Every investment tests two kinds of conviction: whether the company can deliver and whether the capital will remain committed long enough to find out.

The diligence should run in both directions. Companies need to understand the mandate, incentives and staying power behind the money. Investment teams need a model that guides what to back, what to reject and how to remain supportive through pivots, failures and long return cycles.

Haufe Group Ventures offers a useful example. It started lean, spent its first year finding a model the corporate could sustain and chose an evergreen balance-sheet structure. Three investment professionals have since completed more than 20 deals across 14 portfolio companies, including follow-ons.

That model also provides discipline when inflated valuations and headline rounds create FOMO. As Managing Director Jasper Roll puts it: “Saying no is far harder than saying yes to an investment.”

In our latest episode, he joins us to explore how credible venture partnerships are built, why commitment must precede capital and how direct investing, venture building and LP investing reinforce one another.

Alongside the conversation, you’ll find practical resources to assess alignment, strengthen portfolio discipline and choose partners who remain useful beyond the cheque.

Elsewhere in this edition, you’ll find updates from across European tech and venture, plus our latest snapshot of European funding rounds.

With 💖
David & Andreas

An investor may remain on the cap table for years, even as the people, priorities and strategy behind the investment change. Before accepting corporate capital, test the mandate, follow-on capacity and decision-making power behind it, then ask what support will remain available when the company pivots or the market turns.

Credibility begins with a mandate the organisation can defend through failures, leadership changes and long return cycles. A clear strategy, repeatable decision process and realistic portfolio model make it easier to reject misaligned deals and honour commitments already made.

Bringing pension capital into venture depends on adapting the structure without weakening the investment strategy.

Pavel Mucha, Founder of Aspire11, explains how the firm secured a €500 million commitment from a Czech pension fund while preserving long holding periods, concentrated portfolios and a global mandate.

The price of an electron increasingly determines where AI infrastructure and advanced manufacturing can compete.

Joe McDonald, CEO and Co-Founder of tem, joins Adam Chirkowski, Partner at AlbionVC, to explain how rebuilding energy transactions with AI could lower costs and give Europe a strategic advantage.

Europe’s depth in science and industry could prove more valuable than matching US frontier models on scale.

Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen and Priyanka Savjani of SuperSeed examine what Isomorphic Labs reveals about the UK’s AI-for-science edge and who is financing the infrastructure race around it.

→ Startup funding rounds

Last-mile economics break down when a car or moped crosses a city carrying a single meal.

Patrick Murphy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Tapestry VC, explains how Manna’s 300,000 deliveries point to an autonomous model that could remove millions of inefficient car journeys from local logistics.