Thomas Bigagli, EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures: Europe needs bigger and faster capital to keep startups home
Scaling EuropeShow Notes
Plug and Play Ventures invests in startups across Europe and runs a platform connecting them with large corporate partners. It has grown from a family office into an institutional investor with nine funds, and now runs 65 offices with more than 700 people worldwide.
Thomas Bigagli is EMEA Partner at Plug and Play Ventures. He believes Europe already has the talent and ideas, and just needs investors willing to move faster and write bigger checks to keep its best startups from leaving.
Sponsors:
Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026
SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/
Lovable: https://lovable.dev/
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction 0:28 - What Plug and Play's EMEA role involves 2:29 - How Europe's startup landscape has changed 3:20 - Why deep tech is such an exciting opportunity right now 5:05 - Where Europe's hardware and deep tech hubs are emerging 6:07 - Plug and Play's early bets in Lithuania and Italy 9:56 - The one question every founder gets asked 12:32 - Why more European founders are thinking globally 15:52 - US investors' growing presence in Europe 17:15 - Why European VCs still move slower than American ones 18:41 - The European firms closing the gap
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