E575 | EUVC Summit 2025 | Tom Wilson, Seedcamp: Europe’s Flywheel Moment

0:00As Europe's startup ecosystem matures, we're entering Europe's flywheel moment, a critical inflection point where early momentum turns into unstoppable scale. At the heart of Seedcamp's strategy is this exact concept, leveraging the compounding effects of network, reputation, and reach to cover Europe at scale. From Barcelona to Bucharest, Seedcamp doesn't just invest, They build interconnected nodes of founders, operators, and capital that reinforce each other with every deal. This flywheel isn't theory. It's how Firm of the Year 2023 winner Seedcamp has helped shaped breakout companies across the continent by acting early, moving fast, and building a platform that turns local bets into global winners.

0:53To unpack how this flywheel was built and what it means for the future of European tech, we're joined by Tom Wilson, partner at Seedcamp and one of the stewards behind Europe's most awarded early-stage VC firm. Hi, everyone. Great to be here. Thanks, Andreas, David. And thanks, Andreas, for that introduction. Quite a kind of thing to live up to. But delighted to be here to talk a little bit about what I'm calling Europe's flywheel moment. now this you know if we go back to kind of when ccamp was founded in 2007 this well this map wouldn't have looked very different but the companies which are on it would have looked very different because a number of them wouldn't have even been there and i think it's been core it has been core to our kind of dna of how we think about investing at scale across europe the idea of the flywheel that i'm going to unpack today because it's absolutely kind of seen as an engine for growth and also for how we've been able to source some amazing companies and be part of some of those founder journeys.

1:47And I think that if you see this map now today, obviously these companies here are so much more significant and so much greater in number than they were back in 2007, which makes the time for investing in this flywheel and using this as a strategy to unlock the next big companies as an even more effective strategy. So what is this flywheel that my kind of title talks about? And first of all, this slide doesn't really look like a wheel. It looks more like a kind of squashed circle, but that wouldn't have been a very catchy title. So not only is it flywheel, but I'm also calling it a bit of a kind of compounding flywheel.

2:22And if I walk kind of through what this chart shows here, maybe going from kind of left to right, on the left-hand side, you know, you can imagine the start of a startup's journey, and it goes through this arrow here, growing and attracting talent and attracting investment. Hopefully it gets to this point of being a kind of what I would classify and what we talk about, the type of companies that we want to invest in, which are these industry-defining companies. And then you get to, ideally, an exit event, which creates these liquidity opportunities and talent migration. So whether that's liquidity, creating new angels and funds, or actual founders taking that experience and becoming the kind of next generation of companies to start again.

3:05And the amazing thing about this flywheel and this kind of impact that it's having on Europe is that with each kind of cycle and generation and going back to 2007 when we were founded and today in 2025, you've got more companies coming through this. And so each company which starts on the left-hand side has access to more capital and not just capital, but capital from fantastic sources of people who've been through that journey before and also access to amazing talent that can impact and hugely affect the trajectory of these companies. So it's this kind of compounding effect. Now, I'm going to kind of look at the micro impact and then maybe more of the macro impact of what that means for the economy and then how we've actually seen it play out across our portfolio with some examples.

3:50So first of all, some stats on the ecosystem that I'm sure many people in this room as kind of participants in it will be familiar with. But over 2 ,000 startups have been founded by former employees of those 250 unicorn companies. And there's a fantastic source from the Atomico State of European Tech report, which highlights the extent to some of those breakout companies that we had on that first slide and how many companies they're producing. And it's also incredibly important because if you see 65 % of unicorn founders are repeat founders and 40 % of angel investors are ex-founders. So again, those participants on that flywheel or squashed circle that I showed earlier are key parts of what's happening here and being recycled through.

4:34So the impact of the flywheel on founder and venture success can be seen as absolutely colossal. But it's not just at the micro level of individual companies. It's also, we're talking about the impact that this room can have on economy as a whole, right? This is an absolute macro phenomenon. I've been working in investing in venture now for 11 years. And over the last, the European tech workforce has grown 7x over the last decade. So, I mean, it's gone from being a relatively small part of the economy to a very, very significant one. And that trajectory is only continuing. And the amount of money which is being attracted to the sector is another part of that fuel that is pushing that and propelling it forward.

5:19I mean, tech is right in kind of Europe's growth story. We firmly believe that as a firm. And that's why we're based here and we're investing all throughout the continent, finding those European companies which are building global successes, which create more jobs, more resilience, and more momentum. Now, what does that look like in practice? And I wanted to take a bit of time to look at this slide in terms of some of the examples of companies that we've backed that have been through that flywheel, are examples of the structure which I described before. So we've 50-plus, I've got to get this right, of current C-suite members of our portfolio, so that's kind of founding-level individuals, have worked at another Seedcamp company before.

6:01Now, Seedcamp's invested in over 550 companies since 2007. So you can see the impact of that flywheel within our portfolio itself, not just across the entire tech kind of ecosystem. Now, to pull out a few of those, we've had a number of companies which were first investors in Revolue and early employees of those have gone on to set up businesses which are now kind of Series A plus in terms of companies like Tilt. We've had companies which have been founded by X people from Ys and Tax Scouts, which have now themselves been acquired. And you can see this flywheel in motion and how we try very, very hard to be at the center of it, particularly from across our portfolio, and see that as almost a proprietary access to deal flow.

6:41Another fantastic example is Emi Gahl, who founded a business called Brainient, which Seekamp invested in back in 2009, which exited itself. He set up his new business, Ezra, which we were very fortunate to participate in again as a first-round investor. and that business sold just to announce last week to Function Health, which is probably one of the fastest growing health companies in the consumer space today in the US. So you can see the impact of this flywheel at the founder level that we've been privileged to have access to. Oh, I think I'm missing a couple of slides. Oh yeah, I am. Okay, they've missed a few out.

7:18So the other areas which I'd say are incredibly important that would have been on some slides, which were in, I think, an earlier vision, was around accessing talent and accessing other sources of capital. So another thing that we think very carefully about when kind of cultivating that flywheel and making sure that we're at the center of it and that we can unlock it for the most benefit to the portfolio companies that we invest in is the recycling of talent. And on the slide earlier where I showed the kind of talent which was coming back through the ecosystem, we think very carefully about that at Seacamp and how we can plug that talent that maybe is leaving a company for whatever reason, maybe it hasn't been as successful, or that company has reached a point where the early stage expertise, which they were fantastic for, are better served across another company in our portfolio.

8:02We look to try and recycle that talent across the portfolio and have done that really effectively. In addition to that, we've been supporting both early managers and emerging managers. I mean, many of them are in this room to help take some angel investing and become future kind of catalytic investors for the companies that we back, which is where we build the kind of syndicates of investment where we're leading in companies. Okay, so we love this flywheel, and I think it's, you know, a fantastic initiative that hopefully you've seen, like, examples of, but how do we make it kind of spin faster?

8:38What's the piece that is potentially missing from that chart earlier? Now, we went through from left to right, and I talked about exits at the end there, and I had a nice slide with UiPath, which someone was, I think, discussing earlier as well. There's a fantastic example of Exit and Wise, another fantastic company that we were privileged to be early investors in. But the reality is that liquidity has been kind of thin on the ground across the ecosystem. And it's something that I think is a massive missing part of that flywheel and having it go and see that kind of actual recycling of capital and those early employees becoming angel investors and becoming the next emerging managers or setting up funds and the recycling of talent who take even more experience at that last step in the journey and taking a company public or going through a very, very large acquisition.

9:28And so these stats kind of speak for themselves in terms of where that market is today. And I think it was discussed at one of the earlier talks as well about this is a timing thing. And I think that it is something that I'd encourage us all as early stage investors, you know, we have to be patient, we have to wait for that. And it is cyclical. But I think there's, there's very little we can do in terms of the actual unlocking of liquidity. But for sure, already seeing that flywheel be incredibly effective without that at the level it should be, gives me even more confidence that when we do see the return of that liquidity market, when we do see more of these exits, which will come, that that flywheel is going to just start spinning even faster.

10:08But if, you know, liquidity, and that kind of opening up of those markets is something that is quite challenging to do right now. You know, I can't kind of wave a magic wand and help that happen. What can we do? Well, again, going back to how I visualized that kind of flywheel, the chart that we showed earlier, I think we can, you know, celebrate company creation even more. I think we can encourage people to start businesses. I think the founders who we have the privilege to work with who go on to invest, go on to found these companies deserve all the credit. and I think as a collective and as an ecosystem and as the European continent can do more to celebrate company creation.

10:48I think we also, again, when you see the benefits of the recycling of that talent and people who don't progress to kind of category defining companies but are incredibly impactful. I've seen countless examples of founders who had failed startups that we invested in that went and joined the likes of, you know, a Synfisia or a Revolut early and then were incredibly impactful on the trajectory of that company. And I think they took some of that founding energy that they had from starting their own business and applied it elsewhere. So I think we need to be comfortable with failure and support recycling of talent and backing founders again, because those founders who have that experience are incredibly impactful and fantastic founders to be backing for a second time.

11:27And finally, I think we need to celebrate success in wealth creation, the kind of final side. I know the liquidity is not there as much as we'd all like it to be. But I think as an ecosystem, we can be more, rather than looking at people and saying, oh, how have they got to that point? There must be some reason why. Why didn't I do that? And being kind of almost resentful for it. I think we need to celebrate those companies which are successful and then encourage, and maybe this is for policy, and maybe this is for other things which can help unlock that, incentivize that even further, the individuals to reinvest that and to be the kind of catalysts to continue to drive that engine of growth.

12:02That's everything that I want to talk about. thank you so much and yeah enjoy the rest of the awards before you go I just want to give a massive shout out to the partners who made the EUVC summit and awards possible so please do not tune out we're partnering with these firms because they're great people with offerings that we know from our friends in the ecosystem are truly world class first up I want to give a big thanks to HSBC innovation banking they helped us in sap the awards in the very beginning and truly they are the leading bank for anyone in European venture. There's a reason why everyone knows them.

12:38Google Cloud, they were our venue hosted the summit. What a team, what a big effort they put on to help us. We're hugely grateful. Make sure to reach out to Arabella or Oksana at the Google Cloud team to hear how they can help you as well as your portfolio. Massive credits goes to them. Ace Alternatives, we have so many friends in the Berlin ecosystem partnered with these guys, just the best fund ops team around. And as with any good restaurant, where the locals are is also where you get the best service. And now they're expanding across Europe, so they're definitely someone to talk to. Hainspoon, they're longtime partners of ours in both our own legal work.

13:16They're great supporters of us here at EUEC, and I definitely think that they are one of the go-to legal teams to have in your corner. CW Communications, our dear friends who helped us secure CNBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times, and many more for the summer. It's a joy working with Dan and Kathy and the team. Fundcraft, Digiton Native, Full Suite, Lux Headquarter, and a great partner as you grow your firm out of Luxembourg. Definitely a fund admin to consider in your stack. I can only say that the team are incredible to work with. I'm very thankful that I've gotten to know them. I think they're one of the up-and-coming fund admins that you want to be thinking about.

13:55Portfolio IQ by Synaptic. You may know them for the Discover tool, which is branded on a Synaptic, but Portfolio IQ is absolutely a product you should know because there's no one that understands intelligence better than this team. And finally, Goodwin. They are a truly world-class legal partner you can trust. They're hands-on, business-oriented, and expert in everything and anything transatlantic. So those were our partners for the summit and awards. I know this might have been a bit long and boring but really if you have these guys on your side i don't think your firm could be in any better hands and also they're helping us do what we're doing every day for you