📶 MEGA (Make Europe Great Again)

Say “hey” 👋 | Apply 👥 | Upgrade 📶 | Sponsor 📣

Good morning 👋

Happy hump day.

I used to listen to Harry Stebbings’ podcast when I was interning. That guy just raised $400m. Life moves pretty fast.

We cover our thoughts on his massive new fund in today’s piece.

P.S. 💰 Are you a full-time investor AND do you want to get paid more?

Help answer our VC comp survey so we can help you get paid a better market rate.

Harry Stebbings just secured the bag — again.

His third fund under 20VC closed at a hefty $400 million, making it his biggest yet. Despite the gloomy European tech scene, Stebbings is doubling down on the region, aiming to spotlight underdog startups and take on U.S. dominance. His media business, coming with millions of views across TikTok and YouTube, gives any company he works with at least a fighting chance.

With $125 million earmarked for seed-stage deals and $275 million for Series A, the firm is ready to deploy, though Stebbings admits 20VC is still working through its previous $140 million fund raised in 2021.

Why it matters: LPs are flocking to quality, and Stebbings is proof of that trend making its way to Europe.

Over the past few years, U.S. LPs have shifted their focus to top-tier managers, looking for safer bets in an uncertain market. Now, we’re seeing that same "flight to quality" in Europe.

Despite the regional challenges, U.S. investors still want in — over half of the institutional money in this fund came from the States.

What happens next: The obvious answer is that Harry gets back to work investing. If the last few years taught us anything, raising a fund shouldn’t be celebrated until capital is distributed back to LPs.

Harry’s success is also reinforcement to the idea that investors need to be able to tangibly offer something beyond capital to the companies they invest in. 20VC’s edge is their media arm, and Harry is able to generate eyeballs for himself and his portfolio week after week.

Every investor reading this is thinking through the same thing: “How can I add value beyond the check?”

Investor who can’t answer that question clearly won’t be around very much longer.

That’s what one reader said about his Confluence.VC Pro subscription.

Here’s the difference between what you get with your current plan vs. what you get with the Pro version of this newsletter:

Use this link to get your first week free.

🙌 Elon Musk on How to Win: Ben Lang reposts

🚫 I Can’t Start a Startup, Because I’m….: Guillermo Flor reposts Paul Graham’s brilliant Why not not start a startup

🔬 DeepChecks.VC: Julian.capital created this to help ambitious hardware & science startups get funded by many deeptech VCs…and it’s free

🦄 Elad Gil in a Minute: Shaan Puri asked Elad, who has invested in 40+ unicorns, how he does it

😍 Why I Love Pre-Seed: Yoni Rechtman tells why he loves pre-seed investing and what he looks for

💥 Where to Put Your Logo: Marketing Ideas shares its list for the most unexpected place for your logo that can tell a powerful story about your specific product

Join dozens of high-growth companies partnering with us to reach 15k of some of the most sought-after people in tech and finance.

Talk to our team to learn more.

(Media kit available upon request)

Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.

Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.

- Clay

Here are the results from our poll question in yesterday’s piece:

What matters most to you?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Code (4)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Design / aesthetic (3)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Distribution (1)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Something else (2)

10 Votes