EUVC

In this episode, we're happy to welcome you to Rando Rannus, General Partner of Siena Secondary Fund. Rando is a founding member of Estonian Startup Leaders Club, a leading figure in EstBan, and is an excited entrepreneur with a portfolio of 30+ startups. With everyone talking about secondaries these days, we thought it was natural to sit down Rando to talk about talk about the opportunity he's capturing, the market he's navigating and the fund he's building. In this episode you’ll learn:– The founding story and opportunity that led to the raise of Siena Secondary Fund - and the surprising story behind the name– Juxtaposition of the early stage market and secondaries market - and why defaults in the portfolio are a complete no-go–  Why Rando prefers to buy secondaries off of founders, early employees or local champions

This is the first of a four episode long special on the MENA region here at The European VC. This special series focuses on everything MENA VC, bridging the gap with its European counterparts. We intend to shed light and promote collaboration between these two beautiful regions.For this special series we welcome our dear friend and special co-host Mostafa Gado - Venture Builder, Innovation Strategist and Tech Enthusiast. Mostafa has led the Project Management and Business Development for Fetchr, the #1 MENA startup in 2017 according to Forbes, in Saudi Arabia. He is a former Innovation Strategist at Accenture Middle East and Advisory Manager at PWC Middle East.Our first guest is Kenza Lahlou, co-founder and General Partner at Outlierz Ventures, an early-stage Africa-focused VC fund dedicated to Seed and Pre-Series A companies.In this episode you’ll learn:– How Kenza broke into VC in the first place and how the journey into VC in MENA differs from that in Europe– Why the rise of certain startup ecosystems is promising in the Morocco region– How Kenza thinks about helping take MENA startups go global– Why Africa's near-boundless VC opportunities if approached in the right way

Today's episode marks the 100th episode of The European VC so we’ve shifted things up and turned the tables on your usual hosts. This time, David and Andreas are the interviewees, lifting the covers on the vision behind The European VC and how an incurably optimistic former Danish bodybuilder and over-thinking Portuguese VC protégé ended up betting everything and tying themselves and their families’ fortunes together by the hip. To interview them, nobody better than Tom, Affinity's European Regional Director and one of EUVCs long-standing supporters and friends. Besides that, Tom is a Data and Technology leader with 18 years experience in the European Venture Capital and Private Equity industry. We cannot wait to bring you this story and hope you’ll enjoy hearing a bit more about your usual hosts. In this episode you’ll learn:– The vision and origin story of The European VC – Why angels, VCs and ecosystem champions should connect around LP syndicates– What’s been learnt from 100 interviews with European VCs and which episodes are the hottest!?– How the team behind The European VC is working to connect and democratize European VC - and what the pitfalls are.

Today we are happy to welcome Jamie, CEO and Founder of Creator Fund - Europe’s leading university student focused fund. Jamie launched the fund in 2019 and has since grown its presence to more than 25 UK universities. The inspiration for the model came from his time at Stanford where he was an investor at Dorm Room Fund. Jamie is a true thought leader in the space and is leading the charge pioneering a new generation of funds that we expect to see from in the future! Buckle up, ‘cos Jamie is going places - fast.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why the Creator Fund is investing in top European universities and the new founder's profile coming out of those academic environments– Their strategy of not just backing great founders but supporting a generation of student investors, leaders and technology talent– How can phD founders have more ownership of the IP in their universities with Creator's alternative negotiations– Why transparency is a key value on a VC's relationship with its LPs

Today we're happy to welcome John Frankel and Maciej Skarul.John founded ffVC back in 2008. ffVC is a leading New York City-based VC firm which has demonstrated success scaling global tech business. And you might be asking: “A US based fund in The European VC pod?!”. Listen to this episode and you’ll understand why.Maciej, our other guest, is a partner at ffVC and has over 12 years of experience in investment banking and M&A. Based in Poland, he is one of the two partners leading ffVC’s European arm in Warsaw. ffVC Warsaw works in conjunction with the rest of the ffVC network to bring to Poland everything that ffVC has done over the past twelve years in the US.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why a US focused VC decided to invest in Poland and the ecosystem challenges they are facing with more conservative investors– How the European culture can grow from million to billion-dollar exits– How their early investments are turning into a global seed stage footprint– The attraction of building US focused businesses using European tools and teams, since CE startups are 3x more cost efficient than their western pears

In today's episode, we're talking to Anthony Danon, co-founder of Cocoa, one of the hottest emerging managers in Europe these days pioneering a strategy of being VCs turned angels. Cocoa are deliberately small (17 M€ and nearly 3x oversubscribed). They are backed by some of Europe's top decacorn and unicorn founders. Prior to launching Cocoa, Anthony has been with Anthemis and Speedinvest and his partner Carmen Alfonso Rico with Samaipata and Blossom. They’ve both led high-profiled investments into companies like Hopin, TrueLayer, Primer, Wayflyer, Tide, and many more. In this episode you’ll learn:– The investment thesis of being VCs turned angels and Anthony’s reflections on the rise of micro funds – The fundraising tactics and narrative excellence that allowed Cocoa to close their fund in record time and heavily oversubscribed– Why Cocoa said no to VC money in their LP base and prioritized founders and operators– How Anthony thinks about the current market and the need to adapt as VCs

In this episode, we're happy to introduce you to Lindsay and Kemper, the UK-based team from Industry Ventures, a global 5 bn euro Fund of Funds. Lindsay is the Managing Director at Industry, and focuses on originating, valuing and managing primary fund commitments and direct co-investment opportunities for the Tech Buyout team. Kemper is the Vice President at Industry and focuses on the firm’s Secondary and Tech Buyout investments, as well as driving business development efforts across their platform.In this episode you’ll learn:– All about Industry Ventures, the 5 bn € quiet giant investing into early stage funds– Why Industry run 4 strategies in parallel and how they work together to yield a competitive edge for their LPs as well as managers– The state of the secondaries market and how Industry navigates it in Europe– What the future holds for Industry in Europe

Today, we're happy to welcome Apostolos Apostolakis, founding partner of VentureFriends, a leading European VC firm based out of beautiful and sunny Greece. Apostolos is a founder, turned angel, turned VC and has been investing and supporting startups since 2010, and focuses on consumer software and marketplaces.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why tech plays such an important part in the democratization of venture– All about the thesis and strategy of VentureFriends and why they focus globally– An insider's view on the Greek Market and the effects of the pandemic – The essential value of having people on the ground, cultivating a network and creating awareness

Join us as we're talking to Laurens Groenendijk, co-founder of Dutch Founders Fund, an founder-led early-stage venture capital firm from Amsterdam and focuses on marketplace businesses and products or services with strong network effects. Just as the rest of the founding team behind Dutch Founders Fund, Laurens is a successful entrepreneur having previously founded Just-Eat, Treatwell, Miinto and nano-satellite challenger Hiber. In this episode you’ll learn:– Why Laurens love markets that are considered unorthodox or unusual – What’s behind Laurens’ thesis of letting crazy ideas flourish and why it’s important to remember that just 1 line item can make all the difference– Why Laurens built an LP base 100+ founders and operators– How Dutch Founders Fund manages and serves their LP base via weekly updates and whatsapps

Welcome to another hot-off-the-press episode in our special series on navigating the current market with Europe's absolute VC elites.For today’s episode, we sat down with Tom Wilson, Partner at Seedcamp. Seedcamp requires little intro, so suffice it to say that he team has backed more than 430 companies and are early investors in European successes like Hopin, Wise, Revolut, Sorare, wefox, Pleo, UiPath, viz.ai and Grover. So with that, let’s dive in!