Raising Europe with Tom Guinness

The UK has world-class research, but scaling academic breakthroughs into global market leaders requires long-term, patient capital. In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, I sat down with Rowan Bird, a deep tech investor at BGF - a major UK growth fund with over £5 billion deployed into more than 650 growth and early-stage businesses. In this episode, Rowan breaks down how BGF uses its self-funding evergreen structure to back hardware innovation across semiconductors, advanced materials, and AI infrastructure. He shares his framework for evaluating university spinouts, navigating deep tech valuation steps, and overcoming the fear of failure to build game-changing companies. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐊’𝐬 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡?➡️ The UK Spinout Engine: BGF builds close relationships with world-leading research institutions to back high-potential spinouts like Echion Technologies and Gaussion, helping technical teams shift from an R&D mindset to commercial markets. ➡️ Sovereign AI & Capital Realities: Rowan discusses the UK’s £500 million AI commitments, stressing the need for strict investor discipline during peak hype cycles while targeting infrastructure and compute bottlenecks. ➡️ How to Invest in Deep Tech - The Risk Transition Framework: To prevent Europe from falling behind global competitors, founders must align their fundraising with clear technical and commercial risk milestones from seed to multi-billion dollar exits. Chapters: 00:00 Intro & Rowan's Path to BGF02:45 Inside BGF: Funding UK Tech via an Evergreen Structure 06:10 Investing in the AI Infrastructure Layer & Compute Bottlenecks 14:00 Maintaining Investment Discipline During Peak Hype Cycle16:35 Debunking the Fear of Failure in European Venture Capital 21:05 Winning University Spinout Deals Across the UK & Ireland 23:30 Portfolio Deep Dive: Battery Tech to the $1.5B OrganOx Exit 26:15 The Must-Back Founder Profile: Low Ego, High Ambition 31:40 How VCs Price Risk & Value Deep Tech Inflection Points 39:20 Geopolitical Shifts & Mapping a Long-Term Funding Strategy Companies and institutions mentioned in this episode: Echion Technologies, Gaussion, OrganOx, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University College London.Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading founders & investors on our channel.You can follow Rowan Bird & BGF here:◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowan-bird-527a1ba4/ ◼ Website - https://www.bgf.co.uk/Follow Raising Europe here:◼ Raising Europe website - https://raisingeurope.com/◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/◼ Raising Europe Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#BGF #DeepTech #VentureCapital #RaisingEurope #TomGuinness #RowanBird #AIInfrastructure #AdvancedMaterials #UniversitySpinouts #UKTech #IrishTech #SovereignTech

Long before the generative AI hype cycle began, securing a true investment edge required deep technical pedigree. In this episode of The Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sits down with Barry Downes, Founder & Managing Partner of Sure Valley Ventures (SVV). Since 2017, SVV has deployed specialised pre-seed and seed venture capital into AI-native enterprise software exclusively across the UK & Ireland.

As a founder-operator turned veteran VC investor, Barry leverages his background building & exiting FeedHenry to Red Hat and directing machine learning research at the Walton Institute to spot breakthrough technologies. He breaks down how software is transitioning into an autonomous actor, why corporate competitive moats are shifting from foundational models to custom scaffolding, and how SVV dogfoods its own agentic stack to scale fund operations.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲’𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥?

➡️ The AI Investment Playbook: Launching SVV with AI as a core investment thesis in 2017, Barry brings rare market longevity to AI investing. He applies deep technical empathy from running a 140-person applied machine learning research lab to identify high-potential, early-stage technical teams and his team’s experience in building and exiting software companies to help with their commercial success.

➡️ Deconstructing the Enterprise AI Stack: Rejecting consumer-facing AI hype, SVV systematically deploys capital across the specialized B2B software layer. As core language models commoditize, Barry targets the "scaffolding" layer - where custom data workflows, context memory, and deep enterprise knowledge graphs own the customer relationship.

