibe:
Less ego.
Less bluster.
More building.
More impact.

Full lifecycle legal advisory for LPs, GPs, startups & scaleups — get to know Haynes Boone.

Partech’s Omri Benayoun on Growth Equity in Europe

Today’s guest is Omri Benayoun, General Partner at Partech, one of Europe’s premier investment platforms. Since 2014, Omri has co-led Partech’s growth equity strategy, raising more than €1B across two funds and backing some of Europe’s most capital-efficient champions. With a career spanning government, corporate strategy, e-commerce, M&A, and growth investing, Omri brings a rare lens on what it takes to build resilient global tech leaders from Europe.

From rock climbing as a metaphor for measured risk-taking to the structural advantage of Europe’s “do more with less” DNA, this conversation covers Partech’s contrarian bet on bootstrapped scale-ups, the role of elite LPs, and why Europe’s complexity might be its greatest strength.

🎧 Here’s what’s covered:

01:34 Rock Climbing & Investing: Risk, fear, and why falling is part of the journey.
04:00 Omri’s Background: From government to e-commerce (Cdiscount), retail (Casino), and software (Dassault Systèmes).
10:00 Lessons from Dassault: Product roadmaps, customer listening, and why big M&A requires years of courtship.
14:00 Government Experience: Why investors and founders can’t afford to ignore policy anymore.
20:00 Launching Partech Growth: Filling the gap for European growth capital in 2014.
22:00 Fund II Strategy: Betting on bootstrapped, capital-efficient companies during the 2020 frenzy.
25:00 Defining Capital Efficiency: Rule of 40, ARPU per employee, and Europe’s structural advantage.
29:00 Case Study – EcoVadis: From bootstrapped ESG ratings leader to global scale.
33:00 Inside Partech: The “Greek city-states” model of seed, venture, growth, Africa, and impact strategies.
39:00 Efficiency vs. Profitability: Why founders must avoid the “dead zone” of low growth + breakeven.
41:00 Elite LPs Enter the Game: How Cambridge Associates, StepStone, and sovereigns now back European growth.
46:00 Europe on the Map: From founders settling early to chasing world-class scale.
50:00 Complexity as a Feature: Why regulatory fragmentation creates stronger survivors.
52:00 Partech’s Cohesion: A culture of numbers, engineers, and price sensitivity across geographies.

You can watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧 chapters for easy navigation are available on the Spotify/Apple episode.

Will Wells on Deep Tech, Sovereignty, and Joining Speedinvest

This week, we sit down with Will Wells, founder-turned-VC, and now Partner at Speedinvest, where he leads deep tech and supports the firm’s growth strategy.

Will’s journey spans building Hummingbird Technologies, an AI-powered agtech company exited to Agreena in 2022, to leading frontier tech at Firstminute Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Now at Speedinvest, he’s focused on backing European founders working on sovereign compute, defense, energy resilience, biosecurity, and the “picks and shovels” of the next decades.

You can read more about Will by Callum Burroughs here.

🎧 Here’s what’s covered:

01:00 From founder to investor: lessons from building Hummingbird Technologies and the empathy it gave Will as a VC.
05:00 Learning venture at Firstminute and Lightspeed: what “good” looks like in deep tech investing.
07:00 Beyond buckets: why the biggest opportunities lie in combining AI, hardware, defense, and science into multi-sector platforms.
10:00 Big bets in deep tech: Europe’s challenge at pre-seed and why bold consortium funding matters early.
12:00 Defense tech & geopolitics: reconciling economic opportunity with moral responsibility.
15:00 Strategic sovereignty: compute, semiconductors, energy resilience, and why Europe needs its own infrastructure.
17:00 Thesis-building: inevitable truths, technical stacks, and where customers will actually buy.
20:00 Agtech, climate, and humility: what Will learned from being early in robotics and regen agriculture.
24:00 Leveraging Speedinvest’s platform model: why deep vertical teams and operational scale matter in frontier tech.
29:00 Looking ahead: biosecurity, autonomy, energy resilience — and why Europe must back multi-generational deep tech companies.

🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify — or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.

