This week we're bringing you the second in our new series of extended interviews with the big names and rising stars of Europe's tech and startup scene.

This episode features a conversation with Timmu Tõke, founder of Ready Player Me — an Estonian company that recently won investment from legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz to develop its metaverse-ready avatar technology.

Recorded in the midst of a turbulent time for the metaverse and all things Web3, in this interview Timmu shares his thoughts on what the metaverse might look like, who should govern it and why he thinks Mark Zuckerberg might be barking up the wrong tree.

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This week we discuss:

03:35 Anything World raises $7.5m
06:16 Crypto payment startup Ramp raises $70m
08:15 Solar startup Alight wins $150m in buyout to scale up its ambitions
10:04 Spotify's Daniel Ek has a new startup in the works
16:53 What's gone wrong for UK battery startup Britishvolt?

This week we discuss:

00:53 Kry lays off 300 employees
03:52 Monzo staff unionise
07:33 Flying taxi startup raises $300
09:53 Robots in demand as energy prices soar
12:57 What's been going down at Web Summit?

This week we discuss:

01:58 Will Rishi Sunak, the UK’s new prime minister, be good for startups?
05:56 Damning stats reveal gender pay gap at European startups
09:18 Daye raises £10 for vaginal microbiome testing
12:20 H2 Green Steel secures €3.5bn in debt to build hydrogen steel plant
14:47 Alt meat startup Heura raises €20m
16:52 Paebbl raises €8m to turn captured carbon into cement
18:42 Can private jets really be good for the environment?
19:50 A lack of lab space is threatening UK biotech

This week, we're treating you to something a little bit different. Eleanor's joined by EQT Growth partner Carolina Brochado, who recently launched a new €2.4bn fund to back later-stage European startups. That's not her only heavyweight credential: before joining EQT, Carolina was a partner at both the SoftBank Vision Fund and Atomico.

They talk about how she’s works with her portfolio companies, how far European tech has come and how she tried (and failed), somewhat creatively, to win a spot on Deliveroo’s cap table back in the day.

This week we discuss:

02:01 Who would lose most in a Gorillas sale?
04:41 N26 reports widening losses
06:57 Amazon aggregators get sued
09:55 AI investment is down
13:02 Tech to make us age slower
19:30 Spain gets its 10th unicorn

This week we discuss:

03:19 Metaverse platform Improbable has raised $100m
10:15 Faux foie gras startup Gourmey raises €48m
13:15 New Paris-based VC fund Sista Fund launches
26:55 How can all startups help the green transition?

The carbon-light website agency mentioned by Tessa Clarke: Wholegrain

This week we discuss:

02:34 Italy gets its second unicorn in Satispay

04:56 Sequoia gets its fifth partner in Europe

06:40 Phagos raised €2.4m to fight antibiotic resistance

08:43 Wayve announces big breakthrough for self-driving cars

This week we discuss:

03:04 More layoffs at Klarna
03:54 Insect cultivation startup Innovafarm raises $260m
05:35 Equity management platform Ledgy raises $22m
07:00 B2B payments startup Sequence gets backing from Andreessen Horowitz
09:16 Glovo founder launches new VC fund as his company is fined €79m
11:58 Founder of collapsed energy company Bulb joins investment firm
14:10 Nato launches €1bn VC fund as "defence tech" heats up
21:03 Do we really need pets in the metaverse?

This week we discuss:

01:00 Secondhand car marketplace Cazoo to lay off 1,500 people in 2022

03:15 Presentation software startup Pitch laying off 30% of team

05:55 Vertical farming startup Infarm cuts 50 jobs

07:35 Northzone raises €1bn fund 

10:00 EQT raises €2.4bn growth fund

12:24 SunRoof raised €15m to build solar roofs

20:17 Inside Europe’s largest cannabis manufacturing facility