Lea Bajc

The next generation of technology champions can be built in Europe. My partners, Victor Englesson, Ted Persson, Sandra Malmberg 👋, and I pulled together a few thoughts on why (and how) in a new white paper below! A few highlights: → Europe has a flourishing startup ecosystem, but loses too many companies as they scale. Early stage deal volume in Europe has grown ~4x over the past decade, and today’s European founders are more ambitious than ever. They know what “great” looks like at a global level, and they want to build enduring, category-defining businesses. Yet for too many founders, that path has not been in Europe. We estimate that between 2008 - 2021, close to 30% of the unicorns founded in Europe relocated their headquarters abroad, primarily to the US. → The current technology environment presents an opportunity to reset the board: Critical technologies including AI, energy and biotech, are all undergoing rapid change, creating opportunities for new champions to emerge alongside those from the internet and cloud eras. These strategic technologies align well with Europe’s incumbent strengths in areas like fundamental technology research, clean energy, and manufacturing. → Europe’s large corporates and policymakers have a role to play - and must act now: We’re encouraged by the recent momentum behind EU–INC to establish a pan-European corporate entity. Europe’s largest corporations and public procurement arms can work more nimbly with capital-intense deeptech startups, to help bridge the “valley of death” between R&D and commercialization. And initiatives like European Tech Champions and the proposed Scaleup Europe Fund will attract needed capital to Europe’s most promising companies at the scaleup phase. In our paper, we identify over 650 promising European scale-ups building in today’s most strategic technology sectors, including AI, robotics and energy, and we expect this figure to rise to 1,900 by 2030. If you're building in these markets, please reach out!

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Verb Ventures was built to back platforms that bring transparency to opaque markets global trade relies on. Aviation aftermarket is a perfect case — airlines spend $40B on parts yearly while carrying $50B in excess inventory with zero centralised visibility. What convinced us on SkySelect wasn't the tech alone — it was the customer pull. The status quo is failing airlines, and adoption is accelerating. Proud to co-lead alongside RockCreek!

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Great encapsulation of what we do: "The method is clear. Tekcapital sources promising IP — often at an early stage — from leading research institutions. It then forms and capitalises operating companies (frequently as majority-owned subsidiaries), recruits specialist management, underpins go-to-market strategy and governance, and targets value realisation through listings in the US and UK. Crucially, this model is not “research for research’s sake”: it is anchored in technologies that improve everyday life, from healthier food to safer mobility and better digital tools." #technology #investing https://lnkd.in/eUQyAG8p

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Good piece from Yu Sun at the Financial Times on the recovery in private equity fundraising — and the selectivity and high bar that still defines the market for LPs. I appreciated the opportunity to contribute our perspective. For us at Wingman Growth Partners, that backdrop reinforces what we are excited about: partnering with founders and CEOs of well-run, growing software, fintech, and data businesses and helping compound what is already working. Worth a read: https://lnkd.in/ggrRvvas

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I wonder if… Luxera Capital Partners’ €520 million Growth II close reflects a broader institutional conviction that European HealthTech can scale globally when paired with transatlantic commercial support. Exceeding the €500 million hard cap, nearly doubling Fund I, and expanding the LP base across DACH, the Nordics, Latin America, and the U.S. suggests the market is still rewarding specialist managers with clear sector focus and international value-creation capabilities. #PrivateEquity #HealthTech #GrowthEquity

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Congrats to the team at Loft Orbital on the $1B program with Marlan Space to build the world’s largest AI satellite infrastructure. The 50-satellite constellation will combine multiple types of sensors with onboard AI, allowing satellites to analyze what they see in orbit and deliver insights in seconds. Processing happens in real time, in space, without waiting for raw data to be downloaded and analyzed on Earth. That matters because the time between observing something and acting on it can determine the outcome. Detecting a wildfire, identifying a vessel in distress, or spotting a threat to national security or critical infrastructure becomes far more useful when the information reaches people while they can still intervene. Bringing that capability at this scale is a major leap forward. Customers will also be able to deploy AI applications in space without building and operating their own satellites. Loft is making that capability accessible on shared infrastructure. We’re proud to be investors in Loft and to see the team’s years of work translate into a program of this scale!

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Software is evolving to listen, speak, and act in real time – and that shift demands an entirely new kind of infrastructure. That’s why I’m so excited Index is leading LiveKit's $100M Series C. As AI models get more capable, interaction is moving beyond clicks and screens toward voice, video, and stateful systems that operate continuously. Powering that transition requires globally reliable, ultra-low-latency infrastructure — one of the hardest problems in modern networking and distributed systems. LiveKit is building exactly that. The platform makes real-time voice and video workloads reliable at a global scale, while remaining deeply developer-first. It’s been incredible to watch more than 100,000 builders and teams adopt LiveKit bottom-up, with usage spanning everything from AI labs to large enterprises. What ultimately convinced us, though, was the team. Russ d'Sa and David Zhao bring rare systems depth paired with exceptional product instinct. They’ve worked together for nearly two decades, have deep trust, and are clear-eyed about what it takes to build an enduring infrastructure company – the kind that defines a category. We believe LiveKit is becoming a foundational layer in the AI stack, and we’re excited to partner with Russ, DZ, and the entire LiveKit team as they build the future of real-time applications. I shared some insights on our investment in a new blog – check it out via the link in comments. https://lnkd.in/exiHWGS2

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