EUVC

How do you build a €3.5 billion private markets platform in Europe?

David Cruz e Silva speaks with Jaap Vriesendorp, Managing Partner at Marktlink Capital, about building a leading private markets platform backed primarily by entrepreneurs and high-net-worth families.

Jaap explains why Marktlink sees scale as a competitive advantage in private markets, enabling better fund access, flexible ticket sizing and stronger operational infrastructure. The conversation also explores the firm’s merger strategy, annual fund structures, vintage diversification and ambitions to expand across Europe.

The episode comes shortly after Inflexion announced a minority investment into Marktlink Capital through Partnership Capital III, backing the firm’s next phase of European growth.

Key highlights

• Scaling to nearly €3.5 billion AUM backed mostly by entrepreneurs
• Why scale matters for fund access and LP consistency
• Combining venture and private equity capabilities
• Annual fund structures and vintage diversification
• Building infrastructure for long-term European expansion

Timestamps

• (01:00) Introduction and Jaap’s background
• (06:00) From McKinsey to launching a venture fund-of-funds
• (07:00) The early merger strategy behind Marktlink Capital
• (09:30) Building a platform backed by Dutch entrepreneurs
• (12:30) Why scale matters in private markets
• (19:00) Product strategy across venture, private equity and private credit
• (24:00) Building the firm, hiring philosophy and using AI internally
• (33:00) Venture strategy, vintage diversification and emerging managers
• (41:00) What Marktlink looks for in emerging venture managers

Further listening:

E347: The $26B CIO Who Turned Superforecasting Into Alpha - How I Invest with David Weisburd

Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, refused to leave London, challenged Google on AI safety and helped lead DeepMind back into the AI race.

Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine and The Power Law, joins Andreas Munk Holm to discuss the founder psychology of Demis, the story behind DeepMind and why Europe may be entering a new era in technology.

The conversation explores DeepMind’s fundraising journey, the Google acquisition, the merger with Google Brain, AI safety, sovereign technology and why Demis remains sceptical of parts of Silicon Valley culture despite operating at the centre of it.

Timestamps

• (00:00) Why Demis Hassabis matters
• (01:12) Why DeepMind could not raise from European VCs
• (07:35) The Peter Thiel chess story
• (11:00) What DeepMind reveals about European venture
• (14:42) Why Europe’s tech ecosystem is accelerating
• (18:20) European sovereignty, defence tech and AI
• (21:20) DeepMind’s sale to Google and tensions over AI safety
• (29:40) The founder psychology of Demis
• (41:35) Google’s ChatGPT moment and Gemini’s comeback
• (45:05) Demis’ critique of Silicon Valley
• (50:45) Europe’s AI sovereignty problem
• (54:05) Final thoughts and Sebastian’s new book

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Batteries do not just power products anymore. They shape what products can be built.

In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm speaks with Michael Brehm and Mohamed Foulser from Redstone alongside Moritz H. Futscher, CEO and Co-Founder of BTRY, about why the next wave of battery innovation is not about bigger battery packs but entirely new form factors.

BTRY is a Swiss battery startup developing an ultra-thin, foldable solid-state battery designed for IoT, medtech and consumer electronics.

Founded in 2023 as an Empa and ETH Zürich spin-off, the company is building a new category of batteries aimed at enabling products that previously were not possible.

The discussion covers Europe’s industrial opportunity in batteries, the importance of scalable manufacturing, overlooked opportunities in embedded electronics and why the future of hardware may make batteries effectively disappear.

Key highlights

• Why battery innovation is shifting from chemistry to product design and manufacturing
• How BTRY is creating a new category of ultra-thin batteries
• Why scalability matters more than lab breakthroughs in deep tech
• Europe’s opportunity to build globally competitive battery companies
• What embedded batteries could unlock across wearables, sensors and medtech

Timestamps

• (00:00) Why batteries still limit innovation
• (04:10) The overlooked opportunity in sub-1Ah batteries
• (07:25) Rebuilding battery manufacturing from scratch
• (10:00) What foldable batteries could enable
• (14:00) Smart labels, sensors and embedded devices
• (18:00) Why scaling production is the real challenge
• (24:30) Can Europe compete in batteries?
• (34:00) The future of ultra-thin battery-powered products

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What changes when AI agents can transact on their own?

Andreas Munk Holm speaks with Viggo Stenseth, CEO and Co-Founder of SolvaPay, alongside Redstone General Partners Samuli Sirén and Mickaël Bellaïche, about building payment infrastructure for the agentic economy.

The conversation explores agent-to-agent transactions, usage-based billing, protocol interoperability, regulatory moats and why existing payment rails may not be designed for AI-native commerce.

