EUVC Newsletter - 28.07.2025
From policy to exits, Europe’s venture moment is getting personal.
This week feels like a snapshot of European venture stepping into its complexity—and finally embracing it. We're hearing from the regulators writing the AI rulebook, the VCs scaling flywheels beyond paper returns, and the founders-turned-builders refusing to wait for permission. It’s less about narrative control and more about getting honest: about risk, structure, accountability, and impact.
When Carta bets on Southeast Asia’s fragmentation, Capnamic celebrates DPI over hype, and Fabian Heilemann calls time on outdated fund models, we’re reminded that real innovation doesn’t come from pretending things are simple. It comes from committing to build anyway.
Europe’s edge right now? It’s in the nuance—of regulation, of capital markets, of ecosystems too often flattened by lazy generalization. This week’s voices are the ones shaping a richer, more grounded version of what VC on this continent can be.
Lean in. The future isn’t streamlined—it’s layered. And that’s our strength.
With 💝
David & Andreas
Table of Contents
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
Policy: Eoghan O’Neill, Senior Policy Officer at the European Commission AI Office — Unpacking the AI Act & Europe's Global AI Play
VC: Bhavik Vashi on Southeast Asia, the Myth of the Region, and Why Carta Is Betting on Complexity
VC: Capnamic’s €1B Exit, Flywheel Thinking & Building a DPI-Minded VC Firm
Impact Highlight series: Fabian Heilemann on Reinventing Venture to Solve the Climate Crisis
Founder: Reinventing with Venture: How Corporates Can Actually Innovate
VC: This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
✍️ Insights Article of The Week
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
Eoghan O’Neill, Senior Policy Officer at the European Commission AI Office — Unpacking the AI Act & Europe's Global AI Play
In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm is joined by Eoghan O’Neill, Senior Policy Officer at the European Commission’s AI Office, to break down the EU AI Act, Europe’s strategy to lead the global AI wave with trust, safety, and world-class infrastructure.
They dive into why the EU’s approach to AI is not just regulatory red tape but a proactive framework to ensure innovation and adoption flourish across sectors—from startups to supercomputers. Eoghan unpacks how startups can navigate the Act, why Europe’s regulatory clarity is an advantage, and how investors should be thinking about this new paradigm.
Here’s what’s covered:
02:41 Eoghan’s Unorthodox Journey: From Gravy Systems to AI Policy
04:32 The Mission & Structure of the AI Office
05:52 Understanding the AI Act: A Product Safety Framework
09:40 How the AI Act Was Created: An Open, 1,000+ Stakeholder Process
17:42 What Counts as High-Risk AI (And What Doesn’t)
21:23 Learning from GDPR & Ensuring Innovation Isn’t Crushed
26:10 Transparency, Trust & The Limits of Regulation
30:15 What VCs Need to Know: Obligations, Timelines & Opportunities
34:42 Europe's Global AI Position: Infra, Engineers, Strategy
43:33 Global Dynamics: Commoditization, Gulf States & the Future of AGI
48:46 What’s Coming: Apply AI Strategy in September
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts—now with chapters for easy navigation 🎧
Bhavik Vashi on Southeast Asia, the Myth of the Region, and Why Carta Is Betting on Complexity
In this episode, Jon from the European VC pod is joined by co-host Ambika from Circle Capital for a special look at the Southeast Asian VC landscape. Their guest, Bhavik Vashi—Managing Director at Carta for APAC and MENA—brings both operator and investor lenses to the table. From the myth of “Southeast Asia as a region” to emerging manager struggles, this conversation pulls no punches. If you’re thinking global, this is your field guide.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:20 Bhavik’s Journey from Anaplan to Carta
03:45 Why “Southeast Asia” Is a Convenience, Not a Region
08:00 The Operator’s Reality: Fragmentation, Regulation, and Talent Arbitrage
11:45 Power Law Doesn’t Work Here: Rethinking Portfolio Construction
16:10 Fund IRRs Are Down, and It’s Worse in Southeast Asia
19:00 The First Wave of Emerging GPs: What Went Wrong
22:30 The Bright Side: Carta’s $1B Bet and Market-by-Market Nuance
27:15 Australia, MENA, Singapore, and What Global LPs Should Understand
32:00 The Case for Emerging Managers (And Why LPs Need to Get Over Their Fears)
36:10 Belief Shift: The East Isn’t Copying the West Anymore
41:00 Hub-and-Spoke Is Dead: Local Ops for Global Scale
44:00 Middle East ≠ Europe: Why Singapore and Dubai Are Mirror Plays
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts 🎧
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Capnamic’s €1B Exit, Flywheel Thinking & Building a DPI-Minded VC Firm
This week on the EUVC podcast, Andreas Munk Holm is joined by Jörg Binnenbrücker, General Partner at Capnamic, to unpack the story behind one of Europe’s standout software exits—LeanIX, winner of Exit of the Year at the European VC Awards.
