EQT Ventures

💳 How will payment companies make revenue when transaction fees disappear? Access to goods and services is easier than ever, but cashless payments come with added costs. Today, every transaction carries a fee. That model is changing fast. Imagine a future where merchants don’t pay fees to accept payments—instead, payment processors bid for the privilege of processing transactions. It’s a radical shift that could transform commerce. Curious about how this will evolve? Dive into the future of payments in our latest piece. 👇 Link in comments. Daniel Fraai, Kaushik Subramanian, Marnix van der Ploeg, Alexandre PONS, Tom Mendoza

WIRED Europe's Hottest Start-Ups: Every year, it's incredible to see the amazing tech companies emerging out of Europe . A huge congratulations to all the listed founders and their teams -- we know just how hard you’ve worked to get here! 💪 Special shoutout to Supernormal, Volt.io, and evroc for making the list -- your achievements are nothing short of inspiring. Keep pushing the boundaries!

The nomination phase for the 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 is now open! The #GSA25, awarded by the Startup-Verband, highlights leaders shaping our ecosystem through innovation ⚡️ ️Whether it’s newcomers or seasoned entrepreneurs - making a real difference in both business and social impact - it’s time to recognize and celebrate their efforts. Submit your nominations by 20 October 2024! Link in the comments :)

10 years ago I started Candela. I had no idea how hard it would be. Nor that it would be so freaking fun. Being pretty nerdy, Candela has been like a never ending candy store of engineering problems. And then all the brilliant and kind people who have taken us this far. You rock! Be proud! Here is 10 years of passion and sleepless nights compressed into 14 min. Make popcorn and watch on a proper device.

Yesterday, we announced our investment in .txt, turning the stochastic nature of LLMs into something more programmatic and deterministic, enabling deep integration into software systems! 💻 We are thrilled to lead their 💰 $11.9 million funding round, and great to be teaming up with Rémi Louf, Daniel Gerlanc, Brandon T. Willard, and the dottxt team! They are currently hiring. https://lnkd.in/etDBeJ5Q if you’re curious about joining as an early team member of one of the most exciting AI companies in the world. 🚀 Read more in my Medium post! Link in comments.

.txt, an ecosystem and platform for interacting with LLMs, has raised $11.9M to make LLMs speak the language of every application, and we're proud to be supporting Rémi Louf, Daniel Gerlanc, Brandon Willard and team. Julien Hobeika, Partner at EQT Ventures: “From our first discussion with Dottxt, we saw their potential to turn the stochastic nature of LLMs into something more programmatic and deterministic, enabling deep integration into software systems. This aligns with our belief that the future of AI agents will be shaped by those who can build the essential frameworks that make LLMs truly usable at scale in critical enterprise systems. We’re excited to support dottxt as they lead the creation of this critical infrastructure.” Ultimately, Dottxt's mission is simple: to make AI programmable so its potential meets the reliability demands of real-world systems. With $11.9 million in fresh funding, it is well-positioned to transform this vision into reality. Read more in TechCrunch! https://lnkd.in/dSNa2dti

We’re thrilled to announce our lead investment in Kaiber, with Crush Ventures participating. Kaiber is a creative technology company focused on human and AI collaboration. Kaiber has just launched Superstudio, an AI-native platform that redefines how creatives interact with generative AI. "We’re incredibly proud to support Kaiber and the launch of Superstudio,” said Ted Persson, Partner at EQT Ventures. “We have strong conviction in the team and look forward to seeing how Superstudio shapes the future of generative AI." "Creatives are stuck in a loop of slow, ugly AI slop and disjointed workflows, paying 5-10 subscriptions to make one asset," said Victor Wang, CEO of Kaiber. "With Superstudio, we've created a home base for the new forms of creativity emerging as humans collaborate with machines. Our focus has always been putting human creativity first, and Superstudio empowers artists to seamlessly integrate AI into their process, amplifying their taste without sacrificing originality." Read more in Fast Company https://lnkd.in/djZMbi2T

I’ve been having conversations with an increasing number of companies that are operating at a unique intersection: 1️⃣ Verticalized Automation 🏭 2️⃣ Human-in-the-Loop Processes 🧠: Not just humans labeling data to feed back to the model, but actually humans enabling the process to be run 3️⃣ IT-Managed Tech Stacks 💻: The solution is managed by engineers, not by business users 4️⃣ Business Experts as Key Stakeholders 🤝: Domain experts are the humans in the loop and also the main beneficiaries from the automation It feels like there’s a significant shift happening here, but it’s hard to coin that maybe nascent category with a single term. ❓ Does it make sense to you? How would you call this? If you are building something that sounds like this, hit me up! 📩 CC Gustav Von Sydow PS: I'm still experimenting with picture generation. I took me 20 prompts to get to this result. The most difficult part is to keep the constraints like "Just 4 categories" and "Text that is actual text" 🤦♂️

📣 Calling all founders! 📣 EQT Ventures and Voyager Ventures are teaming up to host a private event for European climate tech founders on Tuesday, November 19 at Slush. We would love to meet some new faces. We'll be curating a crew of 100 and will be prioritizing early-stage founders and company-builders. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gzfbAZcm See you in Helsinki!

𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 – 𝗶𝗳 𝗻𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲'𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀.  Too many founders waste time obsessing over their “perfect” product, but here's the harsh truth: No matter how revolutionary your idea is, it’s worthless if no one’s willing to pay for it. In my latest column for Gründerszene, I cut through the noise and break down the real path to startup success – sales. 𝘐𝘯 5 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘚𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴, I reveal the key strategies that have helped countless startups scale, from building a killer sales team to leveraging data like a pro. This isn't about feel-good product development—it’s about getting customers, generating revenue, and turning ideas into businesses. You want to grow?  You need sales. Period. Think your product can sell itself? Think again. Click on the link in comments and learn what it really takes to succeed.