Scaling Europe

Every week Seb Johnson sits down with 5 of Europe's best builders and investors to talk about what's going on in European Tech.Prior guests include the founders of Lovable, Cleo, Voi an Zilch, as well as top VCs from 20VC, Index, Balderton and Creandum.

Scaling Europe is a business podcast hosted by Sebastian Johnson, with 230 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Sebastian Johnson hosts Scaling Europe, a business show with 230 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Scaling Europe

  Thomas Bigagli, EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures: Europe needs bigger and faster capital to keep startups home

  Aug 18, 202621 min

  Plug and Play Ventures invests in startups across Europe and runs a platform connecting them with large corporate partners. It has grown from a family office into an institutional investor with nine funds, and now runs 65 offices with more than 700 people worldwide. Thomas Bigagli is EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures. He believes Europe already has the talent and ideas, and just needs investors willing to move faster and write bigger checks to keep its best startups from leaving. Sponsors: Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:28 - What Plug and Play's EMEA role involves 2:29 - How Europe's startup landscape has changed 3:20 - Why deep tech is such an exciting opportunity right now 5:05 - Where Europe's hardware and deep tech hubs are emerging 6:07 - Plug and Play's early bets in Lithuania and Italy 9:56 - The one question every founder gets asked 12:32 - Why more European founders are thinking globally 15:52 - US investors' growing presence in Europe 17:15 - Why European VCs still move slower than American ones 18:41 - The European firms closing the gap

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  Scaling Europe

  Srdjan Kovacevic, CEO & Co-Founder of Orqa: Building leading drone hardware in Europe

  Aug 14, 202624 min

  Orqa is a Croatian company that designs and manufactures drones, components and ground stations entirely in Europe, a rare setup in an industry that mostly relies on China. Orqa now builds primarily for defence customers across NATO and the West, and shipped 250,000 products last year, a number it's on track to double in 2026. Srdjan Kovacevic is CEO and Co-Founder of Orqa. He believes most Western militaries aren't ready for drone warfare yet, and that needs to change fast. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:15 - What Orqa builds 1:07 - Why Orqa set out to build Europe's answer to Chinese drone brands 2:36 - Why Orqa builds everything in Europe 5:03 - Orqa's current production scale 6:41 - How the war in Ukraine pulled Orqa into defence 8:05 - Why Orqa builds for NATO's future needs, not Ukraine's immediate ones 10:19 - Orqa's production numbers: 250,000 products shipped last year 13:16 - Orqa's biggest supply chain bottleneck 15:40 - Why the AI boom is causing a new chip shortage for Orqa 19:10 - Ukraine's drone warfare numbers 20:36 - How drone warfare has transformed the battlefield

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  Scaling Europe

  Shahriar Tajbakhsh, Co-founder & CTO of Metaview: BREAKING: Metaview acquired Reval

  Aug 11, 202621 min

  Metaview just acquired Reval, a recruiting agency built to run entirely on AI. The deal brings more talent and technology into Fillmore, Metaview's AI recruiting co-worker. Metaview's platform is already used by more than 5,000 companies, and Fillmore works by researching, sourcing and reaching out to candidates without any human involvement. Shahriar Tajbakhsh is Co-founder and CTO of Metaview. He expects Metaview to become the single platform for end-to-end hiring within a year, handling everything from a company opening a role to someone being hired. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:12 - Metaview's AI-first approach to recruiting 1:07 - Metaview's traction across more than 5,000 companies 2:10 - What Fillmore is and how it works 6:22 - Why Metaview built Fillmore as a co-worker, not an agent 8:08 - Fillmore's early results since its soft launch 12:24 - Why Metaview acquired Reval 14:14 - How the Reval and Metaview teams came together 15:39 - How mission-aligned teams speed up Metaview's hiring 20:02 - What success looks like for the Reval acquisition

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  Scaling Europe

  Ameera Patel, CEO at TidalSense: TidalSense diagnoses lung disease in under 4 minutes

  Aug 7, 202617 min

  TidalSense has built a handheld device that diagnoses COPD, a common lung disease, in under four minutes. It's already used across the NHS and has drawn interest from more than 60 countries since launching last year. The Cambridge-based company just raised $19m to expand into new markets. Ameera Patel is CEO of TidalSense. She believes what matters most to healthcare providers is a better patient experience and more efficient care. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:19 - TidalSense's $19m round and what problem it solves 1:08 - Why the standard diagnostic test hasn't changed since the 1800s 2:44 - What TidalSense has built 3:35 - TidalSense's rollout across the NHS 4:21 - The demand TidalSense has seen since launching 5:16 - Ameera's personal journey to founding TidalSense 9:48 - Inside TidalSense's $19m round and its lead investor 12:02 - TidalSense's plans to expand into the US and China 14:47 - TidalSense's biggest bottleneck right now 15:59 - What's needed for TidalSense's next raise

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  Scaling Europe

  Zaya Kadyrova, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Aspire11: Unlocking Europe's pension money for tech growth

  Aug 4, 202623 min

  Aspire11 invests European pension money into some of the world's biggest private tech companies, unlocking capital that's historically stayed on the sidelines. Its first fund raised €500m, and backs both early-stage VC funds and late-stage tech companies such as Revolut, Databricks, ElevenLabs and Vinted. Zaya Kadyrova is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Aspire11. She believes much of the value created by Europe's biggest tech companies currently goes to US pension funds, and is trying to change that by putting pension money directly into companies at that scale. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction0:20 - What Aspire11 does 1:31 - Why pension funds matter for venture 4:37 - Why Europe's pensions have stayed on the sidelines 8:51 - Tribes: backing the next generation of fund managers 12:07 - Why Aspire11 backed Revolut, Vinted and Eleven Labs 15:14 - The case for investing in Databricks 18:22 - How the fund is driving demand from young savers 19:35 - How Aspire11 wins access to the best deals

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