EUVC Newsletter - 07.07.2025
This week, we’re leaning in. Quiet revolutions, overlooked niches, and hard-earned lessons—all drawing new lines in the sand for European venture.
Another week, another reminder that Europe’s edges are sharper than they look on a map. War budgets swell, satellites fly, founders keep pushing where governments stall—and the delicate dance between profit and purpose gets stress-tested in boardrooms and supply chains alike.
This week, we’re drawn to the hidden gears that keep turning when headlines fade: the quiet revolutions in circularity, the messy truths of impact investing, the overlooked niches (AdTech, anyone?) that quietly grow into trillion-dollar markets while we’re distracted by the next big hype cycle. From the first tracks on fresh snow to the first principles in deep tech, the thread running through it all is founders and funders daring to build when the easy money has moved on.
Some familiar faces drop in—Bernard Dalle, Emma Steele, Matt Cooper—each reminding us that European venture has a peculiar knack for doing things the hard way, and getting them right. It’s not always loud, but it’s always moving. Let’s keep moving with it.
With 💖 David & Andreas
Table of Contents
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
Impact Highlist Series: Emma Steele & Emily Trant on building ventures where profit and purpose scale together
Founder: Riding First Tracks: Circularity, Purpose & Leading Beyond Hierarchy
VC: Rich Ashton on Backing AdTech’s Trillion Dollar Niche with FirstPartyCapital
Founder: Exceptional Ventures’ Matt Cooper & Paolo Pio on Fixing HealthTech’s Hype Problem
✍️ Insights Article of The Week
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC podcast, where Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen of SuperSeed and Lomax from Outsized Ventures, gather to unpack the macro forces and micro signals shaping European tech and venture.
Here’s what’s covered:
02:00 | War & Markets: Iran, Israel, oil prices & the Bank of England holds steady
06:00 | Defense Budgets: Why Europe is (finally) spending
10:00 | VC Taboo: Why investing in weapons gets complicated fast
15:00 | EIF Restrictions: Sex, gambling, and no defense
20:00 | The Rise of Helsing: Europe’s $12B defense unicorn
24:00 | Strategic Autonomy: Europe’s new military satellite constellation
30:00 | ESA vs Starlink: Earth observation gets serious
34:00 | China, Trade Wars & Rare Earths: Why Europe’s exposed
40:00 | EU-US Tariffs & Trump’s Pharma Threat
42:00 | IPO Boom: Chime, Circle, and the SPAC comeback
47:00 | CMR Surgical: UK’s $4B robot exit—is that enough?
53:00 | Lessons from Intuitive Surgical & deeptech M&A
56:00 | Deal of the Week: Nabla’s AI for clinicians, Helsing’s big swing, and Scale AI’s lightning-fast cash
1:02:00 | Founders in Government: Alex DePledge & Matt Clifford’s impact
1:05:00 | Meta’s AI Transfers: Zuck goes full football transfer window
🎧 Watch it here or add it to your queue on Apple or Spotify — chapters for easy navigation are ready to roll.
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Emma Steele & Emily Trant on building ventures where profit and purpose scale together
Welcome to the Impact Highlight series, powered by EUVC, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.
This week, August Solliv is joined by Emma Steele (Partner at Ascension) and Emily Trant (Head of Impact at Wagestream), two of the most vocal champions for mission-aligned tech in Europe.
In this episode, we explore the nuances of building and backing commercial businesses that generate genuine social value. Emma and Emily reflect on where the commercial model does work for impact, where it doesn’t, and why intent matters as much as outcomes.
From designing products that serve vulnerable users to structuring impact advisory boards that challenge you, this is a real look into how impact venture plays out at the fund and founder level.
Here’s what’s covered:
00:00 | Meet Emma & Emily: Impact VC meets operating at scale
02:30 | What Is “Impact” Anyway? And why Ascension never used the label
06:15 | Wagestream’s Model: Serving those who can’t pay—at scale
10:00 | Market Failures & Margin Models: Why commercial still wins
13:00 | Data That Matters: From savings behavior to sleep quality
17:00 | Charity vs Commercial: The tension no one likes to talk about
20:15 | Impact Boards: How to make them useful (hint: be honest)
24:30 | The Venture Fit: Why scale and impact aren’t opposites
28:00 | Calling Future Founders: Be intentional from day one
🎧 Watch it or tune in on Apple or Spotify. Chapters available for easy navigation.
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EUVC Summit: Lessons from Building Index with Bernard Dalle & Thomas Kristensen, LGT Capital Partners
At the EUVC Summit, Bernard Dalle (formerly of Index Ventures) and Thomas Kristensen (LGT Capital Partners) shared candid reflections on how to build a venture firm from the inside out. Instead of fixating on star hires and grand strategies, their talk emphasized the compounding power of cultural alignment, junior talent development, and early operational investment.
Drawing on first-hand experience, they unpack what it takes to build enduring institutions—where team, trust, and time matter more than titles.
Whether you're raising your first fund or scaling your platform team, this conversation offers timeless lessons from one of Europe’s most respected firms.
Here’s what’s covered:
00:45 Betting on People: Why hiring for cultural fit beats chasing CVs
02:20 Long-Term Talent Playbooks: Junior hires, long runway, big impact
03:50 Under-hiring on Purpose: Why Index rarely hired GPs straight out
05:10 The Operations Edge: Building support teams early pays dividends
07:00 The Index Blueprint: Early days with David, Pascal, and a deep ops bench
08:30 Institutional Memory: Capturing partner insights across the portfolio
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation 🎧
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Riding First Tracks: Circularity, Purpose & Leading Beyond Hierarchy
Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.
