For decades, Europe built around efficiency — global supply chains, outsourced infrastructure, and distributed value creation. That model is now breaking down.

In this episode, Cameron McLain (Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Giant Ventures) argues that the next era isn’t about startups — it’s about control.

Who owns the infrastructure determines who captures the value.

We discuss why venture is moving from convenience to systems, why “purpose-driven founders” outperform, and what it actually means to build a European stack across energy, manufacturing, and financial rails.

Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction: From impact to sovereignty02:00 – Why purpose-driven founders build enduring companies05:00 – Giant Ventures and the transatlantic perspective07:30 – The shift from efficiency to resilience10:00 – Why infrastructure is the new venture frontier12:00 – What the “European stack” actually means15:00 – Can Europe compete with hyperscalers?18:00 – The role of government: builder vs buyer23:00 – Why energy, manufacturing, and financial rails matter30:00 – AI, labour disruption, and the future of work34:00 – Europe’s biggest bottleneck: exits and capital markets

Most corporate venture capital models were built for a world that no longer exists.

They were designed for software cycles and optional innovation. Today, venture is shaped by deep tech, supply chains and industrial scale.

In this EU CVC episode, Jessica Persson (Scania) joins our hosts Jeppe Høier and Andreas Munk Holm (EUVC Corporate) to explain why corporate venture must evolve from a side activity into a core strategic capability.

Scania’s approach reframes venture entirely: not as access to startups, but as a way to position the company inside a changing system.

In this episode:

00:00 Why most CVC models are outdated

04:30 From outsourced to embedded venture

12:10 Deep tech changes everything

20:45 The cap table as a system

28:30 Strategic returns = financial returns

35:00 Preparing for multiple futures

Welcome back to Upside, where Dan Bowyer of SuperSeed and Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures, joined by Harry Destecroix, MBE, of SCVC unpack the forces shaping European venture, deep tech and capital.

This week’s conversation reflects a system shifting: Europe is writing bigger checks, physical AI is moving into focus, and the economics of AI are starting to change.

The question is no longer where innovation happens.
It is where value accrues.

The stack isn’t just scaling. It is being contested.

What's covered:

00:00 Intro and the week’s themes
02:00 Europe’s €15B fund-of-funds and the capital gap
08:00 Seed vs growth: where Europe is actually underfunded
14:00 Bezos’ $100B physical AI strategy
20:00 Roll-ups vs rebuilds in the industrial economy
25:00 China’s token model and the cost collapse of AI
31:00 Security, sovereignty and model choice
36:00 Innovate UK and founder-led policy
41:00 Capex vs revenue: the emerging imbalance
47:00 Predictions and market direction
52:00 Deals of the week