EUVC newsletter - 12.05.2025
Is Europe’s deep tech delivering on its promise? David dives in, while top Sequoia, Highland Europe, Eka VC & Andreas Klinger unpack the shifts shaping exits, sovereignty, and industrial reinvention.
We’re getting close to the EUVC Summit—our celebration of the path to European progress. And this week’s lineup delivers just that.
David tackles a pressing question: Europe’s deep tech is buzzing, but are we turning promise into power? Meanwhile, our podcast guests—from the behemoths of Sequoia and Highland Europe to the rising stars of Eka Ventures and Prototype Capital—share bold takes on the shifts defining European venture, from sovereignty and founder diligence to industrial reinvention, making 2024 a stand-out exit year.
We’re also shining the spotlight on no less than three of our EUVC Awards finalists:
🏆 Exit of The Year: Fergal Mullen, Highland Europe
🏆 Achievement of The Year: Andreas Klinger, Prototype Capital
🏆 Impact Leader of The Year: Jon Coker, Eka Ventures
Plus: Startup incorporation pitfalls, fund modeling truths, and an exclusive invite to EBAN Congress in Copenhagen.
It’s a dense one. Let’s get into it 👇
With 💖 Andreas & David
Table of Contents
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
🏆 Achievement of The Year Finalist: Andreas Klinger on Prototype Capital, EU INC & Building for Sovereignty
🏆 Exit of The Year Finalist: Fergal Mullen of Highland Europe on Scaling Patterns Across Decades
🏆 Impact leader of The Year Finalist: Jon Coker on Why Concentration, Conviction & Impact Are the Future of VC
VC: This Week in European Tech with Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen, Lomax & Andrew J. Scott
✍️ Insights Article of The Week
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
Sequoia in Europe: George Robson on Scaling Global Ambitions, Deep Tech, and the European VC Landscape
In this episode, George Robson of Sequoia and TechBBQ’s Benjamin join us for a raw and rapid-fire take on the state of AI in Europe, from the eyes of those already deep in the shift.
With creators at the frontlines and tech ecosystems scrambling to catch up, they unpack how generative AI has exploded into workflows, where adoption is still lagging, and why it’s no longer a question of “if,” but “how fast.”
From the future of storytelling to the challenge of educating Europe’s broader tech community, this is an unfiltered glimpse into the next phase of transformation.
Here’s what’s covered:
05:46 Reconciling European Optimism with U.S. Skepticism
17:22 U.S. Views on Europe: Misconceptions & Missed Nuance
21:00 The Return of Real Venture: Deep Tech vs. SaaS
24:00 Evaluating Deep Tech Founders: What Sequoia Looks For
26:59 Adapting Sequoia’s Platform to Serve Technical Founders
29:57 Scale-Up Capital in Europe: Reality vs. Perception
32:11 AI Company Metrics: Changing Signals & Due Diligence
34:56 Explosion of Founders in the AI Era: A Double-Edged Sword
36:59 Why Some European Companies Don’t Scale Big Enough
42:54 Foundational Principles for Building in the AI Era
Berlin is the place. GITEX is the moment.
Europe’s largest inaugural tech, startup, and digital investment event lands in Berlin. GITEX EUROPE unites global innovators, investors, and policymakers to shape the continent’s future across AI, quantum, cybersecurity, and beyond.
Get a ticket with the EUVC Discount Code - GE25EUVCTKT
🏆 Achievement of The Year Finalist: Andreas Klinger of Prototype Capital on EU INC, European Sovereignty & Hyper Ambition 🏆
Fresh off being named an EUVC Achievement finalist, Andreas Klinger joins the pod for a no-BS, vision-rich conversation.
In this episode, Andreas Klinger—founding team at Product Hunt, ex-CTO at On Deck, and now GP at Prototype Capital—joins Andreas Munk Holm for a bold conversation on fixing Europe’s startup ecosystem from the inside out.
With one foot in Silicon Valley and another in Brussels, Klinger reveals how EU Inc. is building the regulatory infrastructure Europe never had. This isn’t about think tank white papers—it’s grassroots, founder-first, and laser-focused on tearing down the friction holding European startups back.
From policy blueprints to the power of media, micro-VC conviction to macro-level reform, Klinger shares a framework for how investors can build not just portfolios, but systems that scale.