This week, Andreas is joined by Oliver Brunschwiler, purpose-driven entrepreneur, former pro snowboarder, and longtime systems thinker, along with Enrique Molina from Chi Impact Capital, co-hosting this deep dive into what it means to lead with purpose, design for circularity, and build organizations that reinvent themselves from the inside out.
Oliver’s journey goes from first tracks on fresh powder to first tracks in organizational design—helping companies ditch rigid hierarchies for role-based, purpose-led systems. Enrique brings the investor lens, showing how these principles translate into impact capital and portfolio building today.
In this episode, they break down how circularity is moving from hype to hard reality, why trust and leadership still matter in the most “self-organizing” teams, and how the best founders navigate the tension between market dips and mission-driven staying power.
Here’s what’s covered:
00:00 | From pro snowboarding to purpose-driven business
02:00 | Sports, freedom & the roots of Oliver’s entrepreneurial DNA
04:30 | The value of pushing limits—on boards and in boardrooms
08:00 | Holacracy & new work: why “no boss” usually fails
12:00 | Purpose is boss: role-based systems done right
15:00 | AI, agents & managing the unmanageable—what changes, what doesn’t
19:00 | When people don’t want ownership—why clear leadership stays vital
20:00 | Circularity: beyond the hype cycle and into tough reality
24:00 | Surviving the stock dip: founders reconciling mission and market
28:00 | Industrial scale impact: batteries, chemical recycling & what’s next
32:00 | Where Oliver sees big opportunities now (food, upcycling, building)
36:00 | Corporates, supply chains & Fairphone as a case in point
40:00 | The EU Green Deal, Right to Repair & why policy matters
44:00 | Final thoughts: trust the purpose, ride the dip, build the system
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation 🎧
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Rich Ashton on Backing AdTech’s Trillion Dollar Niche with FirstPartyCapital
In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Rich Ashton to unpack the unique thesis behind FirstPartyCapital, a specialist VC fund backing early-stage founders in the global AdTech and MarTech sector.
Rich explores why this trillion-dollar industry has remained overlooked by mainstream VC, what it takes to be a successful investor in the complex ad ecosystem, and why FirstPartyCapital's massive LP network and deep expertise are enabling them to lead the charge.
Here’s what’s covered:
04:07 Why AdTech is the Trillion Dollar Niche
11:51 The Facebook & Google Dominance Myth
12:22 Case Studies: Trade Desk, AppLovin, Lumen
14:17 Why Most Funds Miss the AdTech Opportunity
15:38 DOJ vs Google, and the Breakup Implications
17:20 AI & the Future of Attention
24:37 Why First Party Capital is Uniquely Positioned
26:27 From Fund to Syndicate, Studio, and Lending
28:54 Portfolio Highlights: Lumen, Bedrock, Pixels
31:22 Fund II: Now Raising, Backed by Strategic LPs
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation on the Spotify/Apple episode🎧
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Exceptional Ventures’ Matt Cooper & Paolo Pio on Fixing HealthTech’s Hype Problem
In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm talks with Paolo Pio and Matt Cooper, Founding Partners of Exceptional Ventures, to unpack their mission-driven approach to health and wellness investing. They dive into “Joyspan®”, their unique investment thesis which centres on a personal balance between health and happiness, and the growing need to separate science from hype in health tech.
Here’s what’s covered:
02:53 Paolo Pio's Journey to Venture Capital
05:52 Matt Cooper's Accidental Path to VC
14:57 Unique Positioning in the Venture Ecosystem
17:46 The Importance of Entrepreneurial Integrity
20:55 Navigating the European Venture Landscape
24:08 Investment Strategies and Value Creation
28:03 Developing Future Leaders in Venture Capital
31:01 The Mission of Joyspan®: Health, Wellbeing, and Happiness
36:34 Integrating Health and Joyspan® into Venture Capital
40:27 Separating Science from Fiction in Health Tech
Watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧, with chapters for easy navigation available on the Spotify/Apple episode.
In-Space Manufacturing: The Next Frontier of Industrial Innovation
Why In-Space Manufacturing Matters
In-space manufacturing (ISM) is moving from sci-fi to real commercial opportunity. Falling launch costs, rising investment, and tech breakthroughs are making it viable. ISM could cut CO₂ emissions, unlock new markets, and enable next-gen products like purer fiber optics and advanced semiconductors. Startups and space agencies alike are racing to build factories in orbit, laying the groundwork for a trillion-dollar space economy. Challenges remain—but the promise is huge.
🚀 Curious about who’s building what and why it matters?
Where Europe’s venture capital LPs & GPs connect — curated, high-impact networking | Buy tickets now
Dario combines deep institutional, operational, and investment expertise, investing in early-stage companies and funds. Recognized as a "40 Rising Star under 40" by VCJ, he actively contributes to the industry.
Before founding LTV Capital, Dario co-led fund investments at Anthemis Group, a top fintech investor, where he developed early-stage fintech plays with BBVA and pioneered a media-financial services fund. His background also includes spearheading international expansion at emerging markets fintech JUMO and contributing to the creation of ROAM, now Africa's largest classifieds group.
Academically, he holds a Master of Business Science in Finance from the University of Cape Town; his dissertation on "Tencent Holdings Limited" is widely downloaded and cited.
Outside of work, Dario is a former 125cc motorcycle racing champion who now advises the Finetwork Mir Racing Team, supporting young talent in motorsports. He is driven by a passion for empowering others and fostering change in the emerging manager VC ecosystem.
↓ Meet Dario at the EUVC community LP AMA Register below to attend ↓
Connect with Europe’s leading LPs, Family Offices & Fund of Funds this September at Château de Beloeil.