19 Jan 2026Europe’s Newest Unicorn, Hiro Capital Deep Dive, Thinking Machines Drama, Listen Labs does $100M
Tom Wilson on Seedcamp's Flywheel and the 2026 Outlook
Seedcamp partner Tom Wilson reflects on 11.5 years at the firm, from €25-50k checks into a $180M Fund VI, with portfolio names including Revolut, Wise, UiPath, and Synthesia. He explains the European flywheel—50+ C-suite members across Seedcamp companies previously worked at other Seedcamp companies—why European founders think internationally from day one, how AI-era founders skew younger with outlier profiles, and his 2026 outlook on agentic end-to-end software, robotics, and AI meeting scientific research. He closes discussing angel investors and the Super Angel podcast.
Ria Grover on Sequence's $20M Series A and AI Revenue Automation
Sequence co-founder and CEO Ria Grover explains how the platform automates quote-to-cash workflows—contract extraction, billing, invoicing, receivables—for B2B companies with custom pricing, serving customers like Cognition, Lago, Runway, and Incident.io. She discusses 10x ARR growth in 2025 and the $20M Series A led by 645 Ventures with a16z, the challenge of human-in-the-loop agents in finance, lessons from selling her first company Feedier to Compass Group, and the serial-founder itch to get back in the arena, plus plans for an agent playground in 2026.
James Wise on Revolut's Win and the UK Sovereign AI Unit
Balderton partner James Wise returns after US trips to react to Nick Clegg joining Hiro Capital and to the FT front-page story on Balderton's roughly $9B Revolut stake, calling it rare positive front-page coverage for European tech. He then explains his new role as inaugural chair of the UK government's Sovereign AI Unit, helping set up its structure, team, and strategy; the interview continues past the end of this part.