Scaling Europe

General Catalyst has built one of the most active investment theses in Europe around artificial intelligence transforming massive service industries like law, property management, accounting, and insurance. Their portfolio features companies tackling this shift from different angles, including Legora selling software directly to law firms and Dwelly scaling through hands-on growth in real estate.

Zeynep Yavuz-Willson is a Partner at General Catalyst, where she focuses on early-stage investing across Europe. Before venture she worked in private equity and operating roles, and she says learning from founders is still her favourite part of the job.

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

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Parloa: https://www.parloa.com/

Conveo: https://conveo.ai/

NatWest: https://www.natwest.com/

WWT: https://www.wwt.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

1:06 - Why General Catalyst is betting on AI transforming services

4:04 - Why Dwelly was worth the risk despite being burned before

8:39 - Which other service industries General Catalyst is watching

11:08 - Why customer trust is becoming the real advantage in AI

13:50 - The rest of the AI stack, open source and data

20:35 - Why concentrated industries adopt AI faster than fragmented ones

26:31 - How General Catalyst's capital model is changing

28:51 - Is General Catalyst still a venture firm

30:46 - How the venture industry has changed since 2020

Dominic Raab, the former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, has just joined IndexLaw as a founding advisor.

IndexLaw helps businesses and individuals handle legal work, review contracts, and build legal strategies using artificial intelligence. The platform automates routine tasks while connecting users with real lawyers for final review.

Quddus Pativada is founder and CEO , and Dominic Raab is a founding advisor at IndexLaw. They believe AI can make legal help simple and put people directly in control of their own legal matters.

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

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex:

https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeuropeLovable: https://lovable.dev/

Parloa: https://www.parloa.com/

Conveo: https://conveo.ai/

NatWest: https://www.natwest.com/

WWT: https://www.wwt.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:21 - What IndexLaw is building

1:06 - Dominic Raab's new role at IndexLaw

3:18 - The personal story behind IndexLaw's founding

6:00 - How IndexLaw differs from Harvey and Legora

9:14 - Why the legal industry is ripe for disruption

11:54 - The UK's unusually open rules for legal AI

14:17 - Dominic's day-to-day role as advisor

15:18 - How Quddus and Dominic's partnership began

17:56 - IndexLaw's goals for the next 18 months

Primer gives merchants one place to manage and optimise every part of their payments. Through a single integration, businesses can connect payment providers, payment methods, and fraud tools, then control how payments are routed and processed. By bringing payment data and AI-powered intelligence together, Primer helps businesses reduce failed payments, lower costs, and expand into new markets.

Gabriel Le Roux is Co-founder and CEO at Primer. He believes that as payments get more automated and complex, merchants need one connected system with full data behind it.

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

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Parloa: https://www.parloa.com/

Conveo: https://conveo.ai/

NatWest: https://www.natwest.com/

WWT: https://www.wwt.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:13 - What Primer does

1:15 - Primer's new $100m round

3:38 - Why Primer built its AI agent, Companion

6:52 - How customer research shaped Companion

9:45 - Companion's surprising adoption

11:59 - How culture shapes Primer's approach to selling

16:16 - Primer's plans to double down on the US

18:02 - Why Primer has been data-driven from day one

Modal gives AI startups the computing power they need to run their products, and a safe way to run code their AI writes on its own. Its revenue has grown 5x this year and is now closing in on $1bn annually, backed by a recent $355m raise to keep up with demand.Erik Bernhardsson is CEO at Modal. He's certain AI startups will keep needing more computing power than anyone expects, and that demand is contributing to Modal's growth.The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjkSponsors:SurrealDB: ⁠https://surrealdb.com/⁠Airwallex: ⁠https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope⁠Lovable: ⁠https://lovable.dev/⁠Parloa: https://www.parloa.com/Conveo: https://conveo.ai/NatWest: https://www.natwest.com/WWT: https://www.wwt.com/Timestamps:0:00 - Introduction0:21 - What Modal does0:57 - Modal's $355m round and revenue growth1:51 - How Modal forecasts and buys computing power ahead of demand3:40 - Why most of Modal's growth comes from AI-native startups7:04 - Modal's biggest use cases: inference, sandboxes and coding models9:07 - The shift toward cheaper Chinese and open-source AI models12:21 - Modal's expansion into London and Stockholm19:44 - What Erik learned building Spotify that he's applied at Modal23:14 - The one part of the job Erik still can't delegate27:19 - Why Erik expects capital efficiency to matter again33:32 - Modal's path to $1bn in annual revenue

Conveo just raised a $50m Series A from DST Global, Balderton Capital, Visionaries, 6 Degrees Capital and Y Combinator, bringing its total funding to $55.8m.

Conveo helps large companies understand what their customers want, using AI to run the research and get the findings to the teams that need them. The company has grown from 12 to 80 people in less than a year.

Hendrik Van Hove is Co-founder of Conveo. He believes the real value of AI for big companies comes from pairing it with people, and that's the part most competitors miss.