Key highlights

• Why AI agents need payment infrastructure built for agentic commerce
• How businesses can monetise APIs, datasets and digital services used by agents
• Why SolvaPay plugs into existing financial rails rather than bypassing them
• The “battle of protocols” across agent marketplaces and ecosystems
• Why regulation, licensing and identity matter in agentic payments

Timestamps

• (00:00) Why payments are blocking the agentic economy
• (02:00) What SolvaPay is building
• (05:10) Why customers already want agent-to-agent transactions
• (06:30) Existing financial rails versus crypto-native approaches
• (08:10) The “battle of protocols” and AI marketplaces
• (12:00) Redstone on why agentic payments are real
• (17:20) Why Redstone invested before traction existed
• (27:00) Can SolvaPay become the Stripe for AI agents?
• (32:00) Why incumbents may struggle to adapt
• (36:10) Building long term versus building for exit
• (41:00) Does the world need an agentic bank?

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe

Most corporates struggle to move fast enough for AI and robotics. Toyota’s answer is corporate venture.

In this episode, Andreas Munk Holm and Jeppe Høier speak with Ro Gupta, CEO and Managing Director of Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth-stage venture fund focused on mobility, AI, automation and climate technology.

They discuss how Toyota uses CVC to identify frontier technologies, work with startups and think decades ahead.

Ro shares how Woven Capital functions as agile “speedboats” around Toyota’s industrial “supertanker”, scanning for strategic opportunities across AI, robotics, mobility, manufacturing and infrastructure.

Highlights

• Why Toyota invests through both “inside-out” and “outside-in” models

• How Woven evaluates AI, robotics and the future of labour

• Why strategic engagement matters more than passive investing

• How Toyota balances long-term thinking with venture-speed execution

• Why Europe is becoming increasingly important for Toyota’s innovation strategy

Timestamps

(00:00) Ro Gupta’s founder background and move into Toyota
(04:00) Startup operators vs corporate insiders in CVC
(10:00) Toyota’s multi-fund venture strategy
(15:00) The “supertanker and speedboats” framework
(18:00) AI hype cycles and long-term industrial strategy
(23:00) AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing themes
(27:00) What Woven Capital looks for in startups
(30:00) What founders expect from CVC investors
(33:00) How Woven collaborates with traditional VCs
(35:00) Europe’s role in Toyota’s future strategy
(39:00) Toyota’s next 100-year opportunity
(44:00) The “build, move and connect” framework

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe

What actually gets a consumer company funded in Europe? Fewer things than most founders think.

This is one of the questions the first episode of Consumer Tech Napkin explores, with Andreas Munk Holm joined by Sameer Singh (Partner with Speedinvest's Marketplaces and Consumer team), Susan Lin (Partner and Investor at Felix Capital) and Joe Seager-Dupuy (Director, Investment at True).

The conversation covers engagement as the real leading indicator, why a decade of cheap capital let weak products hide behind paid acquisition, what behavioural signals actually move investors and why AI is not the defensibility play most founders assume it is.

If you're building consumer, this one's worth your time.

Key highlights

• Engagement is the strongest signal in consumer software, not monetisation
• Growth can hide weak businesses when retention and organic acquisition are missing
• AI alone is not a moat and thin wrappers are easy to replicate
• Consumer is underfunded in Europe despite producing many of its biggest outcomes
• Blitzscaling only works when companies already have defensibility

Timestamps

• (00:00)⁠ What actually gets a consumer company funded in Europe?⁠
• (02:40)⁠ Why AI is not a platform shift
• ⁠(04:15)⁠ Thin AI wrappers and defensibility in consumer software
• ⁠(07:30) AI-enabled consumer opportunities in health, therapy and financial services
• ⁠(10:00)⁠ What investors actually look for in consumer startups
• ⁠(11:20)⁠ Why engagement is the strongest signal that something is working
• ⁠(15:10)⁠ Why behaviour matters more than surveys or narratives
• ⁠(19:00)⁠ Why consumer remains underweight in European venture
• ⁠(27:00)⁠ Marginal costs, pricing power and scalable business models
• ⁠(34:30)⁠ Why blitzscaling only works when companies already have a moat
• ⁠(39:00)⁠ Paid acquisition, defensibility and sustainable growth
• ⁠(41:30)⁠ Felix Capital’s consumer investing scorecard

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe

This week on This Week in European Tech, Mads Jensen of SuperSeed, Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures and Andrew J Scott of 7percent Ventures discuss Arm’s AI pivot, Spotify earnings and Anthropic’s explosive growth.

The conversation also covers the EU’s clash with Meta, ASML’s semiconductor moat, UK fusion ambitions and SAP’s €1 billion acquisition of Prior Labs.

