EUVC Newsletter - 11.08.2025
From climate calls to corporate bets—Europe’s next moves are all in play.
When the playbook doesn’t exist, Europe writes its own.
From Honda’s CVC arm charting a course from R&D to ROI, to Amino Collective’s rallying cry for European leadership in AI-driven medicine, this week’s stories show what happens when big vision meets strategic patience. These aren’t quick wins—they’re decade-long bets built on conviction, capital, and capability.
At the Summit, Hampus Jakobsson challenged us to “be less dumb” in how we deploy climate capital, and Anthony’s solo-GP gospel sparked a debate about scale that may shape the next generation of fund managers. Meanwhile, founders like Ties Boukema are quietly reinventing the tech stack of venture itself—because if the tools don’t exist, we can’t wait for someone else to build them.
It’s all a reminder that European venture isn’t trying to copy anyone’s model. We’re building our own—piece by piece, sector by sector, conviction by conviction. And that’s exactly why it’s starting to work.
With 💖
David & Andreas
Table of Contents
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
VC: From R&D to ROI: Inside Honda’s Venture Strategy in Europe
EUVC Summit 2025: Let’s Be Less Dumb”: Hampus Jakobsson from Pale Blue Dot on Climate, Capital & the Role of Venture
EUVC Summit 2025: Two Views, One Truth: On Solo GPs, Scale & Strategy from Rerail
Founder: Building Rolodex: Why Venture Needs Its Own Tech Stack
EUVC Summit 2025: Newcomer of the Year: Shapers VC Is Built for This
EUVC Summit 2025: Nirmesh Patel from Amino Collective: The Future of Medicine Is European
VC: This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
From R&D to ROI: Inside Honda’s Venture Strategy in Europe
In this episode, Jeppe Høier and Andreas Munk Holm sit down with Julien Fredonie, Head of Europe & Africa at Honda Xcelerator Ventures, for a deep dive into how one of the world’s most iconic manufacturing giants is strategically navigating venture capital across Europe.
They explore Honda’s global investment strategy, Julien’s views on Europe’s deeptech strengths, the nuanced role of corporate VC, and why Honda is bullish on European innovation—from climate tech to AI and advanced manufacturing.
This one’s a rare look into how a global player allocates capital, thinks about strategic alignment, and partners with both startups and emerging funds.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:10 Who is Julien Fredonie and what is Honda Xcelerator Ventures?
02:40 The 4 Strategic Pillars: Sustainability, Manufacturing, Mobility, AI
04:15 What "Deep Tech That Sells" Means to Honda
05:30 Strategic Projects Explained: POCs, JVs, and R&D Partnerships
07:45 Fund-of-Fund Activity: Why Honda Also Backs VCs
09:00 Structuring the CVC: The Role of Julien’s Team vs. Internal Honda R&D
11:30 What Startups Get from Honda (Beyond Capital)
13:45 Deep Tech DD: How Honda Approaches Validation from Inside & Outside
23:30 Where Europe Stands Out: Climate, Advanced Industry, AI
25:30 Gen 2 Climate Tech: From Environmental to Industrial Impact
26:15 The State of French VC and Deep Tech Momentum
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation 🎧
Full lifecycle legal advisory for LPs, GPs, startups & scaleups — get to know Haynes Boone.
“Let’s Be Less Dumb”: Hampus Jakobsson on Climate, Capital & the Role of Venture
At EUVC Summit 2025, Hampus Jakobsson (Pale Blue Dot) didn’t give a talk—he threw down a gauntlet.
Forget polite panel chatter. This was part existential reckoning, part investor roast, and part Radiohead reference. It left the room laughing, nodding, and—if we’re honest—slightly uncomfortable.
Which was the point.
“Venture is lending money to people believing one future. That’s what I do at least.”
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.
Two Views, One Truth: On Solo GPs, Scale & Strategy
At the EUVC Summit 2025, Anthony and Sarah took the stage with what turned out to be one of the most intellectually charged exchanges of the day. The topic? Solo GPs, specialization, and the hard choices that define fund performance.
Let’s just say—no consensus was reached. But the tension? That’s where the insight lived.
The Case for the Solo GP: Pure Alignment, Compounding Advantage
Anthony came in strong:
“Being a solo GP is the purest form of interest alignment.”
