Scaling Europe

Earlybird raised a €360 million early-stage fund, its largest yet, after extending the hard cap during the raise to bring in an additional institutional LP.

Andre Retterath, General Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, talks about how that number is decided before the fund is even raised, with ownership targets and follow-on reserves shaping the size more than anything else in a market where liquidity has been tight.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe

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

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:19 - €360m fund announcement

0:55 - Fund size and portfolio strategy

2:29 - Fundraising in today’s LP market

3:54 - IPOs and liquidity returning

5:39 - Deep tech focus

8:13 - What founders look for in investors

10:03 - Aleph Alpha and Cohere

12:24 - Sovereignty in Europe

15:39 - Ownership structure and long-term setup

20:14 - Advice for getting into VC

Stefan Bader is a the co-founder and CEO of Cello, a tech company focused on user-led growth through referral-based marketing for B2B software companies. He is also running the GTM10 awards - an awards programme for the best GTM operators.

Check it out here: https://thegtm10.com/

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjkAlso by:Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europeChargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026SurrealDB: 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

Deel has grown into one of the fastest scaling SaaS companies globally, building a fully remote organisation of over 7,000 people and reaching more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

Dan Westgarth, COO at Deel, shares how he went from customer support at Revolut to leading operations at Deel, and why scaling a company at that speed comes down to constant reinvention, high talent density and a culture built on accountability rather than location.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:37 - From Revolut to Deel

2:37 - Why join early and back founders

4:20 - Deel’s growth and scale today

5:30 - Reinventing the COO role as the company grows

6:39 - What the role looks like day-to-day

7:30 - Hiring, culture and what makes a great operator

10:10 - Scaling a fully remote company

12:33 - Remote culture and accountability

12:38 - Views on the current market and AI

14:47 - The Revolut mafia and operator networks

15:51 - Staying at Deel and future plans

16:42 - AI adoption inside Deel

Rivan has just raised a £25 million Series A to scale its synthetic fuel technology, after building and operating the UK’s largest synthetic natural gas plant in under a year.

Harvey Hodd, Founder at Rivan, shares how the company built and proved its first plant and is now focused on scaling manufacturing to bring synthetic fuels into the grid at costs that compete with fossil fuels.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:22 - £25m Series A announcement

0:52 - From hypothesis to working plant

2:11 - What Rivan is building

4:38 - Customer demand and commercial model

6:06 - Energy markets and European context

8:54 - Competing with fossil fuels

10:10 - Building fast in hardware

12:45 - Scaling manufacturing and new facility

14:08 - Deployment timelines

16:12 - Fundraising and investors

17:56 - Challenges and execution

19:02 - Building hardware vs software

Station F has become one of the defining institutions in French tech, housing 1,000 early-stage startups in Paris and launching F/ai, a new AI programme bringing together major labs, top funds and a sharper focus on commercial acceleration.

Roxanne Varza, Director at Station F, shares how Station F grew alongside the rise of the French ecosystem and why the focus is now shifting toward helping strong AI teams move faster on the commercial side by connecting them with the right partners, investors and buyers.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:19 - Why Roxanne moved to France

1:38 - What Station F is today

2:24 - Station F’s impact on French tech

6:02 - What FAI is and why it launched

7:48 - How founders were selected

10:12 - Why Deal Day matters

16:05 - Why Paris is producing more major AI companies

20:27 - Sovereignty and buying European tech

23:13 - France’s growing defence tech ecosystem

tozero is building Europe’s first industrial battery recycling demonstration plant, taking lithium-ion battery recycling from research to a live facility running in the real world.

Sarah Fleischer and Ksenija Milicevic Neumann, Co-founders at tozero, share how the team built and launched the plant from scratch, now processing end-of-life batteries into critical materials like lithium and graphite, and using it to prove the process continuously as they push toward scaling full industrial plants across Europe.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:32 - Launching the demo plant

1:40 - From idea to building the plant

3:12 - Why battery recycling now

5:22 - What the plant produces

6:49 - Proving the process at scale

7:55 - Scaling beyond the demo plant

9:44 - Pilots and customers

12:21 - Market demand and supply chains

13:08 - Rapid prototyping approach

14:35 - Scaling to future plants

18:20 - Hiring and building the team

Arbio is acquiring holiday home portfolios across Europe and using AI to turn highly manual property managers into much more scalable businesses.

Constantin Schröder, Co-founder at Arbio, shares how the company has completed 30 acquisitions so far and is using AI to automate pricing, guest communication and operations, turning property management into a far more scalable, software-like model, with tens of thousands of operators across Europe still to consolidate.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:19 - What Arbio is building

1:42 - Finding and acquiring property managers

2:45 - The first acquisition

5:05 - Using AI in property management

8:06 - Scaling operations with AI

9:32 - Investor interest and market shift

12:49 - Building in Berlin

14:21 - Growth ambitions

16:19 - Selling the vision to sellers

18:24 - The AI acquisition space

19:58 - Organic growth vs acquisitions

Connectd has grown to 17m ARR, building a cross-border network of senior talent and enabling companies to access specialised expertise on a flexible basis.

Roei Samuel, CEO at Connectd, says the shift to fractional work is accelerating as companies rethink how they hire, increasingly relying on flexible, high-skill operators to support and augment teams, driven by strong UK–US growth and network effects.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

1:22 - What Connectd is building

1:50 - Growth to ~17m ARR

3:37 - Cross-border network effects

6:00 - Why fractional work is accelerating

9:25 - First exit and lessons learned

11:01 - Founder mindset and performance

18:11 - Scaling Connectd

20:04 - AI and shift in hiring

21:53 - How companies will operate in the future

Dwelly is acquiring traditional lettings and real estate agencies across the UK and integrating them into an AI-enabled platform to automate workflows and scale them more efficiently.

Dan Lifshits and Ilia Drozdov, Co-founders of Dwelly, talk about Dwelly entering the London market, which represents around 40% of the UK rental market, marking a major step in scaling their model and consolidating the largest part of the market.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:28 - Entering the London market

0:58 - What Dwelly acquires and why

1:21 - Why London and why now

3:24 - The first acquisition and moving to Hull

5:42 - Why AI-driven consolidation is getting attention

9:40 - The first priority after an acquisition

11:00 - Building culture across acquisitions

13:27 - London and UK expansion

19:19 - Building an AI-native company

23:09 - How Dwelly deploys capital and operates

Light is replacing fragmented finance stacks and traditional ERPs by bringing payments, accounting and reporting into one AI-native platform.

Jonathan Sanders, CEO at Light, says this shift is only possible now because AI changes how software works, moving beyond fixed SaaS tools towards “organic” systems that learn, adapt and operate more like a team member inside the company.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:50 - What Light is building

1:39 - Replacing fragmented finance stacks

2:27 - How Light differs from traditional ERPs

3:44 - Fundraising and Series A

6:03 - AI as a fundamental shift in software

8:06 - Building “organic” software

10:29 - The end of SaaS playbooks

12:03 - Why founders must use AI hands-on

15:11 - New ways of working inside companies

18:45 - Growth across Europe and the US

21:32 - Vision for 2026 and beyond