Jörg walks us through how a €500K initial check turned into a billion-dollar outcome—and why the deal was perfectly sized for the realities of European venture. We go deep on Capnamic’s founder-first philosophy, their obsession with DPI, and how they’ve built a venture firm that consistently turns real returns across funds—not just paper markups.
From investing early in B2B SaaS to building a culture that mirrors the best of startups, Jörg shares the blueprint behind Capnamic’s flywheel—one rooted in trust, ownership, and team alignment.
🎯 In This Episode, We Cover:
The inside story of the LeanIX deal—and why it was a fund-maker
How Capnamic builds DPI-first into every decision
Why real founder empathy starts with how your team works
Lessons from Michael Jordan and Yoda (really)
Europe’s underrated software founders—and why they’re winning
Why generalist firms still play a key role in climate, deep tech & beyond
Here’s What’s Covered:
00:00 | Jörg joins: From Capnamic to Exit of the Year
02:15 | Why LeanIX is a “Google Maps for Enterprise Software”
04:30 | The €500K check that turned into a billion-dollar outcome
07:45 | What makes a “perfect” exit for European fund sizing
10:30 | DPI > Paper: How Capnamic structures for real returns
13:00 | Building founder empathy through operational design
16:30 | Every team member gets carry—even platform
19:00 | No consensus, no problem: Why Capnamic values conviction
22:00 | B2B SaaS, German depth, and the Capnamic thesis
25:45 | York on founder-centric processes and fast reps
28:00 | Why they track “10x front returners” at investment stage
31:00 | The art of timing exits—and when secondaries don’t work
34:00 | LeanIX team, bootstrap mentality, and long-term value creation
36:30 | Jörg’s parting advice: Start businesses wisely. Play like Jordan.
🎧 Listen now on Apple or Spotify. Chapters are available for easy navigation.
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Fabian Heilemann on Reinventing Venture to Solve the Climate Crisis
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 Fabian Heilemann, founding partner at AENU, a climate-focused Article 9 fund reshaping what institutional-grade impact investing looks like in Europe.
A former serial entrepreneur turned VC heavyweight, Fabian spent nearly a decade at Earlybird before launching AENU alongside his brother. Today, he leads a €170M early-stage climate tech fund with one clear mission: backing ventures that can decarbonize at gigaton scale.
In this episode, we dive into Fabian’s journey from angel investor missteps to system-level innovation, and what it takes to truly build an impact-native VC platform—beyond surface-level ESG.
We talk about why the old fund structures don’t cut it for deep tech and climate moonshots, what real accountability looks like for impact metrics, and why mission-aligned founders are starting to demand more than just capital.
