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At the beginning of June, 🇩🇪 Berlin became the center of attention for private markets and a key hub for LPs and GPs. SuperReturn International, with 5,500 decision-makers in attendance, took place alongside SuperVenture. Across both events, discussions focused on AI, climate tech, liquidity (or the lack of it), and policy tailwinds - as investors tried to figure out what might be the safest long-term strategy in an increasingly volatile world.
But first, we’d like to start with a huge thank you to our partners: Goodwin and the European Investment Fund (EIF)
Now, here’s what you need to know from the SuperBerlin. We gathered the key insights - so you don’t have to.
Epicenter of Private Capital, Europe is Ready to Lead.
Europe is sitting on a goldmine of untapped capital and untold opportunity. From under-allocated pension funds to world-leading climate tech, the ingredients for a venture capital breakout are finally aligning. SuperVenture and SuperReturn have been great testament to that fact.
Pension Funds: Europe’s Missing VC Piece 🧓💸
Only ~6% of European VC funding comes from European pension funds.
In 🇩🇪 Germany, less than 1% of pension fund capital is invested in VC – compared to 10% of US pension capital invested into German VCs.
Across the EU, just 0.01% of total pension assets under management (AUM) went to VC in 2022.
🇬🇧 UK tech startups receive 16x more money from foreign pension funds than from UK domestic pensions.
📉 A massive pool of patient capital remains on the sidelines.
💡 The fact that just 0.01% of EU pension assets go into VC isn’t a weakness - it’s a trillion-euro opportunity. As capital rebalances from traditional asset classes into innovation, Europe’s tech ecosystem stands to benefit massively.
Agreed Solutions to Mobilize Pension Capital
🧺 Fund-of-funds (FoF) help reduce risk, diversify exposure, and pool governance overhead.
🤝 Co-investment rights offer direct upside while helping flatten the VC J-curve.
🎓 Targeted education for pension fund allocators boosts confidence in the VC asset class.
👵👶 Cohort-based investing: match long-term VC risk/reward to beneficiary age profiles.
💡 What started as side conversations at LP-GP dinner is now the headline on stage: Europe needs its pension money in the innovation economy.
Where’s the money going now?
🤖 AI: $131.5B
🌍 Climate Tech: $40B
🛡️ Defence Tech: $31B
🚗 Electric Vehicles: $15B
🌱 Agri-Tech: $8B
🟩 AI and Climate (still) dominate, but Defence and Agri are rising fast.
💡 European VC has long been challenged by fragmentation. But today’s themes - AI, defence, deep-tech (including climate) - transcend borders. The shift from local plays to global categories is drawing capital, founders, and LPs into tighter alignment
💡 Europe needs capital behind conviction. The conversations at SuperVenture and SuperReturn should translate into allocation moves, co-investment deals, and bold fund commitments. This is where the theory ends and deployment begins.
Europe is ready 🙌
(data according to Ross Morrison).
Europe’s unicorn machine is real: 596 unicorns have been created; 349 of them (that represent 59 % of the total count) have already exited. This illustrates a maturing exit flywheel in the continent. Moreover, relevant innovation and wealth creation comes as a consequence. Progress is a virtuous circle.
⚠️ Also, the tech sector is heating up faster as ever before:
AI now commands a quarter of European VC cheques: the share of VC funding going to AI in Europe climbed to c.25% in 2024, up from single digits a decade ago.
Compute arms race math: hardware cost curves are rising 1.9× per year, but performance curves are improving 2.5× per year—shifting the frontier approx. every 12 months.
Hyperscaler CapEx is exploding: Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet & Meta together are projected to spend >$350 B on AI/datacenter capex in 2025E, triple 2020 levels.
What we’ve been up to? 🤝
EWVC LP/GP lunch
150 cheque-writers compared notes on fund-raising dynamics and previewed EWVC’s forthcoming allocation playbook. Event was co-hosted alongside Goodwin and European Investment Fund (EIF).
Panel session: how can we unlock more institutional capital to power the next wave of venture?
Kinga (European Women in VC) quizzed the British Business Bank and M&G plc, alongside Redstone (Ian Connatty, Alex Seddon, Mickaël Bellaïche) on why pension pots still under-weight VC. Diving into the role of institutional capital in driving innovation, and discussing the key takeaways from the report done in collaboration with Pensions for Purpose.
Panel session: Corporate Venturing in 2025 and Beyond
Kinga (European Women in VC), moderated a panel alongside Saeed Amidi (founder of Plug and Play Tech Center) and Kevin Rodrigues (Managing Partner of bp Ventures) on the present and future of CVC.
We all know that competitiveness is central priority for Europe now. Stronger links between CVCs and startups, can play a catalytic role to this competitiveness. Acceleration services are the last item needed to build an ecosystem that can help European innovation scale. - (Kinga Stanislawska, European Women in VC)
Europe is ready. 🚀 The energy at SuperBerlin this year has confirmed what we are capable of. Despite critique, Europe is full of talent, the right long-term strategy can unlock the clearly untapped opportunity we are sitting on.
Huge thanks to the SuperReturn and SuperVenture teams for having us again this year. 🤝 If you are building or investing, we hope that Europe just became your move!
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