In the 61st episode of The European VC, we're introducing you to Sapphire Ventures’ founding partner Andreas Weisskam and general partner Kevin Diestel.
Many newcomers to European VC don’t know this, but Sapphire was actually originally established as the corporate VC arm of German software giant SAP, before becoming an independent VC in 2011. They now have $8bn funds under management. Andreas led the launch of Sapphire's first European office last summer, bringing the fund back to the continent 💞 and they've been busy since 💪 having established a team of 7 investors and having invested in companies like Cazoo, Wise, [Monday.com](http://monday.com/) and CurrencyCloud and many more household names.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What drove Sapphire’s decision to double down on Europe and what learnings Andreas & Kevin have made leading the charge
- How the European Sapphire team leverages the connection to Silicon Valley to deliver their value add
- What the team thinks they’ve brought with them from the Valley that’s especially valuable and what has surprised them in the European ecosystem
- Why consensus decisions don’t always make for the best investment decisions and how the team thinks about the necessity to be make non-consensus decisions to make non-consensus investments.
Many newcomers to European VC don’t know this, but Sapphire was actually originally established as the corporate VC arm of German software giant SAP, before becoming an independent VC in 2011. They now have $8bn funds under management. Andreas led the launch of Sapphire's first European office last summer, bringing the fund back to the continent 💞 and they've been busy since 💪 having established a team of 7 investors and having invested in companies like Cazoo, Wise, [Monday.com](http://monday.com/) and CurrencyCloud and many more household names.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What drove Sapphire’s decision to double down on Europe and what learnings Andreas & Kevin have made leading the charge
- How the European Sapphire team leverages the connection to Silicon Valley to deliver their value add
- What the team thinks they’ve brought with them from the Valley that’s especially valuable and what has surprised them in the European ecosystem
- Why consensus decisions don’t always make for the best investment decisions and how the team thinks about the necessity to be make non-consensus decisions to make non-consensus investments.