The European Startup Scene

The European Startup Scene

Author: Software Engineering Daily May 26, 2026 Duration: 48:57

Europe’s startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly, with companies like Revolut, Lovable, and Legora demonstrating that world-class technology businesses can be built and scaled on the continent. While the US remains the dominant force in venture-backed software as home to the largest markets, the deepest capital pools, and the most ambitious exit culture, a growing number of European founders are choosing to build at home.

Edward Keelan is a Partner at Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s largest and most active venture capital firms, where he has spent over 16 years leading the B2B software and enterprise AI fund. His portfolio spans seed through Series C, with a focus on European founders building in AI, vertical SaaS, and enterprise software. This long-view experience gives him a rare perspective on what it takes to build enduring technology companies in Europe.

In this episode, Edward joins Elena Boroda to discuss what separates great founders from the rest, how AI is reshaping the software landscape and threatening established players, the state of the European startup ecosystem and what it needs to compete globally, and what engineers and founders should be thinking about as the industry enters a new era.

Elena Boroda focuses on GTM for developer tools and AI startups, with experience in observability and building tools for MCP servers. She is based in Berlin.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-boroda

Please click here to see the transcript of this episode.

Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com

The post The European Startup Scene appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.


Dive into the vast Podcast Archives-Software Engineering Daily, a curated collection of in-depth technical conversations that have defined the landscape of modern software development. This archive goes beyond surface-level news, offering a permanent record of deep-dive discussions with engineers, researchers, and founders who are building the tools and platforms shaping our digital world. Each episode is a focused exploration, unpacking complex topics like distributed systems, machine learning infrastructure, programming language design, and the practical challenges of scaling technology. You'll hear firsthand accounts of architectural decisions, post-mortems on system failures, and thoughtful debates on emerging paradigms. It’s a resource built for the curious professional who values substance over soundbites, providing context and depth that shorter formats simply cannot. Whether you're looking to understand the historical context behind a current technology, reinforce your foundational knowledge, or discover niche specialties, this podcast archive serves as an essential, ever-growing library. The conversations are detailed, technical, and assume a level of familiarity with the field, making it a trusted companion for continuous learning. Listen to this podcast not for fleeting headlines, but for the enduring insights and nuanced expertise that come from thoughtful, long-form dialogue with the people writing the code and designing the systems that run our world.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Software Engineering Daily
Podcast Episodes
Rebuilding the Cloud for AI Agent Code [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:57
For two decades, the cloud has been shaped by human developers writing code and managing its deployment. Now a growing share of production code is generated by LLMs with little human review. Because that code is not full…
SED News: The Kimi Moment, Runaway AI, and Tokenmaxxing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:28
SED News is a monthly podcast from Software Engineering Daily where hosts Gregor Vand and Sean Falconer break down the biggest stories shaping software engineering, Silicon Valley, and the broader tech industry. In this…
The Terminal as an Agentic Interface [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:21
The terminal has been a constant in software development for decades. It has remained largely unchanged while everything around it transformed. However, as AI agents have become central to the developer workflow, the ter…
AI-Powered Threats to the Software Supply Chain [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:21
Open source software underpins virtually every modern application. That ubiquity is a superpower for developers, but it is also an expanding attack surface. Software supply chain attacks were once rare but are now happen…
Docker and Sandboxing AI Agents [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:50
The most useful coding agents can mutate their environments by downloading packages, writing files, and connecting to services across the network. However, that freedom also presents dangers, and promises to usher in a n…
The Startup Scene in Southeast Asia [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:50
Golden Gate Ventures is one of Southeast Asia’s most established early-stage venture firms, having backed companies across the region since 2011. They have invested in companies that are now household names in the region…
NanoClaw and the Rise of Personal AI Agents [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:35
AI agents have shown remarkable potential to function as persistent digital assistants that are capable of monitoring data, managing communications, and taking action autonomously over long periods. OpenClaw was one of t…
Agentic DevOps at AWS [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:56
AI agents have become capable of reasoning across large amounts of data, calling tools, and taking sequences of actions autonomously. These qualities make them well suited to some of the most persistent pain points in De…
AURA and Open-Source Agents for Production Operations [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:04
AI agents have transformed how software gets written, but the operational side of running software in production has not yet experienced a similar revolution. The same teams responsible for keeping systems healthy, inves…
Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:28
Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup method and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, which transformed how a generation of founders and engineers think about building products. It introdu…