EQT Ventures

👣 Stepping Into Character: Founder Personas At EQT Ventures and EQT Growth's Scale Summit, Alexander Skarsgård (Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor, Succession's Lukas Matsson), James Vincent (Founder, FNDR), and Polly Barnes (EQT Ventures) held an insightful discussion on the art of the founder persona. 🎥 Skarsgård shared his approach to playing Matsson: "I’d pretend I was a five-year-old... if I lost interest, I’d let it show," offering insight into the unpredictable nature of the character. 💡 Polly Barnes added: "Founders need to recognize when bold vision works, but also when it’s time to evolve and lead strategically." 🔑 James Vincent highlighted the importance of evolution: "Successful founders, like Steve Jobs, evolve beyond the outlier persona to become charismatic CEOs who build great teams and teach them to excel." Skarsgård’s portrayal of Matsson, while fictional, provided real lessons on the risks of prioritizing eccentricity over substance. As funding becomes harder to secure and the "cult of the founder" wanes, founders must balance boldness with strategic leadership to succeed long-term. Read more, check link in comments! 👇

🎥 Announcing our investment in Argil (YC S24): Empowering the Creator Economy with AI-Driven Video Innovation Argil has raised €4.9M in pre-seed and seed funding, with EQT Ventures proudly leading the round. Emerging from Y Combinator, Argil is transforming video creation by making it faster, more affordable, and accessible for everyone -- whether you’re a business, educator, or creator. Their platform leverages generative AI to create life-like avatars that can produce ready-to-post videos in just minutes, addressing the rising demand for video marketing while tackling the cost and time challenges of traditional video production. As Ted Persson, Partner at EQT Ventures, puts it: "Argil is perfectly positioned to benefit from two megatrends -- AI and the creator economy. Synthetic media has become one of the fastest-adopted technologies, and we’re hugely impressed by the team’s experience and ability to pack so much technology into such a sleek platform." A warm congrats to Laodis Menard, Brivael Le Pogam, and the Argil team as they redefine video creation for the creator economy! 🚀

A couple of weeks back Alexander Fred-Ojala, Head of AI, EQT Ventures, attended Solenne Niedercorn-Desouches Finscale podcast. 🤖 💸 The conversation revolved around the real-world impact of AI, and how it can be used in a VC setting as well as beyond. 🌟 Alexander also shared tips and recommendations on how to get up to speed with AI, the value of hype bubbles, and what’s on the frontier with this technology. 🏃♂️➡️ Thank you for the conversation! 🫶

Net Zero shouldn't be a zero-sum game for start-ups, but how can we help climate tech founders who are looking to scale? “This isn’t an industry that can afford to waste time or money. It must move fast and move together. Achieving the required scale demands collaboration between policymakers, industry, and entrepreneurs on an unprecedented scale,” says EQT Ventures Partner, Ted Persson in his latest ThinQ piece. Read more about the role tech start-ups will play in the journey to net zero here: https://ow.ly/h4q850UfAM8

TechCrunch Biolevate’s raises €6M to helps medical writers keep up with the pace of new drugs The company, which recently made STATION F’s Future 40 list, optimizes the creation and management of research and compliance documents, using NLP and Computer Vision, effectively working as an AI assistant the writer of a medical documents. The platform guides a writer through the materials, reducing the time and effort needed to understand or correct the system, Joel Belafa told TechCrunch. Commenting Julien Hobeika, Partner at EQT Ventures, added in a statement: “There’s a significant opportunity in making medical writing more efficient using AI, and the team at Biolevate offers an impressive solution to transform medical documentation processes into a seamless and effective procedure that supports innovation and drives scientific breakthroughs benefiting society.” https://lnkd.in/eXvDVniZ

 🧪 Announcing Our Investment in Biolevate At EQT Ventures, we’re thrilled to lead Biolevate’s €6M seed funding round alongside industry leaders like Mehdi Ghissassi (DeepMind) and the co-founders of Zoi. Biolevate is revolutionizing healthcare innovation with their AI-powered knowledge platform that augments scientists across the entire medical innovation process -- from research and compliance to bringing life-saving treatments to market faster. Joel Belafa, Nathan Di C., and the Biolevate team are tackling one of healthcare’s most pressing challenges: how to make research more efficient, compliant, and impactful through maximizing the utilization of knowledge at their disposal. We’re proud to support their mission to accelerate healthcare innovation and empower scientists globally. 🌏 Read more about why we invested and Biolevate’s exciting journey. Link in comments! Julien Hobeika, Naza Metghalchi, Pierrick Cudonnec

🥇 The new WealthTech gold rush is here We are standing in front of the new era of WealthTech, built on the learnings of robo-advisors 1.0, new providers are entering the space targeting the highest wealth bracket with new tech.  ✅ Wealth Untapped: 11% of people hold 98% of global wealth with €22 trillion in unmanaged assets in Europe alone.  ✅ The Opportunity: HNWI numbers have grown 38% since 2016, creating a $75 billion profit potential annually for WealthTech.  ✅  WealthTech 2.0: The next wave will blend personalised, human-driven wealth management with cutting-edge tech like AI and automation. Think real-time insights, bespoke financial planning, and affordability at scale. 💡 The gold rush isn’t just B2C. B2B infrastructure is ripe for disruption as legacy systems fail to meet modern needs.Curious about how this will evolve? Dive into the future of payments in our latest piece. 👇 Link in comments. Daniel Fraai, Kaushik Subramanian, Marnix van der Ploeg, Alexandre PONS, Tom Mendoza

Our Slush Hangover Breakfast brought together founders, operators, and tech enthusiasts for a chilled morning over Bloody Marys, Virgin Marys, and some great conversations. 🍹 Kiitos to everyone who joined us! 🇫🇮

We’re proud to support Candela as they revolutionize the maritime industry, making zero-emission water travel a reality. Here’s to a greener, more sustainable future -- on land and at sea. 🚤 🌍 “Candela is pioneering the shift to fossil-free transportation on water, just as we’ve seen rapid progress on land. With their cutting-edge hydrofoil technology, the transition to clean, efficient waterborne travel is finally within reach,” says Lars Jörnow, Partner at EQT Ventures. https://lnkd.in/dipKX4T6