Tech.eu

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.

Up this week:

The AI wars are heating up: During London Tech Week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set the goal of establishing the UK as the global home of artificial intelligence. This week OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, announced that it would open its first international office in London, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis went on record stating that his engineers are building an AI system dubbed Gemini that will be more capable than that of OpenAI. All the while Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion is looking, well, a bit unstable.

A new report from Frontline Growth took a look at how US companies succeed and fail when it comes to European expansion. Representing up to 40% of global revenue for public software businesses, The authors note that "the strength of today's European tech ecosystem makes ignoring the region a costly mistake." Frontline goes on to cite the problem of success amnesia, where companies focus on sales at the expense of local marketing, community development, and brand-building efforts. Their data shows that 50% of companies don't have a single marketing resource in Europe a year after landing.

Following a retreat from France, Turkish speedy grocery service Getir is now pulling out of Spain. Spain's biggest trade union CCOO didn't mince words stating, "We condemn the disastrous business management of Getir, which has not known how to grow or have a market strategy in Spain. Now its staff will suffer the biggest harm." In light of these developments, it would appear as though Getir's rumoured offer to acquire Flink might well be off the table.

VTT Spinout Steady Energy is working on a 50MW nuclear reactor to be used to heat homes in Europe. Operating at significantly lower temperatures and pressure than a traditional reactor, the company's CEO Tommi Nyman says, "The pressure required by the LDR-50 reactor is comparable to the pressure that of a household espresso machine. It operates at a lower pressure than a district heating network. This ensures that in case of a malfunction which leads to a leak, the leak is contained within the heating plant, without endangering people or the environment."

Working on the algorithms that drive quantum computing, specifically, applying these algorithms to drug discovery and development, Finnish startup Algorithmiq 's CEO and co-founder Sabrina Maniscalco says that, "a useful quantum advantage is coming sooner than many think."

A new report issued by ESG_VC and BVCA analysed ESG data provided by 450 startups backed by leading venture capital firms including Lakestar, Balderton, Molten Ventures, Highland Europe, Beringea, and MMC Ventures. We spoke to ESG_VC co-founder Henry Philipson about how the initiative is aiming to assist startups navigate the world of ESG, as well as gather his response to commentary that startups shouldn't be focusing on ESG in early days.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is “horrible” and will “continue to create concerns” across the world, including the investment community, according to Jaidev Janardana, CEO of UK fintech lender Zopa.

The CEO pointed out that the Middle East was where the world gets a lot of its oil from.

Janardana said:

“What happens in the Middle East? It’s hard to predict. I am assuming there will be concerns about the conflict spreading and thus putting pressure on oil prices again, driving a new potential inflation scare.

“There is, of course, the tremendous humanitarian cost of what is happening there and what does that do to the West’s ability to support the war in Ukraine? And it’s still a very rapidly developing situation.

“There are many potential scenarios where this can go, where this can get worse. And when that happens, then investors tend to be careful with their money and they like to put that in cash, rather than in stocks.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Janardana talks about some of the high points for Zopa this year, including topping one million customers and crossing £3 billion in deposits.

In 2023, Zopa underwent two fundraising rounds, amid a challenging funding landscape.

But Janardana said the two £75m funding rounds “were not that hard”, owing he said to Zopa’s growth and customer demand for its products.

The fintech boss also touched on whether market conditions had improved to the extent that Zopa would likely soon IPO; the potential launch of new products; and its relationship with investor SoftBank.

“There is no entrepreneurial gene, I don’t think,” says James Wise, partner at VC firm Balderton Capital and author of Start-Up-Century.

He adds:

Wise gives us the full skinny on his new book, Start-Up Nation, which offers a fresh look at the rise in entrepreneurship and startups and how they are changing the world of work as well as what the changing economy means for the future.

He talks about fintech luminaries, such as GoCardless founder Hiroki Takeuchi who was “integral” to some of the thinking behind the book.

On Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield and Revolut co-founder Nikolay Storonsky, Wise said:

Wise also offers his view on some of the latest fintech trends.