On the show today:
Tom Powell: Co-Founder and CEO, Bondaval
Sander Sebastian Agur Sebastian: Co-Founder and CEO, Rollo Robotics
Cory Johnson: Growth Marketer, Synthesia
Orla Browne: Head of Insights, Dealroom.co
Samuel Beek: Founder, Schematik
Gemma Bloemen: Venture Partner, Systemiq Capital
Matt Larson: Head of Growth, Velocity
Mirko Novakovic, CEO, Dash0
Lena Stocker: Growth Equity, DTCP
00:06:43 Granola’s recent $125 million Series at a $1.5 billion valuation.
00:13:37 Tom Powell, Co-founder and CEO of Bondaval, discusses modernising the $2 trillion B2B credit market through technology-first insurance solutions. He highlights Bondaval’s recent 5-year partnership with Swiss Re and the company’s 2026 inflection point, emphasising how they are disrupting a legacy industry by removing manual credit obligations.
00:43:33 Sander Sebastian Agur, CEO of Rollo Robotics, introduces the "monopod," a breakthrough monowheel autonomous robot designed for security and intelligence. He discusses how the single-wheel form factor reduces production costs by 4x compared to traditional four-wheeled autonomous vehicles, enabling high-speed deployment in harsh 4-season environments.
01:13:35 Cory Johnson, Growth Marketer at Synthesia, shares insights into the company's recent $4 billion valuation and the "professionalisation" of synthetic media. He argues that while AI often "reverts to the mean," the human element remains the primary differentiator in building a global brand and experimental growth engine.
01:28:56 Orla Browne, Head of Insights at Dealroom, presents the 2026 European Deep Tech Report, noting that the sector has reached a combined $690 billion valuation. While Europe leads in quantum and university spinouts, Browne identifies a massive funding gap in late-stage growth, where 70% of $100M+ rounds are still led by U.S. investors.
01:45:30 Samuel Beek, Founder of Schematik, discusses his journey from being an early hire at Veed.io to building the "Cursor for hardware." Schematik aims to lower the barrier for building physical devices by providing an AI-driven interface that bridges the gap between software design and physical manufacturing.
02:15:20 Gemma Bloemen, Venture Partner at Systemiq Capital, discusses the firm’s mission to fund the "systemic transition" required for global climate goals. She highlights Systemiq’s focus on regenerative economics and circular supply chains, emphasising that the next generation of decacorns will be built by solving hard physical problems in energy and food systems.
02:35:45 Matt Larson, Head of Growth at Velocity, shares his blueprint for scaling early-stage ventures in a high-interest-rate environment. He elaborates on Velocity's data-driven approach to customer acquisition and the importance of building "distribution first" roadmaps over "growth at all costs."
03:02:13 Mirko Novakovic, Founder and CEO of Dash0, "crashes" the show to announce the company’s $110 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation. A veteran of the observability space (Instana, IBM), Novakovic discusses building an OpenTelemetry-native platform that reduces data volume by 95% to help engineers find critical insights without prohibitive costs.
03:17:55 Lena Stocker, Growth Equity at DTCP, discusses the competitive nature of the Dash0 round and the firm's focus on Digital Transformation. She provides a comparison of the San Francisco and European tech ecosystems, highlighting SF’s talent density while expressing optimism for Europe’s ability to scale enterprise SaaS and infrastructure.