➡️ Dogfooding Agentic Workflows: SVV acts as a live testbed for fund automation, using custom AI agents built via their spin-out platform, Alludium AI, to scale deal origination, market mapping, and investment evaluation. To elevate the ecosystem, they’ve launched AgenticInvestor.org to open-source these operational agent templates for VCs and LPs.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:38 Core Software Architecture: Founding FeedHenry & Exiting to Red Hat

03:43 Translating Applied Machine Learning at the Walton Institute

04:53 Launching SVV: Thesis-Driven AI Investing Since 2017

09:35 UK & Ireland Portfolio Case Studies: Exits from Artomatics to Unity, and Getvisibility to Forcepoint

12:45 Mapping the Enterprise AI Stack: From Inference to Middleware

17:22 Model Commoditization vs. Sustainable AI Scaffolding Moats

19:27 Vertical Takeoff: Evaluating the Velocity of AI Scaling

22:53 Dogfooding the Venture Capital Lifecycle via Alludium AI

26:31 The Next Frontier: Automating Mathematics, Code, and Material Science

32:07 The Venture Capital Framework for Must-Back Founding Teams

35:23 Substance Over Storytelling: Verifying Reality in AI Due Diligence

36:28 Market Dynamics: Sizing and Pricing Pre-Seed & Seed AI Rounds

39:32 Launching AgenticInvestor.org: Open-Sourcing for VCs & LPs

45:42 Quick Fire Round: Investment Philosophy, Books, and Media

Other companies Discussed in this episode: Mirror Security, Overpath AI, Isomorphic Labs.

Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading founders & investors on our channel.

You can follow Barry Downes & SVV here:

◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrydownes/

◼ Website - https://www.surevalleyventures.com/

Follow Raising Europe here:

◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/

◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/

◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/

◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/

#SureValleyVentures #SVV #EnterpriseAI #VentureCapital #RaisingEurope #TomGuinness #BarryDownes #ArtificialIntelligence #TechInvesting #AIAgents #DeepTech #MachineLearning #Founders #UKTech #IrishTech

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business and a CFO or Finance Leader’s key metric, yet managing accounts receivable remains a broken, admin-heavy process. In the UK alone, working capital constraints cause 38 businesses to collapse every single day - and a staggering 40% of these late payments are caused by simple process, system, and admin errors. Instead of relying on rigid legacy automation tools that eliminate hours but fail to change financial outcomes, the future belongs to autonomous software. The goal is simple: building a brain trained solely to execute background workflows, handle customer conversations, and get businesses paid faster. That is exactly how Spinal operates - providing AI agents that get you paid and 10x the leverage of modern finance teams. In this episode of The Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sits down with Guiv Ardalan, CEO & Co-founder of Spinal. He breaks down how Spinal converts unstructured communications into high-velocity cash flow, why founders must act like an investor’s "golden ticket" during fundraising, and how to blend European structure with American optimism to build a category-defining AI company.𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥’s 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐈-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞?➡️ The 10x Finance Engine: Operating as an autonomous brain for accounts receivable, Spinal doesn't just automate tasks - it reasons. ➡️ Unstructured Data Monetization: While traditional tools stumble on messy human communication, Spinal captures deep context by connecting directly to ERP systems and company emails. ➡️ The Golden Ticket Fundraising Playbook: Rejecting the urge to over-optimize on early valuations, Spinal secured backing from top-tier funds like Venture Friends, 14 Peaks, and Enzo Ventures.Guiv's perspective highlights why building in the AI era requires an uncompromising focus on trust, tangible value, and gut instinct over blind data. When you pair an elite, high-density engineering culture with a solution to an economic problem as old as the Silk Road, you can build a pioneering company capable of reshaping global B2B trade. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 07:36 What is Spinal? Solving the Backbone of B2B Cash Flow 12:45 The Micro & Macro of Accounts Receivable: A $500B UK Problem 19:04 Why Now? How Autonomous AI Agents Differ From Legacy Automation 22:36 Inside the Product: The Dashboard That Works While You Sleep 24:52 Building the Moat: Unstructured Data & 15-Minute Time-to-Value 26:27 Finding the Perfect ICP: From Series B Startups to High-ACV Manufacturing 29:30 Cultivating Talent Density: Hiring for Evidence and Energy Over Paychecks 33:08 The Golden Ticket Rule: Navigating Europe vs. US Fundraising Dynamics 34:47 Valuation vs. Alignment: Decoupling Risk in Pre-Seed Rounds 38:51 Why Fundraise vs. Bootstrap? The Reality of Sales-Led AI Scaling 42:37 One Bold Prediction: Why Every Business Problem is Becoming an Engineering Problem 44:49 Quick Fire Round: Brandon Sanderson, High Fantasy, and the Silk Roads Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel. You can follow Guiv Ardalan & Spinal here:◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/guiv-ardalan/ ◼ Website - https://www.withspinal.com/ Follow Raising Europe here:◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#CFO #AccountsReceivable #RaisingEurope #Spinal #TomGuinness #GuivArdalan #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAgents #Fintech #CashFlow