Key highlights

• Why AI may be shifting demand back towards CPUs
• Anthropic’s explosive growth, cloud spending and IPO speculation
• The debate around AI safety, regulation and national security
• ASML’s semiconductor dominance and China’s AI workarounds
• Why energy infrastructure and industrial policy matter for AI

Timestamps

• (00:00) Intro and this week’s themes
• (02:00) Arm and Spotify earnings reactions
• (05:00) Arm’s shift from licensing to AI CPUs
• (09:00) Agentic AI and rising CPU demand
• (11:00) Anthropic growth, cloud spending and valuation speculation
• (16:00) Enterprise AI implementation and PE-backed AI services
• (23:00) AI safety, regulation and national security debates
• (31:00) The EU’s clash with Meta over AI access in WhatsApp
• (39:00) ASML, semiconductor infrastructure and China’s catch-up efforts
• (46:00) UK fusion ambitions and strategic industrial policy
• (55:00) SAP acquires Prior Labs for €1 billion

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe

Europe isn’t a collection of isolated hubs. It’s an interconnected system where talent, capital and industry come together to build deep tech.

That's the perspective Julien Fredonie⁠, Program Lead for Europe and Africa at ⁠Honda Xcelerator Ventures⁠, shared on our latest episode hosted by Andreas Munk Holm and Jeppe Høier.

They spoke about why Europe’s deep tech moment is real, how the pipeline of founders is improving and why corporates are key to scaling hardware innovation.

They also explore the rise of specialised investors and where CVCs still get team evaluation wrong.

Key highlights

• Europe’s deep tech moment is structural, not hype
• Global investors have shifted from doubt to active allocation
• Founder quality is rising through education and support systems
• CVCs are critical to scaling deep tech companies
• CVCs miss critical signals when evaluating deep tech teams

Timestamps

(00:00) Europe as a deep tech “mesh”, not fragmented

(04:00) Julien’s role and investment scope at Honda Xcelerator Ventures

(08:00) Why Europe’s deep tech moment is happening now

(12:00) Education strength and rise of deep tech founders

(16:00) Team composition: diversity and complementarity

(20:00) New generation of deep tech GPs and hardware expertise

(26:00) The role of CVCs in scaling deep tech

(34:00) Team blind spots and founder evolution over 10+ years

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe

AI demand is surging, but infrastructure is the constraint, with memory now the key bottleneck.

In this episode of This Week in European Tech, Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen of SuperSeed explore a range of topics such as AI constraints, Big Tech earnings, monetisation, geopolitics, Europe’s position, and what capital flows into AI labs and SpaceX signal about what comes next.

Key highlights

• AI growth is constrained by memory and infrastructure
• Monetisation is accelerating as models use more tokens and cost more
• AI is a geopolitical battleground, with control over talent and IP
• Europe shows momentum, but regulation could hold companies back
• Performance gains are increasingly driven by application scaffolding

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction and opening headlines

(04:20) Big Tech earnings, cloud growth and AI demand

(07:30) Memory as the emerging AI bottleneck

(11:40) Frontier labs, Musk vs Altman and Manus

(14:00) US–China dynamics and export controls

(17:10) Ineffable, Recursive and Europe’s AI push

(20:00) Frontier model releases and AI monetisation

(25:00) SpaceX IPO, valuation and space compute

(30:00) EU AI Act and UK AI strategy

(34:30) Energy and infrastructure constraints

(41:00) Predictions and deals of the week

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: https://www.eu.vc/subscribe

AI is impressive, but not yet world-changing. The real shift comes next with quantum computing.

In this EUVC episode, ⁠Andreas Munk Holm⁠ speaks with ⁠Andy Leaver⁠, CEO of ⁠Arqit⁠ and Operating Partner at ⁠Notion Capital⁠.

They discuss why many European startups struggle to scale beyond €10 million to €30 million, why enterprise AI adoption remains experimental rather than immediate, and how quantum computing is set to redefine security and infrastructure.

The conversation also covers data sovereignty and the growing risk of “harvest now, decrypt later”.

Key highlights

• Most startups fail scaling from €10M to €30M
• AI is impressive, but not yet world-changing
• Enterprises are slow to adopt AI despite the hype
• Quantum could break current encryption
• The real breakthrough is AI + quantum combined

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro and Andy Leaver’s background

(05:30) Scaling lessons and the €10M to €30M challenge

(08:45) AI and SaaS: are the rules really changing?

(11:30) Enterprise AI adoption and experimental phase

(14:00) Shadow AI and enterprise risk

(17:00) Security, data sovereignty, and quantum threats

(26:30) AI today vs AI + quantum future

(35:30) Investing in quantum and the one-person billion-dollar company idea

Subscribe to EUVC, the home of European tech, for more insights: ⁠⁠https://www.eu.vc/subscribe⁠