Tech.eu

In what turned out to be the Week d'Italia Robin jetted off to TechChill Milano and brought home a head cold, so good friend of the show Nick Stevens stepped in on a wing and a prayer.🇮🇹 (2:25) This week we cover Ryan Reynolds' involvement in a $340 million investment in Bending Spoons, their video editing tool Splice, photo editor Remini, how and why mobile tech has plateaued, why everyone shouldn't be a creative genius, DALL E2, and why Brad Pitt's Bullet Train is the greatest worst greatest film of all time.🇩🇪 (7:27) We glossed over Grover (to an extent) as Dan's planning on taking a deeper look at the tech rental platform in the Big Deal segment next week, but spoiler alert, of the $2.3 billion that the Berlin-based company has raised, $2.1 billion of it is in debt funding.🇮🇹 (10:40) Slimming the show down ever more, we blazed through Satispay, their €320 million Series D round, and after Scalapay (I'm detecting a theme here 🤔) the startup takes the second ever unicorn title home for Italy.🇩🇪 (11:00) Nick chimes in with a subject near and dear to his heart and how Berlin's one • fıve is out to save the world. To spice things up, we do it in pub quiz trivial style with me not having the article open and seeing just how much of my own reporting I can remember.🇬🇧/🇺🇸 (13:55) And last, but certainly not least, Nick and I cover why mayonnaise is the ultimate condiment, what I've got my eye on for the after work beverage of choice (hint: Guinness), and why Nick is taking drugs (hint: the clue is in the intro).All this and more on Episode 8 of Tech.eu's Drive at Five! 

Despite skipping the legendary opening party at OMCLUB as part of DMEXCO in Cologne, and smelling quite lovely, I might add, Robin's back in the studio to discuss what went down across the European technosphere this week.🇵🇹 Robin weighs in on Dan's "tech-light, but a good read" piece highlighting the shaky legal system in Portugal and what it means to the investment and startup scenes.🎙️ > 🎤 After a blip in the audio recording, we're pleased to announce that we're going through Robin's audio setup with a fine-toothed comb, and let's see if we can get him sounding just as good as Dan. Or at the very least, remove all the technical barriers.⚛️ Dan finally received the opportunity to pen a headline he's been waiting his entire life for it involves "pet food and supplements" and a quantum leap in innovation.👑 Robin recaps the funding numbers of the week, noting that of the top 10 investments none of them were from the UK. A rarity indeed. What's going on? Hint: Salve Regina.📱 Berlin/San Francisco-based telecom-as-a-service platform Gigs raised $20 million from a number of notable investors including Gradient, Google’s early-stage fund, YC Continuity, etc., but neither Robin nor Dan can figure out just who their customers are and/or what industries/segments they're targeting. Stay tuned...🐝 Robin waxes poetic about the buzz surrounding the Instabox and Budbee merger.💸 And there's one more thing - Robin takes note that investors tend to like the $300 million number. This week Swisscom Ventures, DTCP, and Extantia all clocked in at 300 million.😂 Last but certainly not least, after 5 episodes hosted together, Robin finally loses it and we almost have to stop the show due to uncontrollable laughter.All this and more on Episode 7 of Tech.eu's Drive at Five.

After having extended its Series C round to $160 million this past June and set a record as the fastest fintech company in Europe to reach unicorn status, Zilch is now taking the show on the road and angling to conquer the U.S. Market.I sat down with the company's CEO and co-founder Philip Belamant to discuss how he might possibly be the most successful failed games developer and how this venture eventually led to the creation of Zilch, including his decision to disagree with the board of a listed, multi-national payments provider and strike out on his own.With the industry currently experiencing some significant down-rounds, Philip takes me through a lesson in economics, and how Zilch's unique model isn't necessarily bulletproof, but how the company has been able to forge ahead while others are regrouping.We also get into the nitty gritty on expanding to the U.S. market, including Zilch's decision to set up its HQ in Miami, and whether or not a crypto play is in the company's future. 🤔And last, but certainly not least, Philip sits in on the trademark lightning round where we get to know him as a person and not as the head of a business. Hint: Bobotie, you should try it too!All this and more with Zilch's CEO and co-founder Philip Belamant.

Over the past decade, Amsterdam-HQ'd accelerator Rockstart has backed upwards of 280 startups, seen nine exits, and €150 million raised by portfolio companies culminating in an alumni value of approximately $1 billion.Traditionally focusing on Energy and AgriFood startups, in April of this year the firm opened the application process for its newest fund, Emerging Tech.We sat down with Rockstart's man at the helm for this fund, Michael Bjørnlund to define what exactly Rockstart views as emerging tech, what unique selling points Rockstart offers above and beyond other accelerators on the market today, and how and why he'll be swimming to Rockstart's inaugural event, Forward 2022 in September.All this and more with Rockstart's Managing Partner Emerging Tech Fund Europe - Michael Bjørnlund!

