7percent Ventures

“Changes in sentiment often precede GDP changes, they don’t just follow it…Optimism and pessimism have a real effect…” On Upside with Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen (full episode in the comments section) we discuss how the sunny optimism associated with California - and indeed America as a whole - often doesn’t feel authentic to Brits or indeed Europeans. But THAT is a problem, as constantly being pessimistic does us absolutely no favours. How about instead rooting ourselves in reality? ➡️ The technical expertise from European founders is staggeringly good. ➡️ The follow-on funding market is improving every year. ➡️ We have strong democracies; shared values; world class institutions. ➡️ Wealthy consumers and big companies: there are ~6,000 listed businesses in Europe, many >€100M in market cap, and thousands of more private. Of course there are challenges, but these strengths are also true. We have to foundations to deliver global winning tech companies - we just need the confidence to back ourselves! _____ Backing deep tech requires conviction, not consensus. I share insights on my journey building 7percent Ventures, backing the most determined founders solving the world’s most challenging problems. Follow me, Andrew J Scott for more and pls do share if you liked this post.

It’s a myth that the UK doesn’t have money. London is the second largest financial centre in the world, a global powerhouse with deep pools of capital. The issue isn’t a lack of capital, it’s where that capital is going. If we want to shape the future ourselves, to have a say in how AI is used, to solve climate change, to be a provider not just a purchaser of deep tech and frontier science driven technologies, we need to unlock that capital for use by the boldest companies building to solve the most ambitious problems. That’s not just an economic opportunity, it’s a strategic imperative. Dan, Mads, Lomax and Dilek dig into this topic on a recent episode of Upside. We talked about what’s broken, what’s changing, and what needs to happen next. ____ Backing deep tech requires conviction, not consensus. I share insights on my journey building 7percent Ventures, backing the most determined founders solving the world’s most challenging problems. Follow me, Andrew J Scott for more and pls do share if you liked this post.

This is cool. Literally! Most quantum computers need cooling to around 4K (or in many cases even milli-Kelvin temperatures, far lower). Universal Quantum’s quantum computers only need cooling to a modest 70K, making a scalable machine not only feasible but far simpler to operate. I first reached out to Winnie and Seb in 2016 after reading about their quantum work at the University of Sussex 8 years ago. Founders like Winfried and Sebastian remind me how lucky I am to do this job. It’s been a privilege to support them on this journey and we’re just getting started! ____ Backing deep tech requires conviction, not consensus. I share insights on my journey building 7percent Ventures - backing the most determined founders solving the world’s most challenging problems. Follow me, Andrew J Scott for more and share if you liked this post.

For a long time, the playbook for ambitious UK and European startups was simple: build early momentum locally, then move to the US to access the larger funding rounds needed to scale. That is beginning to change. We're seeing bigger Series A and Series B rounds happen in the UK and Europe, a sign of a maturing ecosystem. It’s not just a handful of outliers anymore; it’s becoming a regular occurrence. There’s much work still to be done, but the progress is undeniable. I spoke about this and much more on a recent episode of Upside with Dan, Mads, Lomax, and Dilek. If you're thinking about the future of European tech, I’m biased, but it's worth a listen! Full episode link in the comments. Would love to hear your thoughts. ____ Backing deep tech requires conviction, not consensus. I share insights on my journey building 7percent Ventures, backing the most determined founders solving the world’s most challenging problems. Follow me, Andrew J Scott for more and pls do share if you liked this post.

AI is hungry. Datacenters are incredibly energy intensive today. The hyper scale datacenters designed to meet the extreme computing and storage needs of companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft use up to 200MW, enough to power 150,000 homes. But I predict this is a short term problem (and check out one of our portfolio companies Vaire Computing if you’re interested in this issue). This and much more in a recent episode of Upside with Dan Bowyer & Lomax Ward (full episode in the comments section). ____ Backing deep tech requires conviction, not consensus. I share insights on my journey building 7percent Ventures - backing the most determined founders solving the world’s most challenging problems. Follow me, Andrew J Scott for more and share if you liked this post.

There has been a lot of discussion about large, established VC funds moving away from the traditional model (rollups, buyouts, secondaries etc). I personally think it’s inevitable that there will be movement here, but that doesn’t mean the power law rules for funds like 7percent do not still apply. We have and will continue to focus on the moonshot opportunities. I discussed this and much more with Dan Bowyer, Lomax Ward, and Mads Jensen on a recent episode of Upside - always a pleasure (full episode in the comments section). ___ Backing deep tech requires conviction, not consensus. I share insights on my journey building 7percent Ventures, backing the most determined founders solving the world’s most challenging problems. Follow me, Andrew J Scott for more and pls do share if you liked this post.