Enterprise procurement is a complex environment of endless paperwork, slow approvals, and deeply fragmented workflows. While legacy software can log basic data, true industry transformation requires an architecture built from the perspective of someone who understands the deep frustrations of the cross-functional teams on the ground.That's exactly why Omnea is scaling so rapidly - it’s an easy-to-use AI-native platform designed to streamline corporate buying and solve the structural problems inherent in enterprise procurement once and for all.In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sat down with Ben Freeman, CEO & Co-founder of Omnea. Ben shares his journey from working in investment banking at Lazard to helping build a major tech company, Tessian, from the ground up, explaining how interviewing 300 frustrated procurement personnel led him to build an AI-driven platform to solve the problem. Today, Omnea is experiencing hyper-growth, recently securing a $50M Series B round led by Khosla Ventures and Insight Partners after scaling its revenue from $1M to $10M in just 18 months, and growing 3x this year already.How is Omnea building a simpler, smarter system for enterprise procurement? ◼ Finding the Real Problem: Talking to over 300 frustrated procurement personnel showed Ben the exact roadblocks and daily headaches that traditional software companies completely ignore. This provided him with the roadmap he needed to create a compelling product.◼ A Product Built for Real Life: Creating an easy-to-use AI tool that acts like a simple conversation and automates some of the most tedious parts of enterprise procurement helps Omnea win 86% of its competitive sales deals.◼ Backed by Leading Investors: Raising a $50M Series B from Khosla Ventures and Insight Partners while keeping 80% of their previous funding in the bank. These top-tier investors saw how much customers loved the product and made a pre-emptive offer to the Omnea team which saw them ultimately back the business. Ben’s journey offers a refreshing blueprint for navigating early-stage chaos and scaling with intense operational discipline. From managing the psychology of fundraising - by being brutally honest about startup struggles and ruthlessly protecting his time - to enforcing a high-collaboration, 4-day in-office culture in London and New York, his focus is entirely on execution. By steering Omnea toward a future that completely automates everyday procurement requests, Ben is proving that true enterprise disruption happens when you stop wrestling with legacy software and let AI eliminate the friction entirely. Chapters0:00 Introduction: Ben Freeman's background and introduction to Omnea as an AI platform for enterprise procurement. 0:55 Ben’s early business roots in Manchester and investment banking at Lazard.2:14 Helping to build Tessian3:32 The 300-interview framework that launched Omnea.4:48 Market size5:51 Product breakdown7:13 Product growth8:35 Omnea's unfair advantage9:58 Team and culture10:45 Omnea's rapid growth12:01 Inside Omnea's recent $50M Series B14:02 The psychology of fundraising15:20 The plan for the future16:34 Direct, simple advice for founders17:41 Rapid-fire personal questionsEnjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel. You can follow Ben here:◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-freeman-a8542166/Find out more about Omnea:◼ Website - https://omnea.co/Follow Raising Europe here:◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#Procurement #Technology #RaisingEurope #Omnea #TomGuinness #BenFreeman #ArtificialIntelligence #SaaS #SeriesB #Funding

