Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast, where our good friends Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen from SuperSeed are joined by Lomax Ward from Outsized Ventures and Ben Prade, investor & operator at Bullhound Capital (the investment arm of GP Bullhound), for an unfiltered look at Europe’s venture reality: fundraising pain, secondaries-as-a-service, AI’s power hunger, China’s “dark factories,” and how Europe unlocks the capital to compete.
Ben focuses on deep tech, AI, quantum, and space, and he brings a clear-eyed view on how liquidity, secondaries, and structural headwinds are reshaping the market.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered
02:35 Fundraising reality: fewer funds, flight to brands
Why ~25% of new VC money goes to the top 10 brands; what that means for emerging managers; and why DPI is king again.
05:26 Sovereign LPs & strings attached
When government money shapes mandates: the upside (more capital) and the risk (policy over performance).
06:45 Chinks of light: Klarna & liquidity
How high-profile exits (and lock-ups ending) can recycle cash back into European VC.
09:37 Goldman buys Industry Ventures
Why a Wall Street giant wants secondary data + wealth distribution — and how that can unclog LP portfolios.
13:08 Nobel Prize & growth mechanics
Creative destruction (Aghion–Howitt) meets realpolitik: state de-risking, catch-up industrialization, and China’s “build both infra and innovation” model.
21:24 AI’s “everything app” moment
OpenAI’s ~30 GW compute plan (> $1T decade CapEx), Google’s ad-cash advantage, and the looming pricing showdown.
25:09 Circularity vs. reality
Vendor-financing analogies in AI, but remember: revenue expectations — not loops — pop bubbles.
28:03 Unit economics: AI ≠ SaaS
Negative gross margins down the stack; LLMs climbing into apps; why vertical data + UX decide winners.
32:02 China’s dark factories
Execs return “shaken”: robotized plants, BYD’s surge, and how physical AI (motors, batteries, autonomy) changes competitiveness.
39:29 Unleashing Europe’s capital
JP Morgan’s $1.5T initiative vs. European pensions stuck in gov bonds; rewiring incentives to fund productive risk.
45:00 Deal of the Week: ecoRobotix
€90M Series D (Highland Europe, McWin). Precision AI spraying that cuts herbicides/pesticides by up to 95% across 20+ countries.
