EUVC

Today we are happy to welcome Robin Godenrath managing director and founding partner of Picus Capital.

Picus Capital is managing an investment portfolio of more than 1bn EUR and was the first investor in European unicorns such as Personio and Enpal.

Today we have Sarah Drinkwater with us. Sarah is the General Partner at Common Magic, a pre-seed/seed solo GP fund investing in and supporting founders building products with community at their core across Europe and the US.

Today we are happy to welcome Ambre Soubiran. A mathematician by training, she has spent the first decade of her career working in the equity derivatives and capital markets industry. Amber has a passion for world-changing technologies and is personally interested and invested in the digital assets space since 2012. Amber is currently the CEO of Kaiko, the reference market data provider in the blockchain industry. Kaiko is a global organisation with offices in NYC, London, Paris, and Singapore, servicing top-tier financial institutions and enterprises with reliable and actionable financial data.

Today we have Johannes Weber with us. Johannes is a serial entrepreneur and a pioneer in the field of impact venture capital in Europe. With his team in Munich, Berlin and London, he manages over €200M and invests in technology-based companies in areas such as climate, health and education (the so-called impact unicorns). Johannes has been interested in the interface between entrepreneurship and "personal mastery" for many years and is enthusiastic about bringing and passing on his knowledge to the companies he finances.

Ananda Impact Ventures are investing out of Fund IV with a total 200€ AUM and an established portfolio of 35 companies and notable investments including E-DNA Company Nature Metrics, New Space Company OroraTech and Education Company One Day. At Ananda Impact Ventures, Johannes Weber focuses on TechBio, Education and Climate in Europe and led the investments into Closed Loop Medicine, One Day and Auticon.

Today, we have with us Saeed, Vice President of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, where he works towards transforming the city of Dubai into an international technology hub. Saeed was previously the Director of Dubai Future Academy, an initiative under Dubai Future Foundation. He has also led projects for the foundation such as the Global Coders Initiative, the 1 Million Arab Coders-project as well as the foundation’s upskilling program. Additionally, he has considerable experience at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center as Mission Strategist for the Emirates Mars Mission and Program Director for the UAE's 100-year space exploration strategy, the Mars 2117 Programme.

Jump to the parts that matter most to you 👀
00:00:00 - Introduction to Saeed and the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy
00:02:10 - From the Space Program to Ecosystem Building & Venture
00:06:08 - The Mars 2117 Program
00:10:50 - The Trade & Commerce History of Dubai
00:13:02 - Dubai's Resilience and Business-Focused Mindset
00:14:51 - Dubai as a Testbed for Innovation
00:16:38 - The Evolution of the Funding Landscape
00:18:32 - The Love for Experimentation in the Government of Dubai
00:20:10 - Experimenting with Global Market Solutions in Dubai
00:23:36 - Dubai as an Location for Engineering Talent
00:25:22 - Dubai as a Gateway for Business Opportunities
00:27:04 - Support for Investors in Dubai
00:28:41 - Investing in Tech and Transforming Nations
00:30:32 - Investment Opportunities for Family Businesses in Dubai
00:32:11 - Family Business Investments and Market Access in Dubai
00:33:45 - Connecting Businesses with Dubai
00:35:37 - Expand Northstar and Market Access Opportunities
00:37:24 - Launchpad Dubai and the Benefits for Companies
00:39:09 - Creating the Perfect Ecosystem for Growth

Noor Sweid is the General Partner of Global Ventures, a UAE-based international venture capital firm with presence in Cairo, Jeddah, Riyadh, Tunis and Lagos. Noor was the Chief Investment Officer at The Dubai Future Foundation and Managing Partner at Leap Ventures.

Prior, Noor joined her family business, Depa, where she scaled the business tenfold, executed four cross border acquisitions and led the region’s first IPO on the LSE and the NASDAQ Dubai, achieving a billion+ dollar valuation.

Noor has also been recognized in Forbes’ World’s Top 50 Women in Tech, and the Arabian Business 100 Most Powerful Arab Women list. And to top it off, she has also received the prestigous Arab Woman Award for Finance.

Today we are happy to welcome Philipp von dem Knesebeck, Co-Founder of Blue Future Partners, a European Venture Capital Fund of Funds with a global mandate to back Emerging Managers and start-ups across the USA, Europe, Israel and Asia-Pacific.

Prior to co-founding Blue Future Partners in 2015, Philipp spent five years running the Venture Capital activities of a European Family Office from 2011 to 2015. There he started building substantial expertise in both fund and direct investments in early and growth–stage companies. His investment focus was predominantly in the software and internet space with geographic exposure ranging from the US to Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Today we have Andrew Noble with us. Andrew is a partner at Par Equity, an early-stage venture fund backing health tech, climate tech and industrial tech companies. Par Equity invests in the north of the UK, applies a hybrid investment model (angel approach meets VC), and focuses on B2B IP rich companies to create outstanding results.
Par Equity has a total of £213m AUM and an established portfolio of 77 companies, 48 in the current portfolio and 29 exits, and notable investments including Integrated Graphene, AEM, Fuuse, Current Health, Delta DNA and ICS Learn.

Today we have Sam Endacott with us. Sam is a Partner at firstminute, a $400m seed-stage venture fund based in London & Berlin to back founders across Europe (and opportunistically in the US and Rest of World). The fund has invested across all sectors and is a generalist VC but has typically focused on SaaS, DeepTech, Developer Tools and FinTech. firstminute is backed by over 130 unicorn founders in addition to current and former CEOs of Global Corporates.

firstminute are investing out of Fund III with a total $100m AUM and an established portfolio of over 130 companies. Notable investments include A.Team, Storyblok, Robocorp, Engflow, Wayve, Klang, Clockwork Labs, Ramp, Element and Generation Home. The portfolio has raised follow-on financing rounds from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomico, Index, Benchmark, Coatue, Softbank, Tiger, General Catalyst, Northzone, Mubadala Capital, NFX, Balderton, D1, Felicis, Bain Capital and Tencent. At firstminute, Sam focuses on SaaS, Developer Tools, AI / ML and FinTech and has led investments into a number of the fund’s high performing companies such as Storyblok (raised $58m) and a number of recent deals in the AI / ML space which are not yet announced!

This episode is a first of its kind, ‘cos we sat down one of the managers we’ve decided to back here at eu.vc for a pitch session with one of our good friends in the LP ecosystem. So in this episode, you’ll hear two voices from each side of the table: that of Marc Penkala founding GP of Altitude, a 70 M€ early stage fund to close the European SME gap, and Michael Sidgmore, Partner and co-founder of Broadhaven Ventures, a US-based global early-stage financial technology investor that invests principal capital into fintech companies, VC funds, and incubates asset management businesses. Broadhaven’s portfolio counts 20 VC funds and 100 early stage companies with notable investments including Carta, Nowports, Republic and Kovi. Michael is also the founder of alternative investments focused podcast Alt Goes Mainstream. Michael is an owner of Angel City FC, the women's soccer team in LA. So with no further ado, let’s get pitching.