Building resilient supply chains and defining tomorrow's critical industries requires funding complex, early-stage technologies and backing translatable intellectual property (IP).In this episode of the Raising Europe podcast, host Tom Guinness sits down with Lina Gaydarova, a venture capital investor at Novaterra. Based between Milan and London, Novaterra focuses on early-stage deep tech - identifying visionary founders who are building technologies that don't yet exist, but fundamentally should. Recently spinning out into an institutional fund, Novaterra writes checks ranging from €100k to €500k for critical technology companies across Europe and North America.In this episode, Lina breaks down how Novaterra identifies strategically important areas within critical technology and examines the supply-chain bottlenecks where innovation can have an outsized impact - such as a multi-step biosynthetic process for heparin that could bypass China’s dominance of pig-intestine-derived supply. She also explains her pivot from investing in enterprise software companies to tangible critical industries, why she looks for complex “picks and shovels” in hard science, and the realities of navigating Italian bureaucracy to back university spin-outs.What this means for European tech:Europe possesses immense technical talent and university-backed research, but commercialising these breakthroughs requires investors willing to underwrite pre-seed risk in highly complex sectors. Shifting capital toward deep tech rather than purely enterprise software helps Europe establish sovereignty in energy, life sciences, and industrial supply chains. By acting as hands-on commercial operators for academic founders, investors can bridge the region's storytelling gap, enabling brilliant scientists to translate critical IP into globally competitive businesses.What defines Lina's approach to critical technology investing?➡️ The Power of Irreplaceable IP: Lina looks for businesses whose translatable IP dictates multi-layered processes that make replication near-impossible (like managing multiple stakeholders, relationships, and build phases that create massive barriers to entry and/or a structural moat.➡️ The Transatlantic Storytelling Gap: Having reviewed thousands of pitches, Lina notes a stark difference: North American founders can often present exceptional stories with little built, while European PhDs frequently undersell major technical milestones - a "mid-Atlantic" approach to pitching investors is required.➡️ Mapping Supply Chain Monopolies: Instead of following trends, Novaterra maps out the missing links in critical industries - such as extreme environment end-effectors for nuclear reactor dismantling or localised cathode materials for LFP batteries - to invest directly in the bottleneck.Chapters:00:00 Intro01:45 Lina's Path: A West Coast Investing Lens Across Company Stages04:10 The Pivot: A Paradigm Shift into the Tangible in a New Geography06:30 Novaterra’s Strategy: Investing in Critical Industries and Translateable IP09:15 Fund Dynamics: Check Sizes and Launching the Institutional Fund12:30 Identifying Opportunities: Industrial Bottlenecks Shaping Fusion, Batteries, and Energy16:00 The Heparin Case Study: Bioengineering Around Supply Chain Dependencies20:45 Relationship Driven Sourcing Human Connection vs. Data Tools24:10 The Storytelling Gap: North American Vision vs. European Execution28:30 Founder Traits: Why "Hustle Culture" is Overrated and Unsustainable31:15 Navigating Italy: Bureaucracy, LOIs, and Accessing Top Technical Talent36:00 Portfolio Support: Playing "Sales Manager" for Nuclear PhDs39:45 Beyond VC: Protein Maxing, Magical Realism, and Deep Dive PodcastsCompanies and institutions mentioned in this episode: Novaterra, Turn/River Capital, Nascent, GraphiCore, Sogin, Politecnico di Milano, Samphire Neuroscience.Enjoyed the episode? Find more interviews with leading founders & investors on our channel.
