The European Startup Scene

About this episode

Edward Keelan discusses the maturation of Europe's startup ecosystem and the impact of AI on the software landscape.

Europe’s startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly, with companies like Revolut, Lovable, and Legora demonstrating that world-class technology businesses can be built and scaled on the continent. While the US remains the dominant force in venture-backed software as home to the largest markets, the deepest capital pools, and the most ambitious exit culture, a growing number of European founders are choosing to build at home. Edward Keelan is a Partner at Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s largest and most active venture capital firms, where he has spent over 16 years leading the B2B software and enterprise AI fund. His portfolio spans seed through Series C, with a focus on European founders building in AI, vertical SaaS, and enterprise software. This long-view experience gives him a rare perspective on what it takes to build enduring technology companies in Europe. In this episode, Edward joins Elena Boroda to discuss what separates great founders from the rest, how AI is reshaping the software landscape and threatening established players, the state of the European startup ecosystem and what it needs to compete globally, and what engineers and founders should be thinking about as the…

People in this episode

Host: Elena Boroda

Guest: Edward Keelan

Topics covered

• European startup ecosystem
• venture capital
• AI in software
• B2B software
• founder success
• technology companies

Keywords

• European startups
• venture capital
• AI
• B2B software
• founders
• technology companies

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Octopus Ventures, Revolut, Lovable, Legora

Places: Europe, US, Berlin

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