Upside #52 - More Chips Please - Be More German - No Easy A?

Upside #52 The weekly podcast for all things European venture, startups and investing. Each week we look behind the headlines for the real news affecting our ecosystem.

VC Hosts: Mads, Andrew & Dan

This week: 
Seed-to-Series A: harder or hype?
Germany’s €100B Deutschlandfonds
UK interest rate cut
OECD’s corporate investment warning
EU Chips Act 2.0 - 1.0 #fail
AI Corner – GPT-5, Anthropic’s advances, open-source wars
Deal of the Week

00:50 – Series A: Out of Reach? Really?
US: Avg. 2.5 years to Series A, down to 11% graduation rate. UK/Europe: ~18 months, higher graduation rates, but smaller rounds. AI reshaping funding pace; bridge rounds at record levels. Overhang from 2021–22 funding glut being flushed out. Carta data shows improving graduation rates. Labels distort. Under-capitalisation as a European challenge.

07:59 – Germany’s €100B Deutschlandfonds - Be More German
Fund to secure strategic sectors: defence, energy, raw materials. Leverages €10B public → target €100B private. Germany’s growth stagnation since 2019 needs reversal.

18:35 – UK Autumn Budget Of Misery
Likely tax rises despite Labour’s pledges - risk making UK unattractive for VC & startups. Millionaire exodus, low PE carried interest returns signal concern.

22:09 – UK Interest Rate Cut Says What?
BOE cuts from 4.25% → 4% despite sticky inflation (3.6% → rising to 4%). Growth fears outweigh inflation fight – signals economic fragility. Will lower rates make VC relatively more attractive?

23:29 – OECD: Weak Corporate Investment Is Bad News
Investment still 20% below pre-GFC trends; physical asset investment lagging. Productivity stagnation since 2008. Corporates prioritising dividends over long-term growth.

40:11 – EU Chips Act 2.0 - Can We, Should We?
Act 1 mega fail: Missed 20% market share goal; may hit only 5% by 2030. Intel exit, focus on low-end chips, global oversupply, poor US trade terms. Need to attract TSMC/Samsung for cutting-edge fabs. Europe must avoid “please everyone” industrial policy. Chip demand will keep growing; still time to compete.

50:35 – Mega AI Corner
GPT-5 “soon” Anthropic’s Claude 4.1 leading in reliability. OpenAI launches first open-source model since GPT-2. Mega-rounds: OpenAI $8B, Mistral $10B, Perplexity raising. Open vs. closed source. IP & “decomposition” debate:

1:04:04 – Deal of the Week
Clay – $100M at $3.1B; widely used contact intelligence tool.
n8n – Valuation surges past €2B amid investor frenzy.
Voltrac – Spanish autonomous electric tractor; 70% fewer parts, strong ROI.
AI in politics: Sweden’s PM admits using ChatGPT for second opinions.

Recorded 7 August 2025