E539 | EUVC Summit 2025 | Oliver Holle, Speedinvest: Europe's Counter-Offensive: A VC-Led Response to the US Tech Agenda

At this year’s EUVC Summit, Oliver Holle from Speedinvest delivered a powerful call to arms. In a room filled with the ecosystem’s builders, he laid out a bold vision for European venture: one that embraces our values, recognizes our untapped capital strength, and demands we shift from fragmentation to scale. His words weren’t just timely—they captured a moment of reckoning for European VC. The message? The opportunity is ours to lose, and the only thing standing in the way is us.Something strange has happened lately—I’ve never felt more proud to be European.Not in a jingoistic way. But in the sense that Europe’s values—modesty, facts over noise, democratic principles, and consensus-building—are becoming a competitive advantage. At a time when reliability and trust are global currencies, Europe’s soft power has quietly gained weight.But soft power alone isn’t enough.