E636 | This Week In European Tech with Dan, Mads, Lomax and Ben Prade

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 covered02:35 Fundraising reality: fewer funds, flight to brandsWhy ~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 attachedWhen government money shapes mandates: the upside (more capital) and the risk (policy over performance).06:45 Chinks of light: Klarna & liquidityHow high-profile exits (and lock-ups ending) can recycle cash back into European VC.09:37 Goldman buys Industry VenturesWhy a Wall Street giant wants secondary data + wealth distribution — and how that can unclog LP portfolios.13:08 Nobel Prize & growth mechanicsCreative 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” momentOpenAI’s ~30 GW compute plan (> $1T decade CapEx), Google’s ad-cash advantage, and the looming pricing showdown.25:09 Circularity vs. realityVendor-financing analogies in AI, but remember: revenue expectations — not loops — pop bubbles.28:03 Unit economics: AI ≠ SaaSNegative gross margins down the stack; LLMs climbing into apps; why vertical data + UX decide winners.32:02 China’s dark factoriesExecs return “shaken”: robotized plants, BYD’s surge, and how physical AI (motors, batteries, autonomy) changes competitiveness.39:29 Unleashing Europe’s capitalJP 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.