To him, solo GPs aren’t a stepping stone or niche play—they’re a category in their own right. The advantage? Focus. Speed. Zero overhead. And most importantly: a differentiated product founders want.
He highlighted what he sees as the compounding edge:
No IC.
No coordination cost.
Vertically integrated workflows.
A position as a complementary node, not a competitor, in the ecosystem.
And yes—there’s scale in solo too.
“I just had coffee with two solo GPs managing over a billion in AUM. You don't need to ‘scale up’ to be credible.”
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.
Building Rolodex: Why Venture Needs Its Own Tech Stack
Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.
Today, we’re joined by Ties Boukema, Head of Data, Tech & AI at Dawn Capital, one of Europe’s leading B2B SaaS and Fintech investors. With a background spanning law, statistics, Google Health, and five brain surgeries, Ties brings a rare mix of grit, optimism, and technical firepower to Venture and he’s putting it to use by building Rolodex, an internal AI-powered operating system for Dawn.
This is not an AI trends episode. This is an inside look at what it takes to build and deploy technology within a venture firm—and why the industry has been lagging behind.
🎯 This Episode’s Themes:
How a near-death experience shaped Ties’ perspective—and his edge
Why most software in VC is “surprisingly bad” and what to do about it
How Dawn is building Rolodex: AI-powered prep, network graphs, and event intelligence
The myth of “no data in early-stage” and why private markets still need software
What Gawande’s checklist manifesto can teach European venture
Here’s what’s covered:
02:00 | Meet Ties: From New York brain surgery to Google to Dawn
04:00 | Life Before Surgery: Growing up with 200+ hospital stays
09:30 | A Second Life: What changed post-op—and how it shaped his drive
11:00 | From Sales to AI: Ties' journey at Google and pivot into health
12:45 | Why Venture: “These people are smart… but why are they fixing slides at 2 AM?”
14:00 | Perspective as Edge: Handling pressure, breaking rules, and ignoring experts
17:30 | AI vs Experts: The false trust in tradition—and how AI challenges it
20:00 | The Speed Mismatch: We can produce info 100x faster than we can understand it
24:00 | Building Tech for Venture: The reality, the resistance, the rewards
29:00 | Buy vs Build: Why VC firms should think like operators, not tinkerers
32:00 | Rolodex Origins: The deal Dawn lost—and what it taught them
36:00 | Entity Resolution Hell: Why syncing your contacts is harder than you think
40:00 | Rolodex in Action: Deal prep, relationship mapping, board meeting alerts
44:00 | Quantifying Network Power: How Dawn tracks angels & co-investors
46:00 | Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Why Ties changed his mind on VC’s “human core”
50:00 | The Checklist Revelation: What brain surgeons taught him about process
Watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧. Chapters for easy navigation are available on the Spotify/Apple episode.
Where operational expertise and innovation work for you.
EUVC Summit 2025 | Newcomer of the Year: Shapers VC Is Built for This
At this year’s EUVC Summit, the “Newcomer of the Year” award didn’t go to someone just making noise—it went to a team making real moves. A team built for the long game. A team proving that even when entering late, you can lead early.
Shapers VC took home the honor. And in the words of Phil himself:
“Being new is not easy. But this team makes it look easy.”
Why It Matters: Community, Conviction & Timing
What makes a great newcomer?
At EUVC, we looked for three things:
Performance — Are they picking winners or building platforms?
Perspective — Are they differentiated, or derivative?
Community & Conviction — Are they lifting the ecosystem around them?
Shapers VC showed up on all three.
Backed by over 60 FinTech founders and operators, they’re building the kind of platform that’s more than capital. It’s signal. It’s support. It’s sweat equity from people who’ve been in the trenches.
“Community is core to us. Most of our LPs are strategic—it’s what makes our model work.”
– Greg Brown, Shapers VC
10.000 founders & investors meet up at TechBBQ, europe's leading startup event for entrepreneurs - use this exclusive link to get 20% off for 100 limited investor tickets.
Discover EU-backed startups, raise capital & connect with innovation leaders — explore Dealflow.eu, the EU-backed platform bridging founders, VCs & corporates.
Amino Collective: The Future of Medicine Is European
At the EUVC Summit 2025, Nirmesh Patel from Amino Collective took the stage with a message that felt less like a pitch and more like a call to arms. His focus? The intersection of AI, health, and bio—and why Europe is uniquely positioned to lead this next era.
