Hi friends,

While markets remain fixated on copilots and productivity software, a quieter build is underway inside industrial systems.

Some of the most ambitious AI companies being built today are operating in manufacturing, robotics, chemistry and energy infrastructure where reliability is non-negotiable, deployment cycles are long and proprietary data, workflow integration and switching costs compound into durable advantage.

That is the thread running through both The Future in Focus 2026, a report by leading early-stage investors across Europe and the US, and our conversation with Ro Gupta from Toyota’s Woven Capital:

The next wave of AI value creation may come less from standalone software products and more from integrated industrial systems.

If so, Europe’s industrial depth could prove far more valuable than the market currently assumes.

In this edition, we also feature insights from SolvaPay and Redstone on why AI agents may require an entirely new payment infrastructure layer, and from Speedinvest, Felix Capital and True on why engagement still remains the strongest signal in consumer.

Alongside this: a spotlight on our LP AMA with Dominic Maier on May 19 and a structuring masterclass by Isomer Capital and Mara covering warehousing, feeder structures and co-investments.

We hope the ideas here leave you with useful signals for where technology and venture may be heading next.

with 💖
David & Andreas

Insights

Podcasts

Events

A growing divide is forming between companies wrapping model APIs and companies embedding AI into industrial systems where deployment, reliability and proprietary data matter more than interfaces.

The Future in Focus 2026: Advancing AI, published by Atlantic, KOMPAS VC, Lowercarbon Capital, Maze, Norrsken VC, RAISE Ventures and SET Ventures, explores 28 startups and 7 frontier AI trends shaping the next era of industrial AI and argues that Europe’s industrial depth may become one of its biggest AI advantages.

AI agents can now write code, analyse data and execute workflows. The missing layer is payments.

SolvaPay is building infrastructure for a world where agents can buy APIs, access datasets and transact autonomously, while Redstone is betting that agentic payments could become an entirely new infrastructure layer.

Andreas Munk Holm spoke with SolvaPay CEO and Co-Founder Viggo Stenseth and Redstone General Partners Samuli Sirén and Mickaël Bellaïche about why identity, protocol interoperability and regulatory moats may become foundational to AI-native commerce.

Key themes

Growth can be bought. Engagement cannot.

In the first episode of the Consumer Tech Napkin series, Andreas Munk Holm hosts Sameer Singh from Speedinvest, Susan Lin from Felix Capital and Joe Seager-Dupuy from True to discuss why the strongest consumer companies are still built around habits, retention and customer love rather than acquisition alone.

As Sameer puts it, “engagement per user going up over time” remains “the single most important indicator that something is working.”

Key themes

While much of venture is chasing the next AI hype cycle, Toyota is thinking in 100-year time horizons.

Ro Gupta, CEO and Managing Director of Woven Capital, describes Toyota’s venture strategy as a fleet of “speedboats” operating around the company’s industrial “supertanker”, helping Toyota explore technologies and markets long before they become commercially obvious.

Joining Andreas Munk Holm and Jeppe Høier, he explains why Toyota believes the next wave of value creation will come from integrated industrial systems connecting manufacturing, robotics, energy, compute and mobility.

Key themes