Scaling Europe

Energy is one of the biggest markets in the world, yet it still runs on outdated transaction systems. I spoke with Joe McDonald, Co-founder and CEO of tem, about why electricity is really a data and infrastructure problem, what he learned from building and selling his first energy company to Shell, and how tem is rebuilding the way electricity is traded to reduce costs and remove unnecessary intermediaries.The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here:https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Harvey has become one of the leading AI companies in legal tech in just a few years. At Slush in Helsinki, I sat down with Gabe Pereyra, Co-founder of Harvey, and Ilya Fushman, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in the company. We talked about how law firms moved from testing AI to rolling it out firm-wide, and why legal turned out to be a strong place for real AI adoption.The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here:https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Fleet, a French scale-up specialising in IT fleet management, has just announced a partial exit at a €100m valuation.

The business has been entirely bootstrapped and this is the first time it has opened its capital to external investors for the first time.

This primary LBO transaction provides ten of millions of liquidity to the two founders, Sevan Marian and Alexandre Berriche, as well as to employees.

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

Synthesia has announced a $200m Series E at a $4bn valuation led by Google Ventures.

Vidu Shanmugarajah has backed the company since before ChatGPT and the AI boom. I spoke with him about the team’s early foresight, how they navigated both opportunity and challenge as AI took off, and what built long-term conviction at Google Ventures as Synthesia continues to scale.

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

Timestamps:

0:07 - Introduction to the Scaling Europe show

1:01 - Conviction in Synthesia's growth and execution

2:54 - Backing Synthesia since Series B investment

4:35 - Unique insights into AI application in business

6:30 - Strong unit economics drive growth potential

8:00 - Focus on scale of AI opportunities

10:12 - Europe's broad spectrum of tech opportunities

12:01 - Strong technical founders emerging in Europe

13:50 - Growing number of founders in Europe

15:18 - Patience as a key founder trait

19:10 - Founders' love for their company's substance

Kanishka is the AI Minister in the UK responsible for AI Opportunities, Semiconductors and Tech for Growth among other bits.

He's a big AI advocate and overall tech enthusiast. Yesterday the government announced it was up-skilling 10m UK citizens in AI skills so we sat down to talk all about it.

Wiz is one of the greatest success stories in VC history.

It went from 0 to a $32bn cash in exit in 5 years.

I spoke to their VP of EMEA to hear about how they grew so fast, difference between european and US buyers and the acquisiton.

Today Synthesia has announced a $200m Series E at a $4bn valuation led by GV. I sat down with the CEO to hear all about the round.Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro and raise 01:30 - what gave GV the conviction to double down. 03:55 - What value ex-sequoia partner Matt Miller is bringing to the table as one of the only new investors 06:12 - The secondary sale, how much, why and whether there were any cash millionaires as a result 08:57 - Profitability vs Growth. Being an AI company with SaaS margins (140% NRR)12:15 - The key skills required to stand out in content creation in a world of AI17:35 - How they design their product roadmap19:50 - The future of Europe 29:20 - The future of content creation 33:50 - Quickfire (including favourite AI tool, number 1 company he'd invest in, where he'd be building today)

The firm, which raised €210m for its second fund, invests in companies that are redefining cities and the industries that sustain them.

It invests across energy, industrial decarbonisation, advanced manufacturing, mobility solutions, and urban systems.

I sat down with their founding partner to hear all about it.

Chaz is a twice-exited founder now building Model ML - the fast-growing AI firm helping financial giants like UBS, HSBC and more automate their gruntwork.

Fresh from raising one of Europe’s largest $75M Series A (six months after Seed), ModelML recently beat McKinsey and Bain in a benchmarking head-to-head, now operates across the UK, US, Singapore and Hong Kong, and is onboarding financial heavyweights at a pace that’s completely rewriting how finance works.

Chaz is one of Europe's most successful entrepreneurs and we chat about how he's done it.

Wonderful is one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world.

It launched in January last year, raised a $34m Seed in Summer and then a whopping $100m Series A led by Index Ventures.

I chatted to their CEO about how they're growing so quickly, how they raised so much money and what's next