And finally, a massive thank you to CEW Communications – our dear PR friends who helped secure CNBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times and many more for the summit. Love working with them and are eternally grateful for their sponsorship of the Achievement award 💖
Here’s what’s covered:
01:15 From Product Hunt & AngelList to Fixing European Venture
02:30 Why Klinger Made VC a Full-Time Play
06:10 Vlogging Hyper-Ambition: Behind-the-Scenes of Europe's Top Startups
09:30 The Cultural Gap: Work Ethic, Values & Systemic Signals
12:00 The Hidden Power of Performative Culture (and Its Risks)
14:22 What EU Inc. Actually Is: A Business-Led Policy Blueprint
18:30 Industry-Wide Buy-In: Why Everyone's Signing the EU Inc. Manifesto
24:15 Can VCs Stay Apolitical While Driving Change?
34:00 Reports Don’t Build Economies—People with Bias for Action Do
37:10 Action, Not Words: What Europe Really Needs Next
Watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧. Chapters for easy navigation are available on the Spotify/Apple episode.
Make an impact with the bank made for the innovation economy
We know building relationships and building businesses go hand-in-hand. With our sector expertise and tailored solutions, we’ll connect you with what’s next.
🏆 Exit of The Year Finalist: Fergal Mullen of Highland Europe: Sensible Growth, Hard Truths & Building Europe’s Next Giants 🏆
In this episode, Andreas sits down with Exit of The Year Finalist Fergal Mullen, Founding Partner at Highland Europe, to explore the firm’s growth-only investment strategy and what it takes to scale durable, capital-efficient European champions.
Fergal shares why Highland’s equal partnership model is more than just internal structure; it reflects how trust, alignment, and founder collaboration drive outcomes. From turning operational efficiency into alpha to navigating U.S. expansion and cap table cleanups, this episode lays out a blueprint for growth with discipline in a market still shaped by cycles, hype, and hard-earned fundamentals.
Our good friends at Ace Alternatives are sponsoring the Exit category at the EUVC Awards. Make sure to check out their digital native fund admin solutions. We have so many friends in the Berlin ecosystem who have partnered with these guys. As with good restaurants, when the locals are there, you know they're the best. And now they're expanding across Europe, so reach out.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:15 Spinning Out from Highland Capital & Building a Growth-Only Fund
02:30 Why Equal Partnership Structure Matters—for GPs and Founders
04:20 Sensible Growth > Blitzscaling: Highland’s Core Investment Philosophy
09:10 Founder Coachability, No-Frills Marketing & Building Trust Post-Investment
11:50 Exiting and Re-Investing: When and Why to Consult LPs
13:45 US Expansion: Why Founders Must Move to Make It Work
16:00 Europe’s Best Exit Year? Why Fundamentals (Still) Win
17:55 Tourist Capital: How Cycles Distort Venture Discipline
19:20 Founders’ Liquidity and Cap Table Cleanups—Done Right
24:30 Closing Reflections from Fergal: Growth with Discipline, Always
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation on the Spotify/Apple episode🎧
Where operational expertise and innovation work for you.
End-to-end coverage of Fund Admin, Tax, Accounting, Compliance, ESG, and more—enabling you to focus on what matters most: supporting visionaries and maximizing LP returns.
🏆 Jon Coker on Why Concentration, Conviction & Impact Are the Future of VC 🏆
In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm talks with Jon Coker, co-founder and GP at Eka Ventures, to unpack the strategy behind their conviction-led investment model and its outsized outcomes. Jon shares why Eka’s focus on consumer health and sustainable consumption is redefining what it means to deliver impact from venture, not just within it.
Jon challenges the traditional index-style logic of venture capital, arguing instead for deep diligence, founder-first frameworks, and high-bar decision-making shaped by firsthand experience with outlier success. This episode is a masterclass in aligning fund design, sourcing strategy, and conviction-building to deliver both impact and performance.
Here’s what’s covered:
03:25 Why Eka Doubled Down on Concentrated Portfolios
05:44 Structural Drivers Behind the Portfolio Strategy
07:18 Challenging the Index Logic of Venture
14:05 How Eka's Style Shapes Decision-Making Processes
16:34 Consumer Tech: Eka's Favorite Layer Cake
21:05 Bias for Action: A Key Founder Trait
28:35 Building Conviction: The Founder's Role at Eka
29:12 Eka's Deep Founder Diligence Model
44:57 Impact From Venture vs. Impact In Venture
50:57 Scaling Impact: Why Depth and Scale Matter
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation on the Spotify/Apple episode🎧
This Week in European Tech with Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen & Andrew J. Scott
Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC podcast, where our good friends Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen from SuperSeed, in discussion with Andrew J. Scott, Founding Partner at 7percent Ventures, cover recent news and movements in the European tech landscape.
Behind the headlines—wind implosions, deep tech dead ends, exit deserts, secondaries, and AI drama—lie seismic shifts that will define the trajectory of European startups and the capital that fuels them.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:30 Europe’s Wind Sector in Crisis
05:12 Hornsea 4 Fallout & Government Accountability
10:24 The Collapse of Deep Tech Momentum in the UK
15:36 Public Sector Catastrophes: Fujitsu’s £12B Flop
20:48 UK-EU Youth Mobility Deal & Trade Strategy
26:00 Trump, IP Tariffs & Global Trade Disruption
31:12 RIA Funds & the Evolving VC Model
41:36 Secondary Markets in Venture
46:48 The AI Arms Race: OpenAI vs. Google
52:00 European Drone Unicorns & GovTech
Watch it here or add it to your episodes on Apple or Spotify 🎧. Chapters for easy navigation are available on the Spotify/Apple episode.
We’re proud to welcome back Haynes Boone as the official sponsor of the Firm of the Year category at the EUVC Awards.
Haynes Boone brings deep expertise in fund structuring and full lifecycle legal support for VCs, GPs, LPs, and startups across the US, UK, and Europe. As trusted advisors to emerging and established fund managers alike, they know what it takes to build and scale in competitive markets, making them the perfect backers of this high-caliber award.
Whether you're launching Fund I or navigating late-stage growth, Karma, Vicki, and the team at Haynes Boone are ready to help you.
🧠 Startup Incorporation for Global Founders
Choosing where and how to incorporate a startup isn’t admin - it’s strategy.
And yet, countless founders (and the VCs who back them) still treat it as a checklist item, only to get stuck flipping jurisdictions mid-round or getting hit with dry tax at exit.
We broke it down in a full post a few weeks back - stories, frameworks and why it matters more than ever if you’re backing global teams you can read the post bellow.
And on May 28, we’re going deeper in a 2-hour masterclass for GPs:
✅ Founder horror stories
✅ Incorporation decision-making frameworks
✅ Jurisdiction trade-offs: US vs UK, NL, and Estonia
✅ Live demo of the Matchmaker tool
👥 Not yet a member? Join here.
✍️ Insights from the trenches
Europe’s Deep Tech Moment – But Are We Wasting It?
✍️ Europe’s Deep Tech Moment (But Are We Wasting It?)
From fusion to photonics, quantum to semiconductors, the European continent has the IP, the talent, and — increasingly — the urgency. David Cruz e Silva explores Europe's potential in deep tech, highlighting both the opportunities and the bureaucratic challenges that may hinder progress.
But are we doing enough?
In this week’s lead editorial, we explore:
🔬 Why Europe punches above its weight in research, but below it in deployment
🧠 The key barriers holding back deep tech commercialization
💸 How capital mismatch and risk-averse LPs are choking the funnel
🇺🇸 Why the US and China are pulling ahead — and what Europe can do
🧭 A path forward: sovereign funds, defence alignment, and specialist VCs
We’re heading to EBAN Congress in Copenhagen – and you should too.
Join us June 3–5 as the EBAN Annual Congress lands in one of Europe’s most vibrant startup hubs. Co-hosted by EBAN and DanBAN, this is the go-to gathering for Europe’s angel investing scene—bringing together 400+ angels, LPs, and ecosystem leaders for high-quality networking, insights, and deals.
Whether you're looking to sharpen your view on where the market is heading, meet fresh syndication partners, or just catch up with old friends over a Copenhagen cocktail—this is where you want to be.
What to expect:
🗓️ June 2 – Welcome Reception @ Copenhagen City Hall
🎤 June 3–4 – Keynotes, panels & networking @ POOLEN (9:30–17:00)
🍽️ June 3 – Gala Dinner @ POOLEN (19:00)
🌆 June 5 – Copenhagen Explore Day
EUVC perk: As our community partner, you get 15% off tickets. Use code EUVCxEBAN2025 at checkout.
✍️ Building blocks article - Part 4
From fund economics to portfolio construction, assumption sheets to liquidity strategies, the art of modeling a VC fund is both science and storytelling. David Cruz e Silva and Marc Penkala break down the final piece in their essential series on VC fund modeling, arming emerging managers with the frameworks and mindset needed to build resilient, data-driven strategies.
But are you modeling for reality or just for the pitch deck?
In this week’s lead editorial, we explore:
Why granularity beats grandeur when modeling early-stage funds
How to build dynamic, living models that evolve with your fund's lifecycle
Why liquidity, not IRR, is the oxygen fund managers need to survive
The essential building blocks that every VC model must be grounded on
A roadmap to realistic timelines, adaptive strategies, and operational clarity
Whether you're an emerging manager raising your first fund or a seasoned operator optimizing your second, this is your playbook for staying agile, grounded, and investor-aligned.
