The other week TechCrunch’s Bonus Crunch Live series took a seat with Accel VCs Sonali De Rycker and Andrew Braccia to talk about the state of the international start-up investing community. Provided their company’s broad geographical footprint, we wanted to know what was going on in various startup markets, and inside a number of business-model varietals that we are tracking, like API-focused startups and low-code work
As with all Bonus Crunch Live episodes, we have actually included the complete video listed below, in addition to a variety of preferred quotes from the discussion.
Above the paywall, I wanted to share what De Rycker stated about the European start-up community: It’s been stuck in my head for the last day because her comments indicate a future where there is no single center of start-up gravity.
Rather, considering her bullishness on her local scene, we’re visiting at least 3 major centers, particularly The United States and Canada with a locus in the United States, Asia with a possible capital in India, and Europe, with a somewhat dispersed layout.
Here’s De Rycker from our chat, responding to my question about how active the European endeavor and start-up scene is today (records has actually been lightly edited for clearness):
What has actually shocked me even more [than change in the European startup scene over time] is the acceleration in the last number of years. And I think it’s continued in the last few months, in spite of the COVID environment.
And that’s actually because Europe isn’t just one location, right? It’s a collection of different ecosystems, different places, different hubs. At any time there are 15 to 20 cities that are relevant, and they have actually all sort of reached this tipping point. And together, Europe is at this inflection point, in regards to the quality of entrepreneurs, [and] the variety of chances. And it feels like it’s all come together with the digitization that’s going on that we’re all, you know, very much believing in right now. And the reality that there’s a lots of capital around. So I would say that we’re seeing a quite mad rate, more than, openly, pre-COVID, which is not something we expected. […]
But I would say that total, Europe is exceptionally active [regarding] deal speed, offer count, I wouldn’t say it’s very different from what I comprehend to be the situation in the U.S.
Undergirding what De Rycker said above, TechCrunch just recently reported on the financial results of TransferWise, a European fintech unicorn that grew 70%in the in 2015, to ₤3026 million in profits. Toss in Adyen’s epic run as a public European tech business and there are lots to commemorate from the continent, even if we do not read enough about here in the States.
Additional Crunch Live continues with some truly damn fun stuff coming up (consisting of a couple of more that I am hosting). make sure you’re in and prepared for the next edition as we dig deeper into season two.
Hit the dive for the complete chat and some more bits from the transcript.
Sonali De Rycker and Andrew Braccia
Here’s the complete video: