Is Europe Becoming ‘Verticalised’ ?

We spent 10 minutes catching up with Venture Capitalist Tim He from Northzone prior to our Copenhagen event in which he pitched to founders in our unique reverse pitching format.

Before becoming a VC, Tim caught the start-up bug when he was responsible for setting up Gaopeng, Groupon’s operations in China. Following this, he was advisor to numerous start-ups in the US and Asia, before moving back to Scandinavia. Joining Northzone enabled Tim to join the frontline working with the fantastic entrepreneurs and thriving start ups in the ecosystem.

Reflecting on recent developments in the European VC industry, ‘European venture has really accelerated in the past 2–3 years. Europe used to be home to a small number of funds covering broad geographies, but the industry is becoming bigger and increasingly verticalised. Northzone invests across Europe, and has a special interest in B2B SaaS, FinTech, e-commerce, media and infrastructure. Focusing on particular verticals is an important way to ensure that we as investors can add real value, both to our portfolio companies and prospective entrepreneurs that we meet’.

Why Capital On Stage? Capital On Stage has gained a certain name for itself in Europe and its slightly different format is always welcome! For founders sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between investors so it’s good to stand up there and explain who we are and what we can offer.

Advice to founders: Really understand what it is you’re bringing to the market, what the problem is and how it is you’re trying to solve it.

Want to get to know Tim a bit better? Watch his pitch below.