Brought to you by Affinity – Exclusive dealmaking benchmarks

Discover dealmaking trends from nearly 3,000 VCs across 68 countries — get the Affinity Investment Benchmark Report.

Impact Highlight Series: From Saving the World to Backing Europe’s VCs

Today, we sit down with Chloe Dagnell from Isomer Capital, one of Europe’s most active LPs, to unpack what institutional investors are looking for, how impact sits alongside returns, and what makes a GP truly stand out.

With more than six years at Isomer Capital and a background that started in international development before moving into venture, Chloe brings a unique perspective on building portfolios that balance financial performance with sustainability, diversity, and long-term alignment.

🎧 Here’s what’s covered:

01:34 Chloe’s Journey: From international development to venture and why local context matters.
06:12 Isomer’s Strategy: Building a diversified portfolio across pre-seed and seed in Europe.
11:08 Impact in the Portfolio: Why ~30% of Isomer-backed companies are SDG-aligned — and how impact sits alongside returns.
17:55 Returns vs. Impact: Revolut, scale, and why the biggest value drivers aren’t always in impact funds.
23:41 Good vs. Great GPs: Evidence over slides, specialist edge, and values alignment.
31:26 Diversification & LP Interests: Corporate LPs and the green transition — why Isomer doesn’t get pushed into one theme.
37:14 DEI as the Next Frontier: Ownership, accountability, and why female-led teams in Isomer’s portfolio are top performers.
44:58 Advice to Emerging Managers: How to prove differentiated access and cut through generic pitch decks.
51:02 Closing Takeaways: Evidence, access, values — what LPs really want in Europe’s next generation of funds.

🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify — or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.

Join ImpactVC, a global community of 900+ VCs driving change and using venture capital to tackle the world’s biggest challenges—explore their community, resources, and training at impactvc.co.

Check out ImpactVC

David Vlerick⁠, Bluegrass Ventures: The Future of LP Capital

Today, we welcome David Vlerick, Founding Partner at Bluegrass Ventures, to discuss how LP capital can be mobilized with meaning, why a platform approach makes venture capital more accessible, and what it takes to shift mindsets in a conservative market like Belgium.

Bluegrass Ventures backs top-decile, small-to-mid-sized VC funds globally, while giving investors flexibility and transparency through a platform model. In this conversation, David shares his journey from law and private equity into venture, the philosophy behind Bluegrass, and why he believes primary capital is one of the most powerful forces for shaping a brighter future.

🎧 Here’s what’s covered:

01:00 David’s Path: From law and private equity to launching Bluegrass Ventures.
05:00 Building Bluegrass: Why a platform, why small-to-mid-size funds, and why top-decile track records matter.
08:00 Fund Selection: Unfair advantages, avoiding hype cycles, and sector-focused funds.
15:00 The Person Behind Bluegrass: Travel, poetry, and how fatherhood shapes perspective.
22:00 Risk in VC: Why startups ≠ diversified funds, and what the data says.
27:00 Primary Capital: Fueling the future vs. parking money in secondary markets.
31:00 Belgium’s Culture: From conservatism and PE comfort to embracing venture.
36:00 Platform Model: How Bluegrass balances investor choice with portfolio discipline.
42:00 Venture as Community: High-calibre people, collaborative networks, and optimism.
43:00 Bluegrass’s Mission: Delivering Belgium’s best financial product and moving more money with meaning.

You can watch the episode here, or add it to your queue on Apple or Spotify 🎧 (chapters for easy navigation available on both).

Where operational expertise and innovation work for you.

Get end-to-end coverage across Fund Admin, Tax, Accounting, Compliance, ESG, and more - so you can focus on backing founders & maximizing LP returns.

Louis Dussart, RTP Global: The Political Wake-Up Call on Tech Sovereignty, Growth Capital & Europe’s Urgency to Lead

Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC podcast, where Andreas Munk Holm explores the cutting edge of European venture capital. Today’s guest is Louis Dussart, Partner at RTP Global.

Louis entered venture at just 20 years old with White Star Capital, built a startup bridging Europe and China, and now helps lead RTP Global’s European strategy. In this conversation, he shares why Europe faces a political wake-up call on tech, what we need to fix in talent, growth capital, and IPO markets, and why founders are not just entrepreneurs—they’re geopolitical assets.