In a special post-TechBBQ episode, Dan sits down with  Neil S W Murray, founder of The Nordic Web, founding partner at The Nordic Web Ventures, and co-founder and CEO at Playmaker.Up first, Neil and Dan weigh in on the rise of the east and how the CEE region, east to west, north to south is finally experiencing what Western Europe saw in the VC scene some 15 years ago, particularly in regard to what 500 Emerging Europe, LauncHub Ventures, VentureFriends, and Vitosha Venture Partners are up to.Zooming out, we discuss U.S. investors' increased interest in the European startup scene, particularly this week's announcement of New York City-based Energy Impact Partners' €390 million commitment to EU-based startups, all with a healthy round of keyword bingo.And last, but certainly not least, Neil doesn't shy away from talking about the failure of his startup, Playmaker, and provides both insight and three key takeaways that any starry-eyed founder should take note of before setting pen to paper.All this and more on episode 6 of Tech.eu's Drive at Five.

Well alright, alright, alright, everyone's back from holidays, and it's time to get down to business.First this week we look at Northzone's appointment of World Economic Forum sustainability expert and programme creator, Anna Skarborg as Head of Sustainability and the growing trend of ESG officers in-house at VC firms.Former Revolut execs Alan Chang and Charles Orr have assembled a mighty impressive list of investors for their startup Tesseract which aims to disrupt the energy market. What and how they plan on doing this is still a bit ambiguous, as is where the $78 million came from. We discuss.UK-based OneWeb took a $229 million writedown due to Russia taking 36 of the company's satellites hostage indefinitely. Deliveroo's got more legal troubles when it comes to the treatment of its labour force, Instagram f*cked up in terms of data protection rights when it comes to minors, and last but certainly not least, Cazoo has called it a day across continental Europe, resulting in 750 jobs out the window.All this and more on episode 5 of Tech.eu's Drive at Five.

Earlier this year, smart data capture firm Scandit raised $150 million in a Series D  round, providing the company with a valuation north of $1 billion, a valuation that despite recent market upheavals, still holds.But how do three researchers at ETH Zurich spin out a company that in just 13 short years grows from an idea in a lab to one that's trusted by 5 of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies, and has a client roster with just about every household brand you can think of?I sat down with Scandit co-founder and CEO Samuel Mueller, Ph.D. to find out. Along the way Samuel discusses what pitfalls fledgling European startups can avoid when going global, and how to course correct the "oh shit" moments. We also get to know a bit more about the man driving the company in the lighting round, and crucially, Samuel weighs in on one of the most pressing questions of our modern era: when it comes to chocolate which country lays claim to the crown, Switzerland or Belgium?All this and more with Scandit's Samuel Mueller!

Europe may be on holiday, but that isn't stopping the deal flow. This week Celonis pulled in $1 billion in liquidity at a $13 billion valuation, and Web3 investments take centre stage. Nine-month-old thirdweb raised $24 million as it facilitates the creation of Web3 apps across popular blockchains, including games, NFT drops, DAOs, token gated membership clubs, and more. And despite Bitcoin dropping below $22,000 just least week and for all the doom and gloom talk of the "crypto winter", Estonian crypto trading platform Bitlevex raised $50 million from GEM Digital Ltd., a Bahamas-based "digital asset investment firm". Dan and our special guest Monty Munford discuss the red flags therein.This, Monty ended up on John McAfee's yacht in Malta, and a whole lot more on episode 4 of Tech.eu's Drive at Five.

Aaaaaand we're back! Robin takes a stab at the lead in this week, while Dan says it's got a good beat and that he can dance to it, but let's rewind the tape.Normally around this time of the year tech news stories are a bit thin, but the summer of 2022 isn't letting up on the pace. This week Robin and Dan wax poetic about what happened, or is happening, with Wallbox's acquisitions, how it's flown under the radar, relatively, for the past 7 years, and is now poised to make a major impact in the U.S. market, Super's keyword bingo and claim to "one of the largest ever pre-seed funding rounds in Europe", Robin's side hustle, Robinhood and the massive price drop in its acquisition of Ziglu, how and why and what's happening with the bureaucracy in Brussels' funding of startups, and one more thing - Just Eat says tchau to Brazil.All this and more on the Tech.eu Drive at Five.

With around $600 million in funding raised to date, and close to 1,000 people on the payroll, UK tech scale-up Improbable probably (ha) needs little introduction to our audience. In many ways, though, a decade into its existence the really exciting days for the 'metaverse technology' company seem to be still ahead of them.That's also a sentiment shared by Herman Narula, the affable co-founder and chief executive of Improbable, who said that technology is finally catching up with the ambitious goals the company had set for itself in the early days.Improbable has created a technology dubbed Morpheus that allows social interactions within virtual worlds, where thousands of people can talk to each other in lag-free environments, offering its virtual world-building services to a slew of entertainment companies, academic institutions, gaming companies, and even governments around the world.Improbable recently secured another $150 million in financing to establish and develop M², a network of 'interoperable Web3 metaverses' powered by its Morpheus tech. Even more recently, the company found itself squarely in the spotlight when it partnered up with Yuga Labs, the creators of the well-known Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT brand.Improbable worked with Yuga to build, service, and operate Otherside, basically a gamified MetaRPG universe where the players own the world. Earlier this month, the company assisted in 'First Trip', the highly-anticipated tech demo of Otherside: about 4,500 people were able to dance, sing and talk simultaneously. Check this video to see it in action.You can also watch our interview with Narula on our YouTube channel.