Last year brought the European startup ecosystem many megarounds and IPO listings — as well as 70 episodes of the Tech.eu Podcast. In the show, we interviewed founders, VCs, policy makers, and other ecosystem players to help the listeners make sense of all the facets of the European tech industry.
Through the year, we covered a wide range of the most important and interesting topics, but some of the episodes had definitely seen more success than others.
Let's take a look at the installments of our show that attracted the most listeners in 2021. Don't miss out on the new episodes and subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.
10. Krystian Kolondra, Opera
Norway-founded Opera is mostly known as one of the oldest players on the web browser markets — but last year it made news as it committed over $100 million to launch a European fintech strategy. Robin Wauters learned more about the plan as he talked to Krystian Kolondra, EVP PC and EEA FinTech at the company.
9. Alex Kayyal, Salesforce Ventures
In this episode from February 2021, Robin Wauters interviewed Alex Kayyal, partner and head of Salesforce Ventures International. Learn more about
- the firm's activity in Europe,
- the way it's investing from the balance sheet across different stages,
- how it sources startups across the continent,
- and much more.
8. Aline Muylaert, CitizenLab
Here's another interview from February, in which Andrii Degeler talked to Aline Muylaert, co-founder of CitizenLab. The topics included civic engagement, urban decision-making, and which countries are more likely to embrace digital government solutions.
7. Nalin Patel, Pitchbook
Listen to this one (again) to hear Robin Wauters chatting with Nalin Patel, EMEA private data analyst at PitchBook Data. The conversation happened after Pitchbook launched a report on the European tech ecosystem in 2020, making it a good refresher before the new one is out.
6. Carlos Cashman, Thrasio
On this episode, we turned out attention to Amazon business aggregators, i.e. companies that acquire merchants that are doing reasonably well on the platform in order to consolidate them under one umbrella.
To learn more about the business model and its sudden popularity in Europe, Andrii Degeler talked to Carlos Cashman, co-founder and co-CEO at Thrasio, one of the largest companies of this kind in the world.
5. Hanno Renner, Personio
On this show that aired in July, Robin Wauters talks to Hanno Renner, CEO and co-founder of German HRtech unicorn Personio. Listen to learn more about the story of the startup, expansion plans, the impact of COVID, the quality of European talent — and the importance of employee stock options and visa policy across the continent.
4. Jan Goetz, IQM, and Ilkka Kivimaki, Maki.vc
Quantum computing has been discussed a lot through the European tech ecosystem — so in this episode, Andrii Degeler talked to Jan Goetz, co-founder of IQM, and Ilkka Kivimaki of Maki.vc, one of IQM's investors. They discussed when quantum computers will actually become practical, how different countries approach the technology, and how quantum computing makes sense from the VC point of view.
3. Eric Demuth, Bitpanda
In March last year, Austria saw its first unicorn, the fintech startup Bitpanda. The company, which started in the crypto space but eventually expanded to more asset classes, raised a $170 million funding round at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
Just as the deal was announced, Robin Wauters sat down with Bitpanda's CEO Eric Demuth to learn more about the company, its path towards success, and the road ahead.
2. Stephane Ouaki, the EIC Fund
In the beginning of last year, the European Commission saw a wave of criticism towards the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, which was created to invest in innovative "moonshot" startups. Andrii Degeler dug deeper into the matter in an interview with Stephane Ouaki, the chair of the fund's investment committee.
1. Malte Horeyseck, SellerX
The podcast episode most-listened to in 2021 was actually recorded in December 2020, and was focused on the Amazon aggregator craze. On the show, Andrii Degeler interviewed Malte Horeyseck, co-founder at SellerX, a Berlin-based company that raised more than €500 million over the course of last year.
Totalling about six hours if played at the normal speed, these were the most popular Tech.eu Podcast episodes in 2021. Like what you're hearing? Don't miss this year's best episodes and subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify — or on any other podcast app!
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