Hospitality is a fast-moving environment of compressed margins, frontline unpredictability, and complex execution. While modern software can easily address high-level administrative tasks, true industry transformation requires an architecture built from the perspective of someone who has actually managed the shop floor.That is exactly why Edify is scaling so rapidly - it’s a unified operating system designed by an operator to solve the structural problems inherent in hospitality once and for all.In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, I sat down with Ed Barry, CEO and Founder of Edify. Ed shares his journey from scaling the Over Under coffee chain to a successful exit with Blank Street, explaining how his personal frustrations on the shop floor led him to build a unified hospitality OS. Today, Edify is experiencing hyper-growth, recently securing a $4M funding round after achieving 8x revenue growth over last year.How is Edify building the new tech stack for hospitality & quick service restaurants (QSRs)?◼ Firsthand Problem Identification: Experiencing frontline operational bottlenecks firsthand exposes the exact structural vulnerabilities and single points of failure that traditional software platforms often overlook. ◼ Product Design Grounded in Reality: Managing the 3 core metrics that define restaurant profitability - Sales, Labour, and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) - by automating workflows to eliminate backend complexity and increase in-store profitability by 20% to 50%. ◼ Bridging the Gap Between Software and the Shop Floor: Securing a $4M round meant finding institutional partners at Calculus Capital who went beyond spreadsheets, putting on hairnets to evaluate how the software performed live in active, fast-paced kitchens.Ed's perspective highlights why the next generation of enterprise software must be anchored in frontline execution. When game-changing technology is built with deep empathy for the end-user's day-to-day pressure, it doesn't just optimise margins - it restores time, sanity, and clarity to the teams on the ground.Chapters

0:00 – Ed Barry's background and introducing Edify as a hospitality operating system.

0:51 – Entrepreneurial journey: From "manny" to scaling and selling Over Under coffee.

1:52 – Hospitality challenges, margin pressures, and COVID-19 market shocks.

5:08 – Software crisis during staff illness: the catalyst for Edify.

6:33 – Solving back-of-house problems and administrative burdens for general managers.

10:52 – Product breakdown: Managing inventory, production, and analytics between POS and accounting.

14:52 – Defining ICP and the sales dynamic (user GM vs. corporate operations buyer).

16:11 Hyper-growth (8x revenue) and enterprise deployment with Pret A Manger and Dunkin'.

18:55 $4M funding round with Calculus Capital, due diligence, and fundraising psychology.

25:31 18–24 month roadmap: Scaling to a repeatable GTM motion, plus rapid-fire questions.Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel.You can follow Ed here: ◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-barry-3553b153/ Find out more about Edify Systems: ◼ Website - https://edifysystems.io/ Follow Raising Europe here: ◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/ ◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/ ◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#Startups #VentureCapital #Hospitality #RaisingEurope #Edify #TomGuinness #EdBarry #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #restaurants

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐀 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 🧠🌱

Early-stage investing shouldn't be a drawn-out, black-box guessing game that forces founders to dwindle their cash balances down to zero while waiting for an answer. It requires investors who back exceptional people, validate the equity story with hard data, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with teams as they pivot and scale.

That is exactly how Pembroke VCT operates - rejecting rigid thematic templates to provide genuine, patient capital to UK startups.

In this episode of The Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sits down with Fred Ursell, Head of Investments at Pembroke VCT. He dives into how a generalist mindset keeps them sharp from first principles, how they navigate shifting consumer environments, and what it takes to help portfolio stars like Peak AIO and Plenish scale into market leaders.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞’𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡?

➡️ The Permanent Capital Engine: Managing over £270 million in assets across more than 50 portfolio companies, Pembroke is a publicly listed Venture Capital Trust. Operating as a permanent capital vehicle means they avoid strict 10-year lifecycles that force premature sales, giving founders a stable foundation to build enduring businesses

➡️ Transparent Founder Velocity: Rather than running a slow process that burns through a startup's runway, Pembroke brings founders directly into the investment committee early on. This early face-to-face engagement with IC provides not only quick feedback but also immediate confidence and transparency.

➡️ 3 Pillars of Execution Leverage: Pembroke delivers structured operational support through a dedicated Value Creation Team. They step in to provide proven Go-to-Market (GTM) scaling strategies, execute targeted talent matching for critical leadership hires like Chairs and CFOs, and map out the corporate finance frameworks needed for future funding rounds or exits.

Fred's perspective highlights why early-stage backing requires an alignment of core principles, not just a standard term sheet. When you protect a founder's unique, "spiky" strengths and back them with highly flexible, permanent capital, you create the ultimate foundation for sustainable growth.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:48 Fred's Journey: From Council Estate & Plumbing to Head of Investments

02:10 First-Principles Thinking: Why Pembroke Rejects Rigid Thematic Playbooks

05:35 Navigating Shifting Environments: Software Moats & Consumer Trends

06:40 The TAM Myth: Backing Exceptional People Over Blind Market Sizing

07:22 Case Study: How Plenish Mastered the Pivot to Scale

09:05 Spotting Spiky Strengths: Pembroke's Management Due Diligence Framework

14:48 The Permanent Capital Engine: Patient Capital

15:00 Transparent Founder Velocity: Bringing Startups to the Investment Committee Early

17:40 3 Pillars of Execution Leverage

19:10 Quick Fire RoundEnjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel.

You can follow Fred here:

◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredursell/

Find out more about Pembroke VCT:

◼ Website - https://www.pembrokevct.com/

Follow Raising Europe here:

◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/

◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/

◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/

◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/

#VentureCapital #Startups #Investing #RaisingEurope #PembrokeVCT #TomGuinness #FredUrsell #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #ConsumerBrands #BusinessServices #UKStartups

What does it take to invest in billion-dollar tech giants in Europe?Every growth equity firm claims to bring value-add to the table, but WestCap is completely rewriting the playbook. By pioneering their Operating Equity model - maintaining a 2:1 ratio of operational experts to investment professionals - they provide scaling companies with true in-the-trenches execution leverage rather than hands-off advice.In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sits down with Karn Dasgupta, a London-based growth equity investor at WestCap, where he leads the firm's investment efforts across Europe. WestCap is a premier growth equity firm managing over $6 billion AUM that is known for backing transformative giants like Klarna, StubHub, and Preply. Joining as WestCap’s first local hire in London, Karn has played a pivotal role in establishing their European presence and partnering with visionary founders to scale the next generation of European tech champions.In this episode, he explains:◼ The Operating Equity Advantage: How WestCap utilises an internal squad of 40+ specialised operators to deliver real, metric-driven growth support to founders completely free of charge.◼ Surviving the AI Hype: Why explosive top-line revenue in the LLM era can often be deceptive, and how investors identify lasting moats like proprietary data and deep application-stack integration.◼ Unlocking B2B Marketplaces: The fundamental market mechanics, fragmentation issues, and deep trust gaps that platforms must solve to capture massive cross-border transaction volumes.◼ The Control Myth in Private Equity: Why moving away from traditional buyout models to become a minority partner can be a more transformative path for backing hyper-scaling tech companies.◼ Waves Beyond AI: Why biological engineering (rewriting DNA code with CRISPR) and quantum computing represent the next true paradigm-shifting breakthroughs in deep tech.Chapters00:00 Intro00:48 Karn's Journey: From Football & Formula 1 Dreams to the Art of Value Creation02:10 Scaling WestCap: Working with Laurence Tosi & the Vision for Operating Equity03:45 Inside the Preply Deal: Sourcing, Sifting, and Leading the Round05:35 The Investment Blueprint: What Makes a WestCap Deal?06:35 The Biggest Opportunities Today: Vertical AI, Trust Layers, and Marketplaces07:50 Deep Dive: Application vs. Infrastructure Layers in B2B Platforms09:05 Reshaping the Playbook: Revenue Quality and Moats in the LLM Era10:20 The Minority Value-Add: Why Control PE Isn’t Always the Answer11:50 Moving to Agentic AI: The Next Stage of Enterprise Automation12:50 The Next Big Wave: Biological Engineering and Quantum Computing14:10 The European Flywheel: Legora, Synthesia, Parloa, and ElevenLabs15:25 Sourcing Secrets: Building Deep Networks with Early-Stage Investors16:15 Capital That Works: Delivering Real Projects to Portfolio Founders19:10 Spotting Greatness: The Defining Flywheels of Generational Businesses21:50 Storytelling vs. Substance: How to Separate Pitch from Reality22:45 Hindsight is 20/20: Leading Preply’s Next Big Move25:30 Growth Equity in 2030: The Automation of Analysis & Power of Insights28:05 Quick Fire Round: Padel, Alternative Careers, and Favourite BooksEnjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel.You can follow Karn, here:◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karndasgupta/Find out more about WestCap:◼ Website - https://westcap.com/Follow Raising Europe, here:◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#GrowthEquity #Investing #KarnDasgupta #WestCap #RaisingEurope #TomGuinness #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #B2BMarketplaces #Fintech

