E634 | EUCVC Summit 2025: Christian Tang (Acme) & Claus Gregersen (Augustinus Fabrikker): Global Ambition in an Age of Sovereignty

0:00Global ambition has always been the rallying cry for European founders, but in today's world the map has changed. Christian Tang Jespersen, partner at San Francisco-based Acme and architect of one of Europe's largest venture exits, joins Klaus Gregersen, CEO of the 275-year-old Evergreen Fund Christian Augustinus Fabriker, to explore what going global really means in an age of sovereignty, shifting alliances, and structural reset. From recalibrating U.S. expansion to navigating new political and economic realities, they'll challenge the old playbook and map out how founders and funds can thrive across a more complex, more sovereign, yet deeply interconnected world.

0:51That must be a really AI-generated introduction. Christian, nice to sit here on stage with you. we go back quite a while. I think we've seen our fair share of cycles, ups and downs in the markets and black swans. And I think right now we are in this time of certain amount of uncertainty, but one that does really feel a little bit different because the uncertainty is driven by you know, other agendas, if we can say like that. I think we both back you as far as your forward looking venture fund and we as far as an evergreen foundation, we do back our businesses and think a lot about what to do at this point in time.

1:39At this point in time, seen from your chair, is shorthand for choosing the right opportunities? Does it still include the US as an important market? Well, for obvious reason, since I'm also investing with U.S. money, I'm a partner of the U.S. fund as well. I'm pretty much forced by hand to spend that money somewhere. But just going back to the downturn situation we're in, I think what we need to think of as investors, as founders, as entrepreneurs, we need to think of this as not like just a downturn, just another, it's not another downturn that we've seen. Like how many black swans do we have to go through before it's called something else, right?

2:26So I think this has to be like a structural reset for us all. And that goes for us on this scene. We can't just blame US or China or EU or whatever it is we normally blame. It's really about we need to adjust to the reality we're in and we need to kind of accept that where the world is and where it's going, it's not going to change. We can't just sit and wait and say, I missed a time when we did it like this. It's not going to change. So I think that's the most fundamental start of it. And as investors, and for me, as a quick side note, I had a Canadian defense company calling me and wanted me to invest in them.

3:11And when they realized I came from a U.S. fund, they said, ah, no, we don't want you anymore. Never tried that before. I'm the cool cat in Europe, right? Because I'm from a US fund and suddenly I have this conflict. So as an investor for us, my job and our job is not to moralize. Our job is to navigate. And kind of that takes me to like, we cannot not lean into the story about US. So obviously for you, Klaus, are you more or less inclined to back globally minded founders now? Do you prefer people that hide, not a leading question at all, but people that hide in their own sovereignty? Or where do you think things are going as an investor?

3:55I mean, we run private money as a foundation and we can decide ourselves what's the right thing to do. We try not to take a political stance on much. I think if I look at the business ideas, we evaluate, they tend, if we get excited, it's nearly always because they actually have a global perspective or a global opportunity. We don't really at this point see any reason whatsoever to exclude any region for either reasons. I think if we specifically talk about what you alluded to, the US. I mean, if I look at those businesses we invested in, those we're looking at over time, over the last many years, the real potential in eight out of 10 that comes out of the US, not only from a business point of view, but as well from a learning point of view, from an inspiration point of view.

5:00And I think it's really difficult for anybody to be a global success without including the US market. I would be incredibly hesitant to invest in an entrepreneur that came to me and said, listen, we have this great global idea. We just don't want to be in the US. That's just the way to look at it, first of all. It's unique. Yeah, that would be very unique. But I think that it's really important to, if I look at history, everybody who succeeded in the US, it's really because they were in the US. They learned a lot. It's a very tough, tough environment. to break through there is probably as well on your hand the most valuable learning curve you can be on because if you succeed there you can more or less succeed anywhere else no for to us it's more a must do than the opposite yeah i think there was a dude called frank that said that as well um so for me founders are looking for optionality always and in a best world and what I look at our founders that are also thinking scale and where can you learn scale mostly in US where can you learn and get taught cultural values I think like that's probably Europe is a good choice for that as well right so if we if we kind of if we recalibrate and think of what what are the best elements we want to take from different markets that's where we want to be but like let's Let me test you on like the page nine on any Series B race.

6:37And I guess that is a little bit early for you. But like any Series B page nine says expansion into US. It's always there. Like page nine or 10 is always there. Like what's your thoughts on that part? But it really plays into what I just said. Anything, you know, any business ideas that is supposed to be a global role-wide opportunity, that obviously must include the US. And I think it's probably more important that it does so than anything else. I think if I think about our businesses, and we actually have a majority of our capital invested in mature businesses. Now, established industrial businesses, they have to think very hard about the environment we're in today with the trade discussions, et cetera.

7:23But if we look at 50 different opportunities in the early stage bracket, or for that matter, early stage businesses that we're looking to help scaling, it doesn't really matter for them if there's a trade war or not. And the discussions we see going on as far as Europe, the US, et cetera, those business models are not depending on that. And I think it's really important to distinguish that the political issues, the trade discussions, the tariff discussions, they affect established global industrial businesses. They really do not matter much for the environment. And I sincerely hope that politicians, private allocators, et cetera, really do not fall into the trap of mixing those two things up.

8:16That would be a big mistake. Yeah. And I think for you, Christian, looking at your businesses, looking at the entrepreneurs, your backing, Do you see a change there? Would they continue to take this mix of European and U.S. capital, or would they distinguish? I would sincerely hope they bring in the best value at capital they can, no matter where it comes from, probably not Russia right now and less likely from China. But outside there, it's probably safe to look at who can bring me, who can drive value for me. I think from any entrepreneur needs to understand that whatever they do, like don't make this ideology.

8:59Like be flexible in terms of maturity, right? Values like ESG we heard about this morning, DIE, whatever else that's going on, they're only real if they're embedded. You don't have to shout out that you're like, this is what is embedded. It's kind of going to be obvious for any culture that you're part of it. So for me, as an ending note, COVID taught us to build lean. Defense taught us to build fast, move really fast. And I think if we combine those two things and start to build with resilience, that's really what I'm looking for in any founder now. I think the closing remark for me would be as far as backing the right business ideas, early stage or scale-wise, it really is business as usual.

9:47The sad thing is that the capital available is less today than it was a year ago, but we are very open-minded to the original business ideas. Thank you. Thank you so much.