🎯 This Episode’s Themes
Why Fabian walked away from generalist VC to go all-in on climate
The hard truths of raising an evergreen fund in a bear market
What it takes to measure impact—beyond the marketing slide
How AENU’s founders “walk the talk” in company operations
Why biodiversity collapse may hit harder than climate
Here’s what’s covered:
00:00 | Meet Fabian: From founder to Earlybird GP to climate VC
03:30 | When the science became too loud to ignore
06:00 | Early mistakes in angel investing—and how it shaped AENU
08:45 | Building AENU: Clean slate, pure play, Article 9
12:00 | Impact metrics that matter: CO₂e saved or removed
15:30 | Walking the talk: Travel policy, green ops & founder integrity
18:45 | Challenging the 10-year VC fund model
22:30 | Why climate tech exits need more patient capital
26:00 | The failed evergreen experiment—and what it taught them
30:00 | Climate vs. biodiversity: The next systemic wave
33:30 | Why Sequoia won’t fix this—but emerging managers might
36:15 | Founder redemptions: Building for impact after fast commerce
40:00 | The reality of fundraising as an impact-first VC
43:00 | AENU’s three pillars: Energy, decarb & climate adaptation
🎧 Watch or tune in on Apple or Spotify. Chapters are available for easy navigation.
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Reinventing with Venture: How Corporates Can Actually Innovate
In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm and Jeppe Høier sit down with Florian Noell, PwC’s Global Venturing & EMEA Startups & Scale-ups Leader. Florian draws on his rare blend of experience as a founder, ecosystem advocate, and now corporate innovator to unpack the evolution—and missed opportunities—of corporate venture capital across Europe.
They delve deeply into what distinguishes enduring CVCs from the 3.7-year average lifespan, how to avoid wasting money as a corporate angel, and the structural shifts needed to transition from optics to outcomes. With both realism and optimism, this is a masterclass on corporate-startup collaboration done right—and wrong.
This one’s for ecosystem builders, corporate strategists, and VCs looking to make CVC work in the long term.
Here’s what’s covered:
02:10 | Two Hats, One Mission: How Florian Took His Founder Lens to PwC
05:50 | What Great Corporate-Startup Collaboration Looks Like
08:30 | Why CVCs Die After 3.7 Years—and How to Beat the Odds
11:20 | Structuring for Success: The 10 Building Blocks to a Lasting CVC
14:00 | Venture Clienting vs. Venture Investing
17:40 | The Case for Later-Stage Investing—If You Can Afford It
21:15 | LP Investing as a Smart Starting Point
25:50 | Policy’s Role: Useful, But Not the Magic Fix
30:00 | Changing the Corporate Mindset
34:00 | Why Corporates Don’t Reinvent Themselves—And What to Do About It
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts — now with chapters for easy navigation 🎧
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This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
Welcome back to another episode of the EUVC Podcast, your trusted inside track on the people, deals, and dynamics shaping European venture.
This week, 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.
They dive into the EU’s latest corporate structure reforms, the battle with resistant notaries, and the implications for startup formation and cross-border investing. Then it’s onto LLM innovation in China, valuation exuberance in AI, and the strategic shifts in capital allocation. The group finishes by zooming out on macro policy, sovereignty debates, and a cautious optimism for European tech.
Whether you’re an investor, founder, or policymaker trying to navigate Europe’s choppy regulatory waters — this one’s for you.
Here’s what’s covered:
02:00 | Startup law, friction, and EU Inc.
06:30 | The SAFE envy
09:30 | Founders as fund managers — and vice versa
12:00 | From Pink Floyd to trillion-parameter models
17:30 | Capital efficiency and compute arbitrage
21:00 | UK startup ecosystem: a shadow of its former self?
25:00 | Fundraising cycles and trapped capital
28:00 | D2C health — a comeback?
31:00 | Crypto week in Europe?
35:00 | Macro clouds and haven-hunting
🎧 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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✍️ Insights Article of The Week
UK Health Tech: Crossing the Series A Chasm
Early-stage boom, but few make it past Series A
While UK health‑tech continues to attract seed and Series A funding, there's a sharp drop-off beyond. Just 11% of VC investment in 2019–2023 reached Series B and later stages.
What’s causing the gap?
Many startups pivot to debt financing or stall.
With the UK IPO market nearly frozen, investors hesitate without clear exits.
M&A is the new normal
In 2025, 100% of health‑tech exits were acquisitions. Large pharma, NHS vendors, and big tech are snapping up early‑stage players in AI, diagnostics, and telehealth.
Where the money flows now
Funding is rebounding—£4.2B raised in Q1 2025, with AI-powered health‑tech and NHS-aligned solutions leading the charge.
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