If you haven’t read the first parts of this series, you can do it here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Brought to you by Affinity – Exclusive dealmaking benchmarks
What can Affinity data on almost 3,000 VCs from 68 countries reveal about how VCs performed last year and how dealmaking will continue to evolve?
Defending Europe’s future by investing in deep tech – Trisha Saxena (NIF)
As global threats evolve, deep tech is essential to Europe's security and resilience. Trisha Saxena of the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) explains how the €1 billion fund, backed by 24 member nations, invests in breakthrough technologies that serve both defence and commercial goals. With a focus on scientific rigor and strategic impact, NIF is bridging innovation and security to shape Europe’s future.
Key Takeaways:
🧭 Dual-purpose fund
NIF backs startups that deliver both strong returns and strategic value to NATO allies, with support from 24 member countries.
🧪 9 tech frontiers
Focus areas include AI, autonomy, quantum, biotech, hypersonics, space, materials, manufacturing, energy, and next-gen comms.
🔄 Intersections over silos
Top picks work across domains—like semiconductors made in space or quantum-powered communications.
💧 Water as defence tech
Water innovation (e.g. PFAS removal, desalination) is rising in priority due to its critical role in resilience and infrastructure.
🧠 Strategy meets science
NIF seeks startups with deep tech credibility and real-world impact, solving complex problems that matter to national security.
🎟️ Free Masterclass Ticket (Worth €200)
We’ve teamed up with Northzone and KaraVentures to help your startups nail incorporation and jurisdiction strategy: one of the most overlooked (yet critical) areas in early-stage venture.
💡 Startup Incorporation Playbook for VCs
📅 May 28th | 🕛 12PM WEST | 💻 2hr Online Masterclass With:
Tom McGinn, General Counsel
Réna Kakon, GP @ Kara Ventures & Founder
Founders will walk away with:
✅ Jurisdiction comparisons (US, UK, Netherlands, Estonia, etc.)
✅ Insights on flipping jurisdictions (when it makes sense-and when it doesn’t)
✅ Practical tools to avoid costly structuring mistakes
This ticket is €200, but free for EUVC paid community members. You can choose your subscription plan here.
Building Flexible Structures for Different Investor Groups
One challenge we had early on was figuring out how to handle capital from all kinds of sources: executives, industry peers, even personal contacts. Mara made it easy. They helped us set up a flexible structure that allowed everyone to come in smoothly, without the usual complexity or compliance worries if you’re trying to create a structure that fits different types of investors, happy to chat about what worked for us.
Making Private Wealth Onboarding Effortless
One of the most common questions I get is how to make raising from private wealth less painful. Working with Mara, we were able to set up a feeder that made onboarding private investors fast and straightforward. What used to be a drawn-out, clunky process now happens quickly and cleanly. If you’re exploring private wealth channels, feel free to reach out - happy to share what worked for us.
Setting Up Co-Investments Without the Headaches
Running co-investments sounded exciting until we hit the operational walls. Mara helped us simplify it by setting up dedicated SPVs, customized for each opportunity. Their support meant we could give LPs and angels clear, compliant access to breakout deals, without adding a heavy lift for our team. If co-investments are part of your growth strategy, let’s swap notes.
Reporting
One of the most common questions I get is how to streamline reporting for LPs. Working with Mara, they set up a system that provides standard fund and deal reporting to all LPs by default. For those who need it, individual NAV statements can also be produced for an additional fee. What used to be a complicated process is now seamless and efficient. If you’re looking to improve your reporting systems, feel free to reach out - happy to share how they made it work for us.
🤗 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.
⏳ Last Call: Live AMA with LP James Heath → May 19
Specialist funds. LP allocation gaps. Raising with conviction.
These are the conversations that matter if you’re on the fundraising trail or deploying capital in Europe today. And next week, we’re going deep.
📆 May 19 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM GMT+1
🪑 Spots are limited and reserved for EUVC members 👉 Secure your seat
Not yet a member? Join here
This is one of those rare “ask anything” moments with an LP. Come prepared.
🗓️ The VC Conferences You Can’t Miss
There are some events that just have to be on the calendar. Here’s our list, hit us up if you’re going, we’d love to meet!
0100 Emerging Europe 2025 | 📆 14-16 May 2025 | 🇭🇺 Budapest, Hungary
GITEX Europe 2025 | 📆 23 - 25 May 2025 | 🇩🇪 Berlin, Germany