From emerging managers to sovereign LPs, from tech transfer to liquidity, Louis lays out the hard truths and actionable priorities for Europe to compete globally.

Here's what's covered:

02:12 Louis’s Path: From White Star Intern to RTP Partner
06:01 What Makes RTP Global Different: A Truly Global, Debate-Driven DNA
10:14 The Political Wake-Up Call: Why Tech Must Sit at the Top of Europe’s Agenda
12:48 Talent, Visas & Education: The Dual Strategy for Closing the Skills Gap
15:32 Sovereign LPs, Emerging Managers & The Role of Fund-of-Funds
19:20 Tech Transfer in Europe: Why Our Universities Still Struggle
25:40 US Growth Funds in Europe: Selling to America vs. Selling Out of Europe
29:12 The Liquidity Problem: Why Capital Markets Union Is an Elephant in the Room
34:45 Founders as Geopolitical Assets: Lessons for Europe’s Leaders
38:55 The VC Role: Echo Chambers Between Founders, LPs & Policymakers
44:20 Why Europe Needs Risk-Taking Politicians as Much as Risk-Taking Founders

You can watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧

Discover EU-backed startups, raise capital & connect with innovation leaders — explore Dealflow.eu, the EU-backed platform bridging founders, VCs & corporates.

EUVC Summit 2025 | Bernard Dalle, Index Ventures & Thomas Kristensen, LGT Capital Partners: Lessons from Building Index

At EUVC Summit 2025, few sessions packed as much history, humility, and hard-earned wisdom as the conversation with Bernard Dallé and Thomas Kristensen.

What began as a one-man show in the early ’90s—when venture in Europe was barely a concept—has become one of the most respected platforms in the global industry.

“I joined Index before it even existed as a venture firm. It was still Index Securities.”

This was more than a talk. It was a journey through time, with insights for every fund manager—new or seasoned—building for the long haul.

The Early Days: A Market Without Momentum

Before Skype, before unicorns, before European VC had a flag to wave, it was about scraping together conviction and capital.

Index Fund I: $17 million
Raised in 1999, following years of groundwork and trial
No real ecosystem, no pattern recognition, and no “easy” capital

“You can’t raise without a track record. So we used Fund I to create it.”

And then came the landmark deal: Skype’s acquisition by eBay for $3–4 billion. That one outcome shifted the trajectory of Index—and of European venture as a whole.

“After Skype, we could raise with more ease. It gave us credibility.”

Scaling a Firm: Culture First, Titles Later

One of the standout themes was Index’s philosophy around team building:

“The hires that worked? People we knew—or people who joined slightly below partner level and grew into the role.”

In contrast, hiring senior talent cold—especially across geographies—proved far harder. Culture cohesion was key, and misalignment at the top often broke the system.

The advice was clear:

Grow talent internally when you can
Only bring in outsiders when they’re “known entities”
Avoid parachuting in partners who haven’t lived the firm’s values

Make an impact with the bank made for the innovation economy

Get connected with what’s next through deep sector expertise & tailored solutions — so you can build relationships & businesses that thrive.

Nicholas Nelson & Daniel Carew, Archangel Ventures: Launching Europe’s Next Gen Defense Investment Platform

Europe has just gained its first unapologetically defense-first venture fund. Archangel Ventures, led by Nicholas Nelson and Daniel Carew, is not here to hedge, not here to play dual-use semantics, but to put defense front and center.

Nic brings the lived experience of government, strategy, and deployments, with the policy networks to match. Daniel comes from a deep tech/DARPA-inspired investing background, obsessed with the frontier of what technology can achieve. Together, they’re building a fund that rejects the hype cycle and instead anchors itself in Europe’s sovereignty, resilience, and the urgent reality of our geopolitical moment.

Why Estonia? Why now? Because the frontier matters. From Tallinn to Vilnius to Warsaw, the tyranny of geography makes defense personal. Partnering with Superangel, Archangel is embedding itself in the heart of the Baltics—a region that already knows what it means to digitize, mobilize, and defend.