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

Sponsors:

Chargebee: ⁠https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026⁠

SurrealDB: ⁠https://surrealdb.com/⁠

Airwallex: ⁠https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope⁠

Lovable: ⁠https://lovable.dev/⁠

Parloa: https://www.parloa.com/

Conveo: https://conveo.ai/

NatWest: https://www.natwest.com/

WWT: https://www.wwt.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction
0:13 - Conveo's new $50m Series A
0:24 - The investors behind Conveo's round
1:53 - What Conveo builds
4:03 - Customers like Google and Unilever
5:06 - Why investors backed Conveo over rivals
6:52 - Conveo's case for pairing AI with people
12:04 - What Conveo got wrong early on
15:34 - How Conveo won its first major clients
18:16 - Conveo's plans for the new funding
19:14 - Why Conveo is building a new category

Callosum just raised $100m led by Atomico, Plural and DCVC. It's one of the largest seed-stage rounds in UK history, coming just five months after Callosum came out of stealth. Callosum builds software that lets AI run across many different types of chips at the same time, making it faster, cheaper and more capable.

Danyal Akarca is Co-founder at Callosum. He believes AI can only have a real economic impact once it becomes cheaper and faster to run, and that's exactly what Callosum is built to do.

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

Sponsors:

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

1:09 - Callosum's approach to AI infrastructure

5:56 - How Callosum's technology works for customers

8:48 - Callosum's new $100m round

12:33 - How Callosum built partnerships with chip companies like Cerebras

17:14 - Why Callosum wasn't built just to make chips work together

20:03 - What the $100m will fund next

24:54 - Why cost is becoming as important as speed for AI buyers

28:03 - Who Danyal thinks will win the AI stack over the next three years

33:03 - Why London has become a serious AI hub

Plug and Play Ventures invests in startups across Europe and runs a platform connecting them with large corporate partners. It has grown from a family office into an institutional investor with nine funds, and now runs 65 offices with more than 700 people worldwide.

Thomas Bigagli is EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures. He believes Europe already has the talent and ideas, and just needs investors willing to move faster and write bigger checks to keep its best startups from leaving.

Sponsors:

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:28 - What Plug and Play's EMEA role involves

2:29 - How Europe's startup landscape has changed

3:20 - Why deep tech is such an exciting opportunity right now

5:05 - Where Europe's hardware and deep tech hubs are emerging

6:07 - Plug and Play's early bets in Lithuania and Italy

9:56 - The one question every founder gets asked

12:32 - Why more European founders are thinking globally

15:52 - US investors' growing presence in Europe

17:15 - Why European VCs still move slower than American ones

18:41 - The European firms closing the gap

Orqa is a Croatian company that designs and manufactures drones, components and ground stations entirely in Europe, a rare setup in an industry that mostly relies on China. Orqa now builds primarily for defence customers across NATO and the West, and shipped 250,000 products last year, a number it's on track to double in 2026.

Srdjan Kovacevic is CEO and Co-Founder of Orqa. He believes most Western militaries aren't ready for drone warfare yet, and that needs to change fast.

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

Sponsors:

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:15 - What Orqa builds

1:07 - Why Orqa set out to build Europe's answer to Chinese drone brands

2:36 - Why Orqa builds everything in Europe

5:03 - Orqa's current production scale

6:41 - How the war in Ukraine pulled Orqa into defence

8:05 - Why Orqa builds for NATO's future needs, not Ukraine's immediate ones

10:19 - Orqa's production numbers: 250,000 products shipped last year

13:16 - Orqa's biggest supply chain bottleneck

15:40 - Why the AI boom is causing a new chip shortage for Orqa

19:10 - Ukraine's drone warfare numbers

20:36 - How drone warfare has transformed the battlefield

Metaview just acquired Reval, a recruiting agency built to run entirely on AI. The deal brings more talent and technology into Fillmore, Metaview's AI recruiting co-worker. Metaview's platform is already used by more than 5,000 companies, and Fillmore works by researching, sourcing and reaching out to candidates without any human involvement.

Shahriar Tajbakhsh is Co-founder and CTO of Metaview. He expects Metaview to become the single platform for end-to-end hiring within a year, handling everything from a company opening a role to someone being hired.

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

Sponsors:

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction
0:12 - Metaview's AI-first approach to recruiting
1:07 - Metaview's traction across more than 5,000 companies
2:10 - What Fillmore is and how it works
6:22 - Why Metaview built Fillmore as a co-worker, not an agent
8:08 - Fillmore's early results since its soft launch
12:24 - Why Metaview acquired Reval
14:14 - How the Reval and Metaview teams came together
15:39 - How mission-aligned teams speed up Metaview's hiring
20:02 - What success looks like for the Reval acquisition

TidalSense has built a handheld device that diagnoses COPD, a common lung disease, in under four minutes. It's already used across the NHS and has drawn interest from more than 60 countries since launching last year. The Cambridge-based company just raised $19m to expand into new markets.

Ameera Patel is CEO of TidalSense. She believes what matters most to healthcare providers is a better patient experience and more efficient care.

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

Sponsors:

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction
0:19 - TidalSense's $19m round and what problem it solves
1:08 - Why the standard diagnostic test hasn't changed since the 1800s
2:44 - What TidalSense has built
3:35 - TidalSense's rollout across the NHS
4:21 - The demand TidalSense has seen since launching
5:16 - Ameera's personal journey to founding TidalSense
9:48 - Inside TidalSense's $19m round and its lead investor
12:02 - TidalSense's plans to expand into the US and China
14:47 - TidalSense's biggest bottleneck right now
15:59 - What's needed for TidalSense's next raise