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Europe’s Talent Crossroads: Rewrite the Rules or Fall Behind

Europe’s Talent Crossroads: Rewrite the Rules or Fall Behind

Europe is on the edge of a once-in-a-generation shift. Global tech and research talent are looking for new homes, but momentum alone won’t move Europe from “interesting alternative” to genuine global leader.

In our latest "Build in Europe" article, we spoke with Matthias Knecht (Billie), Jens Schneider (TU Vienna), Anna Stürgkh (European Parliament), Conor McNamara (Stripe), and Oliver Merkel (Flink) to go beyond analyzing the moment and press for real action.

As our GP, Andreas Schwarzenbrunner shares, if Europe is serious about competing with Silicon Valley and the world’s innovation hubs, the playbook needs rewriting: from visa reform and modern equity models to bold research funding.

Read the interviews and proposals that go beyond theory to reshape the future of European tech on our blog.

What else is happening...

→ Have You Heard? Hotel automation platform Flexkeeping was acquired by Mews, the company's 13th acquisition. Axios has the details.

→ Speedinvest News: We’ve launched two continuation funds with €60 million in commitments to address the growing liquidity challenge in European venture capital. Learn more about our long-term strategy to deliver returns to LPs while giving breakout companies the time and capital they need to keep scaling on our blog.

→ Our Perspective: Our CEO & Managing Partner, Oliver Holle, spoke with Sifted about the rise and importance of continuation vehicles in Europe.

Additional portfolio updates, deep-dive content, job openings, and more below ⬇️

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Welcome to the Family

Nofence is revolutionising farming with its approach to one of agriculture's biggest challenges: fences. Based in Norway, Nofence's team is building a market leader for fenceless farming, using solar-powered GPS trackers to help farmers stay ahead of the pack.

You can read more about the company's latest investment in AgFunder News, and also read why we invested from Principal Wissam Nasreddine.

  • Aerska is pioneering RNA medicines to treat, delay, and prevent diseases of the brain. The Dublin-based company wants to get RNA-interfering (RNAi) molecules into the brain to silence the genes that cause neurodegenerative diseases, with plans to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. EU Startups covered the round.
  • Djust, a French B2B payments platform powered by AI, is changing the infrastructure of e-commerce with its technology. The company is automating complex workflows and helping to transform the way we conduct B2B payments. You can read more on why we invested in Djust here, or read more about the company on Maddyness.
  • 10% is a real-time data platform that removes intermediaries, enabling brands to collect, visualise, and activate receipt-level data while rewarding users through a cashback app. You can read more about the company's funding here.

Have You Heard?

Our portfolio's latest funding announcements

Finary is leading the way in European wealth management and is set to expand beyond France with its latest €25 million Series B funding round led by PayPal Ventures. We're proud to support Mounir and his team as they develop their AI-powered wealth management platform, which enables users to track a wide range of assets, including stocks, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and gold, all in one place. EU Startups has more details.

  • Paris-based Qovery wants to solve one of the biggest challenges facing engineering teams today: the hiring and retaining of DevOps talent. Qovery solves this by automating the entire lifecycle of application deployment and infrastructure management across any cloud, enabling teams to scale faster, reduce costs, and focus on building products instead of managing complexity. EU Startups covered their recent $13 million Series A round.
  • Founded in 2024, Vocca, a Paris-based startup, has developed a voice assistant capable of managing calls, appointments, and patient requests. This solution aims to improve access to care and ease the workload of medical secretaries using AI. They just raised $5.5 million, and Tech.eu and Les Echos have more.

Portfolio Headlines & Highlights

News and updates from across our portfolio

cleverly has acquired our portfolio company Complori, marking a strong step forward in building a comprehensive digital education platform for young learners.

Together, they now offer a broader and more integrated path for learning, supporting personal growth, school success, and future-readiness from a single source.

And Mews has acquired Flexkeeping to provide hoteliers with a fully unified management platform from check-in to check-out.

Becoming part of Mews’ hospitality operating system will take this innovation to the next level, giving Mews’ 12,500 customers across more than 85 countries a truly best-in-class housekeeping platform natively connected to their PMS.

Our Perspective

Sector-focused expertise and insights on the VC ecosystem at large

If 2024 was the year of waiting for IPOs that never came, 2025 may well be remembered as the year investors got creative about liquidity.

Across the Atlantic, secondary transactions have already overtaken IPO proceeds. Here in Europe, we’re facing the same challenge: breakout companies are staying private longer, while LPs still expect cash returns.

That tension is exactly why we’ve launched our first continuation vehicles, and why this won’t be the last. The €60 million in commitments we announced earlier this month marks a milestone in our broader “DPI strategy,” designed to balance two goals that often seem in conflict: providing LPs with liquidity while preserving long-term upside in companies we believe still have considerable room to grow.

It’s not a simple exercise. But it's one our in-house DPI team will continue to build a repeatable liquidity strategy for European venture, one that matches the reality of longer holding periods while still rewarding the people who make this ecosystem run.

Our CEO, Oliver Holle, explains why on our blog.

Who's Hiring?

There are more than 1,000 vacancies across our portfolio. Browse open jobs below and on our website.

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See you next month!