Archangel Ventures is a platform, a coalition of the willing, a bet that Europe can and must build its own defense ecosystem. As they put it, defense is not a bubble, not a passing Ukraine-driven hype cycle. It’s the crucible where the next generation of European technology—and deterrence—will be forged.

We’re proud to have launched this journey with them on the pod. Tune in:

01:00 Origins of Archangel — Nic on why he wouldn’t start with just any partner.
04:00 Why they teamed up — Daniel recalls NATO roots and complementary skillsets.
08:30 Why defense-first matters — Nic explains why dual-use doesn’t work at seed.
11:00 The timing challenge — Daniel on NATO’s long horizon investing.
14:00 Portfolio construction — Nic’s three buckets: unmet needs, future needs, unknown unknowns.
20:00 Filling the ecosystem gap — Daniel on bridging startups and primes in Europe.
27:00 Why Estonia — Nic on geography and teaming with Superangel.
33:00 Personal ties — Daniel on his Estonian family and NATO links.
41:00 On working with primes — Nic pushes back on the “dinosaurs” narrative.
53:00 Risks ahead — Nic on what happens if the war in Ukraine ends tomorrow.

Google — Start building today with GCP and receive from $2k to $350k in Google Cloud credits

This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Andreas

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen of SuperSeed and this week’s guest Andreas from EUVC unpack what’s happening in European venture capital.

This week: Nvidia’s meteoric rise (and first signs of slowdown), Apple’s clash with UK regulators, and why regulators may be fighting yesterday’s battles. Plus: Trump’s Intel equity grab, whether governments should hold stakes in strategic industries, and what Europe can learn from Airbus and Ørsted. Finally, what digital sovereignty really means for Europe in an age of AI, energy bottlenecks, and geopolitical dependency.

Here’s what’s covered:

00:01 Nvidia’s Reality Check: From 20% of Nasdaq to slowing 5% quarterly growth.
00:06 Apple vs UK Regulators: The 30% “Apple tax” and post-Brexit CMA ambitions.
00:13 Competition vs Regulation: Why IBM and Microsoft fell by creative destruction, not regulators.
00:21 Trump’s Intel Shakedown: Retroactive equity grabs and should states take stakes?
00:29 Europe’s State Aid Constraints: Airbus, Ørsted, and why Europe can’t do national champions like the US or China.
00:36 The UK Buying AI: £573M in H1 government contracts, Microsoft & Palantir dominance.
00:49 Defining Sovereignty: Europe’s dependency on US tech and Chinese production.
00:57 Europe’s Luxury Beliefs: Outsourcing energy, defense, and manufacturing — and why pension reform is key.
01:02 Closing Takeaways: Sovereignty is more than regulation — it’s about competing, investing, and not being naïve.

🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify — or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.

Get trusted legal advice for investors & entrepreneurs — from start-up to scale. We know tech — get to know Goodwin here.

Want to learn how a top LP navigates the industry? Join us on September 18th at 1:00 PM CET for an exclusive AMA with Raida Daouk, founder & Managing Partner of Amkan Ventures, the only (so far) fund of funds dedicated to backing solo GPs.

➡️ Register to attend below

With over a decade of experience spanning banking, venture capital, and fund-of-funds investing, Raida Daouk is the Founder and Managing Partner of Amkan Ventures—the first solo GP-led fund of funds in the Gulf region. She has backed several emerging U.S. venture managers and is building a portfolio of early-stage tech funds. Her mission is to bridge Gulf-based family offices with high-performing, hard-to-access venture funds in the U.S., unlocking global opportunities for regional investors.

🤗 Join the EUVC Community

Looking for niche, high-quality experiences that prioritize depth over breadth? Consider joining our community focused on delivering content tailored to the experienced VC. Here’s what you can look forward to as a member:

Exclusive Access & Discounts: Priority access to masterclasses with leading GPs & LPs, available on a first-come, first-served basis.
On-Demand Content: A platform with sessions you can access anytime, anywhere, complete with presentations, templates, and other resources.
Interactive AMAs: Engage directly with top GPs and LPs in exclusive small group sessions — entirely free for community members.

Join the EUVC community