Scaling Europe

Wholesale distribution is one of the largest parts of the economy, and much of it still runs on manual sales processes inside legacy ERP systems.

Plato is building AI software that helps distributors spot missed sales in their own data and automatically turn emails and PDFs into quotes and orders.

The company grew 10x over the past year across the DACH region and I sat down with Benedikt Nolte, Co-founder and CEO at Plato, to talk about building in the industry he grew up in.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:13 - Plato raises seed round from Atomico

2:12 - Personal connection to wholesale distribution

4:21 - 10x growth since last funding round

7:02 - Current economic situation in Germany

8:11 - Optimism for growth in Germany

10:28 - Government funding boosting the economy

12:01 - Defense spending and its impact on growth

14:07 - Increasing average basket value for customers

15:00 - Expanding to international markets

17:00 - Exploring distribution opportunities in the US

19:00 - Transitioning from VC to founding a startup

Jaime and Tobie are the founders of SurrealDB - the fastest-growing and one of the best-funded - databases in the world. The company just announced raising an additional $23m in Series A funding, bringing the company’s total investment to-date (including seed) to $44m.They have also announced the launch of SurrealDB 3.0 - the only database to enable first-class agent memory and context graphs inside the database, so models run next to the data, context stays synchronised, and agent logic remains simple.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:25 - Big announcement about 3.0 release

1:02 - New funding round of $23 million

2:41 - Enhancements for AI applications discussed

4:11 - Changes in market and developer behavior

5:52 - Importance of context in data

6:42 - Community nurturing for growth

8:14 - Simplifying developer experience

9:27 - Inbound strategy for enterprise clients

10:56 - Nurturing potential clients

12:24 - US market insights

14:20 - Onboarding with SurrealDB

16:15 - Importance of funding round

17:01 - Focus on enterprise deployments

18:10 - Engaging with the community

20:18 - Measuring release success

More than 80% of corporate legal work is repetitive, and it is still being billed by the hour. LEGALFLY is building the legal operating system for in-house teams, automating contracts, compliance checks and due diligence at scale.

I spoke with Co-founder and CEO Ruben about why legal budgets are shifting from law firms to AI tools, how junior-heavy legal models are starting to break, and how LegalFly grew 8x ARR last year by focusing on enterprise clients where data security is non-negotiable.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:20 - Introduction to LegalFly

1:10 - Focus on in-house legal teams

2:01 - Transition from services to technology

4:30 - Impact of AI on legal sector

6:23 - Company growth over the past year

7:10 - Expectations for future growth targets

8:15 - Importance of US market entry

9:29 - Data security as a unique selling point

13:36 - Product innovation for platform agnosticism

15:10 - Scaling go-to-market teams for expansion

17:04 - Reasons clients prefer point solutions

18:41 - Challenges of using multiple point solutions

Multiverse is built around a simple idea that AI only matters if people can actually use it at work.

Euan Blair has spent the last decade building a company focused on reskilling people inside organisations, helping them apply new skills directly in their jobs rather than learning in isolation. As AI accelerates, that challenge has become more urgent, and more human, than ever.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Building a consumer hardware company in Europe is brutally hard. Capital-intensive, unforgiving, and dominated by giants, it’s a category most founders avoid entirely.

At Slush in Helsinki, I spoke with Carl Pei about why Nothing chose to take that risk anyway, what most people underestimate about hardware, and how design, pragmatism, and long time horizons shaped the company’s path.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction to Scaling Europe show

1:11 - Challenges of consumer hardware companies

2:50 - Importance of a full stack approach

4:44 - Differentiation through design strategy

6:11 - Challenges of scaling manufacturing processes

7:00 - Future of operating systems and AI integration

9:10 - Founder’s journey in upgrading skills

9:43 - Importance of numbers in fundraising

10:24 - Vision for future revenue growth

12:45 - Future of physical AI and data scale

14:34 - Discussion on monopoly and lock-in decisions

15:06 - Challenges of being too big or too small17:00 - Building a tech business in Europe

19:01 - Importance of hiring young, ambitious talent

Velocity is building infrastructure that connects traditional banking and stablecoins, giving global CFOs and treasury teams a way to move money across borders with more speed and control. I spoke with Eric Queathem about why stablecoins are moving into mainstream finance and how Velocity raised $18m in its first five months to build payments and treasury tools for global companies.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction to Scaling Europe show

0:34 - Eric discusses Velocity's mission

1:12 - Building stable coin infrastructure

2:30 - Importance of liquidity in payments

5:23 - Challenges for enterprise organizations

6:49 - Integrating payments into existing infrastructure

7:29 - Milestone of first transaction achieved

9:02 - Market readiness for new payment solutions

10:45 - Innovative treasury services discussed

12:07 - Importance of team experience highlighted

13:14 - $18 million raised in first five months

15:31 - Founders' backgrounds key for investor interest

16:19 - Understanding wallets: hot vs cold

17:13 - Transitioning from building to selling

19:30 - Future of stable coins in finance

21:27 - Fortune 2000 companies adopting on-chain solutions

SynthFlow started as a no-code layer on top of GPT. Today it is one of Europe’s fastest-growing voice AI companies, processing millions of enterprise calls every month.

I sat down with Hakob Astabatsyan, Co-Founder and CEO of SynthFlow, to talk about why simple “AI receptionist” use cases are already becoming commoditised, why real value only shows up when entire business workflows are automated, and how SynthFlow grew 15x in its first year by focusing on measurable ROI instead of hype.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction to Scaling Europe show

2:07 - Launch of SynthFflow and its purpose

3:36 - Challenges in voice AI development

5:51 - Early use cases for voice AI technology

6:29 - Companies using voice AI technology

7:01 - Rapid growth and revenue increase

8:00 - Unique value proposition in AI space

10:00 - AI contact centers for enterprises

13:11 - Challenges in AI voice integration

14:00 - Reasons for losing enterprise deals

15:00 - Importance of end-to-end workflows

18:00 - Europe's talent pool and innovation mindset

19:35 - Challenges of scaling European businesses

20:12 - European hidden champions winning globally

21:01 - Importance of automating workflows

24:02 - Achieving 100% customer retention success

Gui Gomes and Joao Alves are building Bleap with a simple but ambitious bet that changing the backend of finance can change what users get out of it.

They explain how Bleap reached 20,000 users and $30m in transactions, why higher cashback and better savings rates depend on new infrastructure rather than better design, and what it takes to scale a blockchain-based fintech beyond early adopters after raising a $6m seed led by Blossom Capital.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Timestamps:

0:17 - Introduction to Bleap and its mission

1:30 - Building fintech on blockchain technology

2:54 - Progress and user growth insights

5:02 - Challenges in user acquisition strategies

7:14 - Marketing finance as a lifestyle choice

8:02 - Importance of user benefits in pitches

9:11 - Anticipating trends in fundraising

12:21 - Goals for user acquisition and retention

14:28 - Importance of hiring the right talent

15:49 - Key traits learned from Revolut

19:00 - The Revolute founder support network

21:01 - High bar for talent at Revolut

Matt raised $400m for his new firm - Evantic. It's investing in B2B AI companies across EMEA and the US.

It's already invested in Synthesia, ElevenLabs, Harvey, Lovable and n8n.

In this exclusive interview we discussed his new VC model, how he's able to get into the hottest deals, the future of Evantic and all things European Tech.

Building quantum computers is hard. Making them useful is even harder.

Phasecraft is focused on the part most people overlook: the software that lets today’s quantum machines solve real problems in materials, chemistry, energy, and optimisation. In this conversation, we talk about why algorithms matter more than hype, how close quantum advantage really is, and what it takes to turn frontier science into something businesses can actually use.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel – check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk