E357 | EUVC | Bootstrap Europe's Fatou Diagne on trends in growth debt & current market trends

In this episode of the EUVC podcast, Andreas discusses with Fatou Diagne, Founder and Managing Partner at Bootstrap Europe.Bootstrap Europe is a venture investment firm currently raising the fourth fund, aiming for €350-400M, after closing Fund III with €157M. With €250M in assets under management, Bootstrap Europe is headquartered across London, Luxembourg, and Zurich.Bootstrap Europe targets companies in the post-Series A+ or Series B stage—those with venture capital already on their cap table, solid KPIs, or valuable patents and assets in place. The firm’s sweet spot? European HQ’d companies, or those with European founders or VCs, with an upcoming allocation to support U.S. expansions. They even have 10% of their fund reserved for other exciting regions, like Africa.Bootstrap Europe specializes in geeky, transformative sectors: Deeptech, Life Sciences, Cleantech, Fintech, and SaaS, and some of their notable investments are:Scandit (Swiss Unicorn) in Machine VisionBlueprint Genetics (exited investment, Finnish tech used by Quest Diag during COVID - 1 of 2 largest labs in US)Telensa: largest installed base of smart city lighting wordlwide, bought by SignifyRecent undisclosed exciting investments in robotics, AI healthcare, foodtech, RNA techGo to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀Chapters:00:03 Meet Fatou Diagne and Bootstrap Europe00:26 Bootstrap Europe's Investment Focus 01:25 Diving Deep with Fatou: Trends and Growth02:51 The Origin of Bootstrap Europe04:11 Venture Debt vs. Venture Capital11:11 The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank20:27 The Role of Venture Debt in Europe28:29 Sector Focus: Life Sciences and AI36:45 Momentum in Business and Financing37:00 Regional Preferences in Venture Debt38:16 Germany: Cultural Challenges and Progress 39:17 Spain: A Unique Venture Debt Market40:43 Nordics and European Investment Bank47:33 Macroeconomic Influence on Venture Debt54:05 Innovative Financing Structures56:54 Future Predictions for Venture Debt01:02:09 AI's Impact on Venture Debt and Beyond