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 - dan@superseed.com
Upside
2025 Christmas Special - It’s a Wrap!
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With European VCs Lomax, Mads, Andrew and Dan
2025 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 sentence
- Dan: “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 moments
- Mads: 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 wrong
- Mads: 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 year
- Europe 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 world
- Globalisation 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 real
- DeepSeek 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 highlights
- GLP-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 & space
- Modern 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).