Most CEOs are steering multi-billion-dollar enterprises with a map that is already a week out of date 🚢 🗺️In the world of Tier-1 banks and global tech giants, leadership teams are often forced to make massive strategic pivots using spreadsheet chaos - data that is out of date before it reaches the boardroom. In London, a former management consultant who admits he was once "part of the problem", is now building the AI-powered bridge to fix it.In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness is joined by Paul Aanhaanen, the Co-founder and Chairman of Kiplot, a London-based Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) platform. After teaching himself to code to find a better way to visualise complex data, he launched Kiplot to replace outdated PowerPoints with a real-time operating system for global leadership teams. In this episode, he explains:◼ The Spreadsheet Chaos: How relying on manual Excel updates and PowerPoints creates a culture of data mistrust at the leadership level. ◼ Steering the Ship: How Kiplot acts as the captain's bridge of a cargo ship for large enterprises, allowing them to manage their change portfolio with up to date information. ◼ The $15 Billion Opportunity: Why the shift from milestone tracking to Strategic Portfolio Management is creating a massive market opportunity by 2028. ◼ Capital Efficiency: How Kiplot reached profitability and scaled via large enterprise contracts without needing external capital for years. ◼ Crafting Culture: A behind-the-scenes look at the team culture, from rigorous hiring standards to balancing startup life with ironman training and parenthood. Chapters00:00 Intro00:46 From Physics to Consulting: Learning How Big Organisations Fail 02:40 The "Side of Desk" Prototype: Learning to Code to Solve the Problem 03:36 What is Kiplot? Steering the Corporate Ship 05:40 The $15 Billion Market for Strategic Portfolio Management 07:44 Moving Beyond Reporting to an Action Platform 09:02 Winning Against Legacy Incumbents with Modern Tooling 13:30 Hiring the Best Talent: The No Settling Approach 14:30 Unit Economics: Building a Profitable, Capital-Efficient Enterprise 16:35 Scaling the Sales Motion and Expanding to the US 18:13 Paul’s Advice for Founders: Grit and Healthy Delusion 19:55 Balancing Startup Life with Half-Ironman and Parenting 21:49 Why the name Kiplot?22:36 Rapid Fire: The Matrix, Biographies, and the "Dutch Channing Tatum" Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel.You can follow Paul, here:◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-aanhaanen-06470537/Find out more about Kiplot:◼ Website - https://kiplot.com/Follow Raising Europe, here:◼ Website - https://raisingeurope.com/◼ Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/◼ Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/◼ Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#AI #SaaS #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #StrategicPortfolioManagement #EnterpriseSoftware #Startups #PaulAanhaanen #Kiplot #RaisingEurope #TomGuinness #ironman #triathlon

Most VCs back great companies and still losemoney. Here's why.

In fintech, picking winners isn't about spotting the best technology - it's about finding the right odds.

In this episode of the Raising Europe Podcast, Ivan Wong, VC Investor at Main Set, breaks down the disciplined, data-driven framework he uses to cut through the hype and find durable fintech investments.

What we cover:

🏁 The Right Race (Market Selection): Why the infrastructure layer - stablecoins, tokenisation, and settlement rails - offers more durability than the app layer above it.

🐴 The Right Horse (Company Analysis): In the AI era, technical moats are shrinking fast. Learn how to identify truly sticky businesses built on integration and distribution advantages.

