Hi Friends and Happy New Year from EUVC,
A new year is the moment to ask a harder question: what truly scales in Europe and what breaks as it does?
This week’s newsletter looks ahead at how European tech grows when reliability matters, capital must compound, and founders move from local traction to continental and even global relevance.
From AI-driven software reliability, to diversified venture platforms, to disciplined fintech scaling, each example highlights a different approach to building and operating complex systems at scale.
The common thread is trust - trust in technology, in governance structures, and in long-term alignment.
We close with a first-principles look at why we invest in venture funds at all: not as tourists chasing returns, but as long-term allocators shaping what gets built across Europe next.
Here’s to building for what lasts.
Hope you enjoy.
with 💖 David & Andreas
Table of Contents
Podcasts of The Week
Insights of The Week
Enjoy EUVC? Help us make it even better
Access exclusive content and help grow the EUVC community. Better minds make for better conversations.
When you choose to support EUVC—by subscribing or referring others—you’re investing in a more independent, more insightful, and more connected European venture ecosystem.
Your support allows us to:
Stay fiercely independent — no sponsor-pleasing fluff, no diluted views
Go deeper and speak bolder — the insights and conversations others won’t publish
Build a high-signal community — where your network (and access) keeps compounding
Thank you for being part of EUVC.
🎧 Podcasts of The Week
Pooné Mukherjee, Ewake & Pietro Bezza, Connect Ventures: Building the AI Teammate for Software Reliability
Modern software doesn’t fail quietly. It fails in production, under pressure, when the cost of confusion is highest. In this EUVC Podcast episode, Pooné Mokari (CEO & Co-Founder, Ewake) and Pietro Bezza (Managing Partner, Connect Ventures) discuss why today’s observability stacks overwhelm teams with data but offer little explanation and how Ewake is building an AI teammate, not just another dashboard.
Fresh off a €2M pre-seed led by Connect, the conversation explores reliability as a first-order product problem, the rise of AI agents as a reasoning layer across logs, metrics, and code, and what it takes to build a global DevTools company out of Paris.
Key takeaways:
Reliability fails in production: teams need interpretation, not more dashboards
AI agents enable a new reasoning layer on top of existing observability tools
Product-first founder insight and trust-by-design are the real moats in AI infrastructure
🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify, or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.
Michael Brehm, Redstone: One Investment, 200 Ventures — The New Blueprint for European VC Access
In this EUVC Pitch Episode, we go inside Redstone, one of Europe’s original data-driven VC platforms, with co-founder Michael Brehm. Built as a company from day one and not just a collection of funds, Redstone pairs specialist VC strategies with a proprietary software stack to compound consistently and avoid hype cycles.
Michael introduces the Redstone Global Venture LTIF, an evergreen structure that gives investors exposure to 200+ European ventures through a single allocation, while unpacking why specialization, right-sized funds, and Europe’s pricing dynamics create a structurally advantaged return engine.
Key takeaways:
One investment, 200+ ventures: broad European VC exposure via a single evergreen LTIF
Data-driven VC only works when software, process, and teams are built as one system
Specialization and fund-size discipline drive faster DPI and more consistent returns
🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify, or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.
Giovanni Daprà & Paolo Gesess: Moneyfarm’s Journey, United Ventures’ Playbook & How Europe’s Fintech Winners Scale
In this EUVC Podcast episode, Giovanni Daprà (CEO & Co-Founder, Moneyfarm) and Paolo Gesess (Co-founder & GP, United Ventures) unpack what it really takes to build and scale a European fintech from Italy.
From Moneyfarm’s journey from Milan to a pan-European digital wealth manager to United Ventures’ long-term, discipline-first approach to backing founders, the conversation explores how Europe’s fintech winners are shaped by governance, capital cycles, and a shift from blitzscaling to default-alive growth, with M&A emerging as the next lever for expansion.
Key takeaways:
Europe rewards disciplined scaling over blitzscaling, especially in regulated fintech
Italy has matured into a credible launchpad for pan-European tech companies
Long-term founder–VC alignment, governance, and M&A readiness define European winners
🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify, or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.
This Week in European Tech with Dan, Mads & Lomax
In this episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen (SuperSeed), and Lomax Ward (Outsized Ventures) connect the week’s biggest signals across AI, regulation, geopolitics, and capital, from OpenAI’s health-focused ChatGPT and the FDA’s push to move “at Silicon Valley speed,” to Trump’s Greenland fixation and what it implies for European sovereignty.
They also unpack Meta buying into the AI applications layer, Octopus Energy’s Kraken spin-out as a European “hidden champion,” Nvidia’s physical AI push, and why European pension incentives keep starving venture-scale outcomes.
Key takeaways:
US deregulates while Europe hesitates: AI advantage is increasingly policy-shaped
AI is moving from chat to regulated deployment (healthcare, devices, workflows)
Applications + distribution are the new battleground (Meta’s playbook)
Pensions, not founders, are Europe’s biggest bottleneck
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
We’ve been listening to Hugo Rauch’s New Wave, and the AI for Materials: Breakthrough or Illusion? The episode stood out. Check it out.
Insights of The Week
Part I: Why invest into venture funds?
EUVC exists to invest in venture funds as a community, not as tourists. We’re operators, founders, execs, and investors who believe venture is one of the most meaningful ways to shape the future: a responsibility, not just an asset class. We deliberately reject polish and posturing in favour of honesty, humour, and conviction, because building a family of aligned peers matters more than building a faceless capital pool. As Unruly Capital’s Stefano Bernardi puts it, venture is ultimately about deciding what gets built and we believe that choice should optimise for long-term impact, not incremental convenience.
Key takeaways:
EUVC is a high-conviction, value-add community — not a passive LP syndicate
We optimise for impact, alignment, and contribution, not just cheque size
Our goal: diversified access to Europe’s best funds, alongside the strongest investor network and learning curve in European venture
What do VCs actually get paid? 💰
The VC Compensation Benchmark is back—and if you work in venture, we need your input.
Last year, 400+ VCs and CVCs across 24 countries contributed. This year, we’re raising the bar to deliver the most useful, trusted snapshot of VC compensation in the industry.
Take part and help shape the benchmark.
✅ 100% anonymous
🚫 No emails, no personal data—ever
Add your data. Strengthen the signal.
Thank you — we’ll share the full results with you soon!
A small step toward better fund models (for all of us)
We’ve been digging deep into fund modelling - through masterclasses, podcasts and countless GP/LP conversations. One thing is clear: everyone’s wrestling with similar challenges, but almost nobody talks about them openly.
So we’re pulling together a shared snapshot for the whole community. Not an ask — just something we’re building together so we can all get a clearer picture of where the real friction points are in fund modelling today.
You can read about it here but, more importantly, please add your voice 👇.
We’ll gather the themes and share them back with everyone. No fluff - just striving continuously to raise the bar and giving Europe’s venture ecosystem the signal it’s been missing.
Grateful to be building this with you all.
🤗 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.