Plural

Exciting news! 💥 Thrilled to share that we’ve raised a fresh €400M fund to continue backing the most ambitious founders on consequential missions to change the world through technology. This new fund signals a strong belief in the quality of founders and companies emerging from Europe by some of the most sophisticated LPs on both sides of the Atlantic. In our first 18 months, we’ve invested in 26 transformative companies across 6 countries, including Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and US. These exceptional teams are making important progress across a range of sectors, including AI (e.g. Robin AI or Unitary) frontier tech (e.g. Proxima Fusion or VSPARTICLE ), climate & energy (e.g. Field or Isometric)) and health & tech bio (e.g. Sano Genetics or Teton), and we’re honoured that they’ve chosen Plural to join them on their transformative journeys. We’ve now raised €660M in total to back important missions and have a GDP-level impact in Europe, address systemic risks and reduce the opportunity gap worldwide through the companies we back. Thanks to everyone who has been part of the Plural journey so far. We’re just getting started! https://lnkd.in/epxdmQAG

“We are shamelessly shooting for the moon while trying to bring the power of the stars down to Earth,” Francesco Sciortino, Proxima Fusion’s chief executive. The prospect, however distant, of becoming the first company to create a cheap, abundant and non-radioactive source of energy would be particularly transformational for Europe, which suffers from high energy prices. The Financial Times' John Thornhill writes in today's paper about why it’s time for Europe’s deep tech companies to go big and how reasserting technological sovereignty is becoming increasingly urgent, specifically looking at some of the most promising companies emerging from Munich, including Proxima Fusion and Helsing. https://lnkd.in/gjSuUbs7

“I think that every application will be rebuilt with AI and there Europe has a fantastic opportunity to compete.” Taavet Hinrikus shares his perspective on the future of AI in John Thornhill's Financial Times piece on how European startups are using AI to reimagine business models. https://lnkd.in/eiVXJSJN

You’re looking at the future of fusion! Thanks to Florian Herrmann for joining us to celebrate the official opening of our Munich lab, where we’re taking the first steps on our journey toward building the world’s first commercial fusion power plant: Stellaris. It’s heartening to know that the Bavarian Government is supporting us on that journey. But this moment isn’t only about the ambitions of Proxima Fusion, or even the ambitions of Bavaria and Germany. It’s about the ambitions of all of Europe. We hosted over 150 friends, partners, and investors in the lab for an evening of celebration and inspiration, culminating in a panel discussion on how to build €1 trillion companies in Europe – moderated by Isabelle Körner and featuring Chairman of Airbus and Chairman of Warburg Pincus LLC Europe René Obermann, Helsing Co-Founder and Co-CEO Torsten Reil, and Technical University of Munich Professor Ann-Kristin Achleitner alongside Proxima CEO Francesco Sciortino. As Francesco said onstage last night: “Today, Europe needs abundant clean energy; it needs energy security; it needs resilience and grid balance; but it also needs lighthouse projects. We need to remind Europe that we can build stellarators and other things that truly matter. We choose to climb the highest mountain… and prove to the world that Europe intends to lead in a new era of fusion power.” That era starts here, in Munich.

Looking for a strategic Head of Marketing to join Scaler's 🗽 NYC or 🛶 Amsterdam office - Reach out if you’re interested in being part of a high-growth, impact-driven team! #marketing https://lnkd.in/e46gT_6K

Great piece by Ott Tammik in Bloomberg today on the growth of the defence industry in Estonia, and how startups are protecting democracy on the eastern flank. Investing in and nurturing companies like these will be critical to European sovereignty in the years to come. Estonia’s bedrock of first-class tech talent, and its understanding of how urgent the situation is becoming, will make it an excellent place to build from. https://lnkd.in/eR5sCKSb

“VSPARTICLE offers what is, in effect, a nanoscale 3D printer… If widely adopted, Aaike van Vugt argues, it could save materials scientists the hard work of figuring out how to physically produce a desired candidate. Instead of worrying about synthesis, they could simply email the recipe to VSParticle’s lab and wait for the end product to be printed in one of the company’s automated fabricators.” The Economist dives into AI’s potential to revolutionise materials science, exploring the work VSParticle is doing to accelerate materials development and create better products for the future - whether that’s stronger batteries or cleaner bioplastics. https://lnkd.in/gk8DqS7G

🦾 🎸 ❤️ Joana Cartocci, my rock star co-founder high-jacking the audience -myself included- laying out Robeauté’s mission with inspiring clarity, galvanizing ambition and heart, somehow revealing our secret recipe. And all of that on the stage of « Le Grand Rex » one of most monumental concert halls in Paris, curated by the TEDx PARIS team.  Just watch, listen and feel. Michel Levy Provençal, Roxane Planas, Quentin François, Ali Oulmas, Nancy Isgrò, Arthur André https://lnkd.in/e4TSWceE

At Goldman Sachs Disruptive Tech Symposium today, interesting fireside chat with Taavet Hinrikus talking about the 3 stages of his career, from Skype as an employee, to Wise as a founder, to now VC investing at Plural. In particular his view that the “scar tissue, from being in the trenches as a founder, means you bring more to the table than most VCs in Europe who come from banking or consulting backgrounds”. Talking his own book of course but data (PitchBook and Financial Times) shows that only 8% of VCs in Europe have founding or operating experience versus 50-60% in US…💪 #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #innovation #startups

Our First Episode is up: PROXIMA FUSION – Europe's Most Ambitious Startup 🇪🇺✨ Teaser attached. Full Video on Youtube to have the algorithm there pick it up. Every industry in the world will be redefined once we reach energy abundance – there is one company in Europe hell bent to make that happen as soon as possible. I went to visit them in their office and their lab – and I am taking you, with my camera, along. Let's make this series together: Let me know what you like? – what you don't? – what can i do better? – and who I should interview next! 🔥