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 tech Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀 Chapters: 00:03 Meet Fatou Diagne and Bootstrap Europe 00:26 Bootstrap Europe's Investment Focus  01:25 Diving Deep with Fatou: Trends and Growth 02:51 The Origin of Bootstrap Europe 04:11 Venture Debt vs. Venture Capital 11:11 The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank 20:27 The Role of Venture Debt in Europe 28:29 Sector Focus: Life Sciences and AI 36:45 Momentum in Business and Financing 37:00 Regional Preferences in Venture Debt 38:16 Germany: Cultural Challenges and Progress  39:17 Spain: A Unique Venture Debt Market 40:43 Nordics and European Investment Bank 47:33 Macroeconomic Influence on Venture Debt 54:05 Innovative Financing Structures 56:54 Future Predictions for Venture Debt 01:02:09 AI's Impact on Venture Debt and Beyond