2025 Christmas Special - It’s a Wrap!

With European VCs Lomax, Mads, Andrew and Dan2025 year-in-review for European tech: capital, unicorns, geopolitics, AI, health, defence, and space space spaaaace.01:25 – European tech in numbers$45bn into European startups (flat vs 2023–24, still ~½ of 2021 peak).28 new unicorns in 2025 (up from 14 in 2024).US dominates: ~$250bn private tech funding.VC fundraising still tight (~$10bn into European funds).Exits are back: Wiz–Google, Klarna IPO, SMG IPO.04:16 – 2025 in one sentenceDan: “Extreme volatility.”Lomax: “The final nail in globalisation.”Mads: “China became a true peer to the US.”Andrew: “Shipping fast beat gold-plated tech.”05:49 – Most exciting tech momentsMads: Claude Code, Chinese open-source AI, ASML–Mistral deal.Lomax: Wiz’s $32bn cash exit.Andrew: 6G moves from lab to real specs.08:39 – Darwin Awards (biggest screw-ups)Dan: Meta / Zuckerberg.Lomax: The entire EU institutional stack.Mads: Europe exporting founders to the US (incentive failure).Andrew: Rachel Reeves & UK growth policy.11:59 – What smart people got wrongMads: GPU bans didn’t stop China—backfired.Lomax: AI bubble didn’t burst.Dan: Investors piling blindly into defence.Andrew: LLMs are “dial-up,” not the endgame.16:42 – Why 2025 was a good yearEurope got a massive wake-up call (Dan).4 new European decacorns (Lomax).Founders kept building despite chaos (Mads).VC rediscovered deep tech & hardware (Andrew).21:23 – Geopolitics: a less naive worldGlobalisation fragmenting into blocs.Trust replaced by “trust but verify.”Sovereignty = opportunity for European founders (AI, defence, energy).34:30 – AI Corner: the year AI got realDeepSeek shock wipes ~$600bn off Nvidia (Jan).Claude Code: $1bn ARR in ~6 months.Google Gemini comeback beats rivals on benchmarks.China dominates open-source AI.Rise of VLAs (Vision-Language-Action models) → physical AI, robotics.Big question for 2026: “Are we the horses?”47:44 – Health & bio highlightsGLP-1s everywhere: diabetes → cardio, kidney, neuro.Sales ~$62bn, heading toward $120bn+.Preventative health clinics scale (Function, Neko).Biotech rebounds; AI-designed drugs hit Phase 2.Psychedelics back: AbbVie deal, mental health momentum.56:51 – Defence & spaceModern warfare now rewards fast shipping founders.Global launch cadence: every ~1.5 days.Space shifts from experimentation → permanent infrastructure.Blue Origin finally launches New Glenn; SpaceX eyes Mars (again).