AI Has Already Transformed Research. The Market Impact Comes Next.
We’re still waiting for the first blockbuster drug developed using large AI models. But don’t mistake that for inaction. As Nirmesh put it:
“It’s fundamentally changed how everyone does research in this space.”
So much so that the Nobel Prize committee had no choice but to take notice.
That shift is already reshaping how scientists think, experiment, and build companies—and it’s opening the door for a new generation of outlier founders at the earliest stages.
Why Europe? The Ingredients Are Already Here.
Amino Collective invests pre-seed and seed into health and bio, and Nirmesh was unequivocal:
“Europe has all the ingredients required to make the next healthcare giants.”
Here’s what he sees:
Technical founders now thinking commercially from Day 1.
Citizens more willing to contribute data to studies, even if they don’t cancel that January gym membership.
Stable grant funding across Europe—especially in contrast to recent volatility at U.S. institutions like the NIH.
On-continent innovation in manufacturing mRNA at scale—key to pandemic preparedness.
These aren’t future predictions. They’re current capabilities, and they’re maturing fast.
From Outliers to Giants
Venture is about betting on outliers.
In AI x Bio, the next outliers are likely being formed right now.
“We’re at the very early stages of the collision between AI, health, and bio. The companies that will define the future are just starting.”
If you want to back the next transformative firm in medicine, don’t just look to the coasts.
Look to Europe. The science is here. The funding is here. The talent is ready.
“I truly believe the future of medicine is European.”
So do we.
Make an impact with the bank made for the innovation economy
This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen of SuperSeed and Lomax from Outsized Ventures unpack what’s happening in European tech and venture capital.
This week: Why Meta and Microsoft are minting cash from AI, what Figma’s IPO signals for SaaS, whether the EU got rolled in its new trade deal with the US, and how Europe’s AI scene is finally delivering billion‑dollar exits. Plus: OpenAI’s new “Study Mode” and Harry Stebbings’ Project Europe—an “anti‑YC” deep‑tech accelerator for founders under 25.
🎧 Here's what's covered:
01:07 Meta & Microsoft Blowout Earnings: How AI is driving real revenue and margins.
04:43 Meta’s Efficiency Playbook: Ads, engagement, and headcount cuts fueling growth.
06:39 Zuckerberg’s Billion-Dollar AI Talent Grab: Why Meta is betting the farm on AI.
11:23 CapEx Shockwaves: Meta at $70B and Amazon at $100B—bigger than all of European VC.
14:02 Sticky Inflation & AI Boom: Why markets stay bullish despite high rates.
21:33 Figma’s Blockbuster IPO: SaaS revival or a one‑off outlier?
25:37 Index Ventures’ €7B Payday: Power law dynamics in European venture.
33:51 EU–US Trade Deal Breakdown: Tariffs, defense procurement, and $600B in investment.
46:43 Anthropic’s $5B Raise: Can US AI dominance withstand cheap, open‑source rivals from China?
49:32 Germany’s $1B AI Exit: Cognigy and the rise of European enterprise AI.
01:07:59 Accelerators & the “Best Founders Don’t Need Them” Debate
01:10:59 Deal of the Week: CyberArk Acquired for $25B & Project Q’s German Defense Play
🎧 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.
Free and exclusively available for community members.
Jonathan is a Partner at Bullhound Capital. He joined Bullhound Capital from Molten Ventures (formerly DFJ/Draper Esprit), where he was a Partner for 16 years, focused on direct investments and successful exits, including RavenPack, Ledger, M-Files, and PodPoint. At Molten, he also led the Fund of Funds and Secondary practices, investing in over 80 early-stage VC funds and managing multiple secondary portfolio transactions. These initiatives provided exposure to standout companies such as UiPath, Revolut, TransferWise, Peak Games, and Typeform.
Jonathan’s career began in investment banking, advising on equity offerings and mergers & acquisitions at leading firms including Apax Partners Corporate Finance, Rothschild & Cie, and Jefferies.
Jonathan holds a master's degree in Management from EM-Lyon and the University of St. Gallen, and a postgraduate degree in advanced corporate finance from the University of Paris IX Dauphine.
🤗 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.
Connect with Europe’s leading LPs, Family Offices & Fund of Funds this September at Château de Beloeil.
Where Europe’s venture capital LPs & GPs connect — curated, high-impact networking | Buy tickets now!
