Hi friends,

If you are raising a round or deciding whether to invest in one, what are you actually optimising for?

For founders, more capital and a higher valuation can create room to move faster. For investors, more ownership and a lower entry price can improve the return profile. But push either side too far and you can create problems that only become visible later.

The real question is whether the round works for everyone over the life of the company.

How much dilution is sensible at this stage? Does the valuation leave enough room for the next round? Will founders and employees still own enough to stay motivated? And can investors build the ownership they need without making the company harder to finance later?

We think these trade-offs deserve more attention because a funding round does much more than put money in the bank. It shapes the cap table, future fundraising options, incentives and ultimately the returns available to everyone involved.

For founders, that means looking beyond the headline valuation and understanding what you are giving up today and what flexibility you are preserving for tomorrow.

For investors, it means thinking beyond the entry price and asking whether the deal leaves the company, founders and future investors set up for what comes after.

So this week, we have pulled together a few resources that explore these decisions from both sides, from dilution and term sheets to investment evaluation and fund returns.

We have also shared a new partnership we're excited about, a few opportunities worth considering, upcoming AMA sessions and some other content we think belongs on your radar.

Enjoy the read.

with 💖
David & Andreas

A funding round does more than add cash to the bank. It changes ownership, control and the choices available later, so founders need to understand what sits behind the headline valuation and what those decisions mean over time.

A round needs to work for the fund without making the company harder to finance or leaving founders with the wrong incentives. These resources look at ownership, valuation, capital needs and how investors can think about financing beyond a single round.

We’re pleased to be partnering with Luxembourg Venture Days on October 14–15 at Luxexpo The Box.

The event brings together investors, founders, corporates and institutions from across Europe to explore how venture is evolving, where capital is moving and what comes next for founders and investors.

Main Stage themes include:

Speakers include:

It’s an opportunity for startups and scaleups to meet investors and build new partnerships, while investors, corporates and institutions can connect with founders, co-investors and peers from across Europe.

We’ll share more details soon and hope to see you in Luxembourg.

Everyone got AI. Adoption barely followed. That’s where most corporate rollouts are stuck: licences everywhere, behaviour nowhere.

On August 27, Nils Wagner, CEO of REHAU New Ventures, takes live questions on what it took for everything to suddenly change: moving AI from company-wide rollout to real adoption, with senior leadership owning the change.

REHAU’s numbers: 10% of the installed user base actively using AI within four months, and about 94% of a previously high-friction invoice workflow now automated. The lever was the venture unit, connecting startups, tools and internal teams into deployed workflows via their AI platform, AI Academy and AI Factory.

60 minutes, live, with Andreas Munk Holm and Jeppe Høier. The room is capped at 20 seats and the replay stays with registrants only.

The EUVC Hall of Fame recognises a decade or more of sustained impact on European venture through founders backed, firms built and ideas advanced.

At this year’s summit, we were pleased to induct Sonali De Rycker, Partner at Accel, as our 2025 honouree.

In her acceptance remarks, she reflects on choosing Europe early, how the ecosystem has compounded and why she still believes Europe can build global technology leaders.

Slush and RAISE Global are once again teaming up for Slush x RAISE, Europe’s leading emerging manager event.

On November 18, 20 emerging managers raising Funds I–III and investing in Europe will pitch their funds directly to an audience of LPs at Slush.

Applications are open until August 10 for managers looking to get in front of leading allocators and build new LP relationships.

What happens when AI agents stop simply following instructions and start deceiving the humans around them?

In the latest episode of This Week in European Tech, Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen of SuperSeed are joined by Sion Evans, Managing Director at VenCap, to discuss what new AI security tests reveal about increasingly autonomous systems.

They also cover: