E587 | EUVC Summit 2025 | Tapestry Venture: Emerging Manager of the Year

0:00Venture Capital's next generation is here. Emerging managers aren't just raising funds. They're proving they've earned the right to multi-million euro commitments from the biggest institutions, staking their claim as the next generation of European powerhouses and reshaping the future of European VC. This award recognizes the boldest new firms, those operating on Fund 1 to 3, who are proving that innovation, impact, and performance go hand in hand. They bring fresh innovation, new perspectives, and a relentless drive to redefine success. These are the names shaping tomorrow's venture landscape.

0:48First, Tapestry, Tiny, Venture Friends, Concept Ventures. They are the future of European venture, but in the EUVC Awards, only one firm will take the title. After a full day of inspiration, I promise to keep this one short. But the next award really requires your full attention. As the Emerging Manager of the Year, actually celebrates the Bolt. This is a new category for the awards because before we had the firm of the year, we also had the newcomer of the year, but we had kind of in mind that there needed to be an additional award because we really want to shed a light, bring the spotlight on the emerging manager.

1:43And this is about, as we have so many rising managers in our ecosystem, we thought this really requires an additional award. So when we were going through the list, we discovered solid GPs, also institutional spin-outs. We had specialist funds. We also had the thesis-driven funds. So it was really, really a wide spectrum of potential candidates. So that actually made this award a very challenging one, but on that sense also a very humbling one. It also kind of reminded us just how much innovation we can see in our own ecosystem, and so we are very much proud to be able to recognize that today.

2:32When going through the list, we actually had four criterias. One was clarity of strategy, and second, execution, reputation in the market, and also impact on our ecosystem. Because it's not only about returns, it's also about helping the ecosystem, educating, mentoring, and giving back to the ecosystem. So, this award, in our belief, is actually a strong signal. A way of saying, watch this one. They're building something real. But before announcing the winner of this award, I would like to welcome our sponsor, Thomas Pire, who is from Fundcraft. Thank you,

3:30Julia. So first, Capital Tapestry VC. No, it's not open yet. TCIC, Venture Friends, and Concept Ventures. Congrats to all the finalists. We at FUNCRAT were very, very proud to sponsor this award. For the ones that don't know us, we take care of the middle and back office of investment funds in Luxembourg. And as a scale-up ourselves, we are trying very, very hard to make a place for ourselves in Luxembourg and to challenge the established marketplace in the fund admin industry, who sometimes make it very hard for the emerging managers to break through. We deeply value the role of VC funds and the value that they bring to the economy.

4:23We know, as well as a scale-up ourselves, how tough entrepreneurship can be. and we applaud the finalists for your commitment to the ecosystem, for backing bold founders and for challenging the established players. Well done. And Julia will announce then the winner. Yes, indeed. Thank you. So first we need some drum rolls. For the upcoming Emerging Manager of the Year, It goes to Patrick Murphy, Audrey Miller, David Kelly, Alex McKenzie of Tapestry Venture.

5:16Congratulations. Thank you very much. And I also wanted to highlight that the winner gets a discount from Fundcraft. We'll commit that. And if anyone needs discounts on fees, I guess that's negotiable too. I guess thank you to EUVC, first and foremost, for putting this on. It's a great event and great for the ecosystem, starting with the podcast and seeing everything else that they've created. Thank you to Julia and Thomas, as well as all the rest of the judges and the sponsors. Really, really great. but fundamentally well thanks to the other funds in this category of course most of them are co-investors and friends which is great and I think we're all winners in this ecosystem and we're gonna be here for a long time thanks to my partners Audrey Alex David I'm here on their behalf and it's really amazing to be able to work with people that I like so much every day for the last five years and at least now we're all back in person because it wasn't so fun on Zoom.

6:24But most of all I want to say thanks to the founders. They're the ones not so much represented in this room today but they're the ones who take the real risk. They're the ones creating a dream from nothing really. Thank you to them for very often picking us over others and allowing us to be a small part of their mission and to radiate in the shadow of some of their success. I hope that we have held up our side of the bargain for them. We're broadly very quiet about what we do. I think Andreas and David are maybe the only people to have convinced me to do a podcast, so thank you for doing that.

7:02It's a privilege to be here and for our partnerships work to be recognized. I grew up in Ireland building building computers, building websites. I didn't know what venture capital was. I didn't think that people could just believe your dreams and then give you money to do something about it. It was pretty wild. So I'm pretty glad that venture capital found me, at least. One lesson that I've learned in venture is to be in service. At Tapestry, this is one of our core values. We want to be in service to our founders. It means working alongside them it means being objective but often it means subjugating our biases and subjugating our egos it's a real privilege to be able to spend all day talking to people want to change the world and it's even better when we get to take a bet on them thanks to all of our great LPs for the EU ecosystem I wish for more good stewards more finalists like today to see these founders meet them head-on and enable the dreams that they want to create all of today's talks give me so so much hope in that regard this industry is interesting there's no exam there's no syllabus there's no driving license for board members though I wish there was one there's no ombudsman there's no complaint line for founders you know and every time someone sets up a let's complain about VCs website it gets shut down for some reason so the thing I took away from today is it's really up to us to raise our own standards and let's be in service to these great founders who want to change Europe and change the world.

8:41And I hope the rest will just follow. Thank you very much. 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. Google Cloud, they were our venue hosted the summit.

9:17What 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.

9:52They'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 this 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.

10:30portfolio 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 their 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've 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