Upside #49 - The United States of Europe
UPSIDE - For the week's *real news* behind the headlines affecting European venture.
If curious about startups, investing, venture capital, innovation, AI, and all things going on in and around Europe - that's what this weekly roundup is all about.
Hosts: Lomax from Outsized Ventures with Mads and myself from SuperSeed VC
On this week's show:
04:02 – Shout out for EU Inc and The 28th Regime
Legal fragmentation in Europe increases friction and costs for pre-seed and seed funding. Comparison to US (Delaware + SAFE) vs. Europe’s notary-heavy systems.
Potential savings of €350–500M annually by reducing legal overhead. ESOP (employee share options) complexity highlighted as a major barrier.
09:55 – The United States of Europe
EU Inc. could be a “small first step” toward a unified European market post-Brexit. Lobbying from notaries and national interests creates significant resistance. Watered down is as good as not at all.
15:14 – AI Corner: Huge AI news this week
Mira Murati’s new startup raises $2B from A16Z, Nvidia, AMD. China’s Moonshot AI (Kimi 2) - 1T parameter open-source LLM outperforming Anthropic’s Opus 4 on coding tasks.
Europe is trailing the US and China in foundational AI, but vertical AI and apps offer big opportunities.
25:28 – The Application Layer Boom
Lovable Raised $200M at $1.8B valuation** with 75M ARR in 8 months.
AI application companies like Tandem Health and Legora are scaling rapidly.
31:51 – Apple Rumoured to Acquire Mistral?
$15B acquisition? Would be the largest European AI exit, but raises sovereignty concerns in France.
36:12 – UK Government Reforms
Rachel Reeves’ speeches: Streamlined reporting, pushing pension funds into riskier assets, and supporting LSE listings - symbolic or game-changing?
42:21 – Crypto Week in the US
Bitcoin hits $120K as three major US crypto acts debated: Clarity Act, Genius Act, Anti-CBDC Act. Europe already has MiCA regulations but lacks a cohesive narrative. But should we have our own Crypto week?
48:19 – European VC at 10-Year Low
2025 projections: $10B VC capital raised. Solutions: Unlock pension capital, simplify retail VC access, and recycle returns from big exits like Mistral.
54:28 – Deal of the Week: Numan
Men’s D2C health startup: Raised $57M (30M equity + 27M debt). Pivoted to GLP-1-based weight-loss products, doubling revenue to $90M in 2024.
56:16 – Closing Thoughts.
Upside
This week's happenings in startup and investing land. Getting underneath VC, and discussing how to better support the European startup eco-system.
Every week we share what's been on our mind and get under the skin of VC, investing, startups and founder psychology.
From the team behind SuperSeed who invest in technical teams solving difficult business problems.
The network is run on LinkedIn so join me there - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer/
With full interview audio and video uploaded to all major outlets.
Love to hear from you - [email protected]
- No. of episodes: 54
- Latest episode: 2025-08-02
- Business Entrepreneurship
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