🧑‍🏫 The Right Jockey (Founder Assessment): What separates a fundable founder from a must-back one? Ivan reveals the rare combination of coachability and domain obsession he looks for in a 10-year investment partnership.

📊 The Right Odds (Valuation Discipline): A great company at the wrong price is still a bad investment. Ivan breaks down how Main Set applies the principles of Howard Marks and Warren Buffett to early-stage VC.

🤖 The Big Prediction: Why Ivan believes the traditional VC role could be largely automated by 2030 - and what that means for founders raising today.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:54 Why Generalist VCs Underperform Specialist VCs

06:34 The "Horse Racing" Framework for Smarter VC Investing

11:08 Why Stablecoins and Tokenisation Are the Infrastructure Play

16:15 How to Find Companies With Durable Moats in AI

22:32 What Makes a Must-Back Founder: Coachability vs. Obsession

29:20 How to Apply Valuation Discipline to Early-Stage Startups

35:05 Will the VC Role Be Automated by 2030?

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Is this the technology that finally shortens the 20-year road to life-saving medicine? The pharmaceutical sector loses an average of $130 billion every year to dead-end research. This Abyss - the massive failure rate as drugs go from preclinical to human clinical trials - is where promising drugs go to die. Now, Lee Sherlock and the team at Meta-Flux are building the disease simulations and molecular maps required to bridge that gap. In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sits down with Lee Sherlock, the CEO and Co-founder of Meta-Flux, a Dublin-based Tech Bio company. A biochemist by training, Lee spent his early career in the trenches of preclinical drug development for COPD and oncology before co-founding Meta-Flux alongside Brendan Martin. Driven by a deeply personal mission after both founders lost family members to lung cancer, they are now leveraging AI to ensure the next generation of therapeutics actually reaches the patients who need them. In this episode, Lee explains:• The Preclinical Abyss: Why the leap from preclinical to human clinical trials is the highest point of failure in medicine. • Molecular Map Makers: How Meta-Flux are the map makers of the molecular biology landscape who track the complex villages and towns of biology to predict how a drug may affect the entire landscape. • The 20-Year Reality: Why modern blockbusters like GLP-1s actually took two decades to reach the market, and how in silico models can shorten that time to market. • Agnostic AI: How the platform evolved from specific oncology models to being deployed across Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and neurodegenerative disorders. • Predicting the Downstream: Why Meta-Flux focuses on downstream prediction and causal AI rather than upstream drug discovery. Chapters00:00 Intro01:22 From Lab Coats to Startups: Lee’s Entrepreneurial Journey 05:25 The "Aha Moment": Turning Personal Loss Into Ambition 08:35 Explaining the $130 Billion Abyss in Pharma 11:15 Map Makers of the Molecular Biology Landscape 14:15 Building the MVP: Scrappy Iterations with Trinity College 15:20 Moving Beyond Oncology: Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s 16:25 Regulatory Tailwinds: Why the FDA is Moving Away from Animal Models 18:25 Prediction vs. Discovery: How Meta-Flux Differs from Competitors 21:05 Partnering with Mercury Bio: Solving the Blood-Brain Barrier 23:28 Raising €1.8 Million: Attracting Knowledge Capital & Angels26:15 The 18-Month Vision: Shortening Research Timelines Overnight 28:35 Advice for Founders: Go Live in the Problem 30:35 Quickfire: Interstellar, The Psychology of Money, and Seth Rogen Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading European Tech founders & investors on our channel.You can follow Lee, here:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-sherlock/ Find out more about Meta-Flux:Website - https://meta-flux.com/Follow Raising Europe, here:Website - https://raisingeurope.com/Follow Tom Guinness – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-guinness-raising-europe/Follow Raising Europe – https://www.linkedin.com/company/raising-europe/Subscribe on Substack - https://raisingeurope.substack.com/#TechBio #AI #DrugDevelopment #Oncology #Neurodegeneration #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #RaisingEurope #MetaFlux #LeeSherlock #TomGuinness #MassBio