At the EUVC Summit 2025, Stephen Lowery of HSBC Innovation Banking laid out a vision that wasn’t just about capital—it was about building the infrastructure to unlock the next wave of innovation.
“The future is not going to finance itself.”
And the tools we need? Most of them don’t exist yet.
The Problem: Our Financial Stack Is Outdated
We’re entering a new era—one where emerging categories like robotics, deeptech, AI hardware, and compute-intensive models demand new forms of financial support.
But most of our current instruments were built for a different generation of tech.
Stephen reminded us of the pre-SaaS era, when software businesses lived and died by upfront license fees. It wasn’t until financing models evolved that subscription software (and eventually SaaS) could flourish.
“Just like we innovated in software 20 years ago, we need to do the same now—in hardware, robotics, and beyond.”
What We Need: Purpose-Based Financing for a New Age
Stephen called for three key building blocks:
Blended Capital
→ Mix long-term venture equity with creative debt structures
→ Pair revenue-based financing with contract support
→ Add credit insurance into the mixCategory-Specific Models
→ Think robot-as-a-service, compute-as-a-service
→ Let hardware businesses monetize more like software onesCollaboration
→ VCs, banks, LPs, and operators need to co-build
→ “Let’s do more than finance innovation—let’s finance the infrastructure that enables it.”
A Call to Builders (Not Just Founders)
Stephen’s message wasn’t just for investors. It was for architects—those willing to help engineer the future of capital itself.
“We need to work together in partnership to build the tools that will finance the industries of tomorrow.”
Finance is no longer a back-office utility. It’s a frontline enabler of innovation.
And if we want European ventures to lead the next wave—we need to start building the financial rails today.
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