Innovation and Private Capital x aulium

Thomas Viguier

Conversations with the people shaping private capital. Jump into the world of Private Markets. Your front-row seat into the world of private capital. We’ll be sitting down with top investors and industry-leading executives across sectors, unpacking the strategies, stories, and mindsets that drive private equity and beyond. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, dealmaker, or just curious about how capital really moves, this is your chance to listen in on the conversations shaping the future of business.

  1. Why Health Tech Is Just Getting Started - Thomas Goergen (Catalpa Ventures)

    2d ago

    Why Health Tech Is Just Getting Started - Thomas Goergen (Catalpa Ventures)

    Thomas Goergen spent 30 years in Luxembourg's fund industry, exited his AIFM business for a low nine-figure sum, and started a family office — only to discover that digital health offered something his fintech and real estate plays never did: purpose at scale. Now, as founder of Catalpa Ventures, he's betting that Europe is standing in front of a wave in healthcare innovation, driven by aging populations, labor shortages, and AI tools that didn't exist three years ago. The conversation unpacks the structural barriers holding European healthtech back — from risk-averse pension funds that won't write checks under €20 million, to telemedicine regulations that advanced during COVID then snapped back to prohibition. Goergen argues that two-thirds of general practitioner diagnoses could happen remotely, that vocal biomarkers can predict heart failure 80% more precisely than a scale, and that AI agents can free doctors from administrative overload that consumes a third of their time. But conviction alone doesn't move capital: institutional allocators in Europe deploy a fraction of what U.S. endowments commit to venture, and without policy pressure or minimum allocation thresholds, the gap will widen. **Key Discussion Points:** 🏥 Healthcare consumes huge GDP share but remains the second-least digitized industry — prevention, remote monitoring, and workflow automation represent massive efficiency plays 🤖 AI-native healthtech has no legacy drag — funds launching now avoid the risk of portfolio companies being outflanked by LLM-driven competitors 💶 European reimbursement models create both moat and risk — startups must design for payer economics, not just patient outcomes, or face retroactive pricing cuts 🩺 Vocal biomarkers, gamma-frequency therapy for dementia, and compliance-wrapped foundational models for hospital systems illustrate how fast the product landscape is moving 🇪🇺 Catalpa's thesis centers on three mega-trends: aging society, skilled labor shortage, and rising system costs — all durable, all worsening, all investable Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Thomas Goergen [Founder of Catalpa Ventures]:Founder of Catalpa Ventures, a healthtech-focused venture capital fund targeting thirty million euros by 2027, having closed ten million euros in November. He spent 25 years in Luxembourg's fund industry, exited Luxembourg Investment Solutions to Sanne Group, and subsequently ran a family office for nearly eight years before launching Catalpa Health Fund I. His portfolio includes RetroBrain, a Hamburg-based maker of therapeutic video games now used in over six hundred nursing homes, Noah Labs, and Remi Health.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    1h 1m
  2. 30 Years in European VC: What Fausto Boni Learned Building 360 Capital

    Jun 4

    30 Years in European VC: What Fausto Boni Learned Building 360 Capital

    Europe's venture ecosystem needs more than capital — it needs scale, unified industrial policy, and the willingness to let go of narrow national interests. Drawing on nearly three decades in venture, the conversation unpacks why fragmented sovereignty, undersized funds, and "green fundamentalism" are holding back the continent's ability to compete with the US and China. The discussion moves from the early days of European venture — when the entire ecosystem could be counted on one hand — to today's existential questions: Can Europe retain its best companies if no one can write €100M checks? Why do climate and defense startups face exit bottlenecks when national "golden power" rules block cross-border M&A? And why does software alone fail to solve the energy transition? The argument is blunt: without atoms, molecules, and hardware, decarbonization remains aspirational. The conversation also challenges the "unicorn" fixation, highlights the risks of over-capitalized US venture markets, and calls out the tension between local subsidies and the need for pan-European champions. 🔋 Why renewable energy is a sovereignty issue, not just an environmental one — and how geopolitical disruption accelerates the transition 🛡️ The exit problem in European defense tech: golden power rules and national buyer monopolies limit returns 📉 The SaaS correction isn't just about AI — inflated multiples were unsustainable years before Claude 🏗️ Deep tech and IP-protected businesses offer better defensibility than execution-driven, capital-race plays 🇪🇺 Pension capital and policy continuity remain the missing links in Italy's catch-up story Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Fausto Boni [Founding Partner at 360 Capital]:Founding Partner at 360 Capital, a European venture capital firm investing across deeptech, climate, and digital with offices in Paris and Milan. He left McKinsey in 1997, shortly after watching the Amazon IPO from the firm's New York desk, to launch 360 Capital with an initial €5 million raised toward a €50 million target. Over three decades he has led investments including Mutui Online, now Moltiply Group, backed at the PowerPoint stage during the dot-com crisis, Energy Dome, and Preligens, which exited to Safran in 2024, and now oversees a portfolio that reviews around 500 deals annually from 3,500 seen and invests in 8-10.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    51 min
  3. Why Drug Trials Take 12 Years and How Biorce Cuts That to 4 - Clara Bernardes

    Jun 2

    Why Drug Trials Take 12 Years and How Biorce Cuts That to 4 - Clara Bernardes

    Bringing a drug to market in Europe costs as much as a typical pre-seed round just to comply with AI regulations — before a single line of code is written or a patient enrolled. That bottleneck is slowing innovation at the exact moment AI could cut clinical trial timelines by two-thirds. Clara Bernardes co-founded Biorce in 2024 to automate the clinical trial lifecycle from phase one to phase three, compressing what typically takes 11–12 years into four or less. The conversation traces the origin story — a terminal melanoma diagnosis, a desperate search for trial access, and the realization that the industry's own infrastructure was the obstacle. What followed was a rapid build: four co-founders, three funding rounds, over $60 million raised, and 130 hires in under eighteen months. The discussion moves through the technical challenge of teaching AI not just to spot anomalies but to understand *why* they happened, the stark regulatory and economic differences between Europe and the US, and the decision to open an R&D hub in Austin to access talent at scale. The episode also touches on enterprise sales cycles, the mechanics of protocols and amendments, and why some of the biggest names in European tech decided to back a clinical AI play. 🧬 Why detecting anomalies in trial data is easy, but understanding scientific correctness is the hard part 💶 The cost gap: how decision-maker salaries shape deal economics in the US versus Europe 🚀 Beating revenue targets in three months and again by mid-year — what extreme velocity looks like 📉 Time and resources, not product-market fit, as the primary constraint at hypergrowth scale 🏛️ Why European AI regulation creates a paradox: safety at the expense of pace Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Clara Bernardes [Co-founder of Biorce]:Co-founder of Biorce, an AI company building tools to accelerate clinical trial design. She studied Law and Nutrition Sciences in Lisbon, spent a decade working in clinical trials, and has raised three rounds in 12 months, culminating in a $52.5 million Series A. Biorce won the 4YFN award at MWC Barcelona in March 2025 and is scaling from 30 to a target of 250 employees by year-end.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    57 min
  4. Why Businesses Can't Rely on Regulation - Mahir Sahin (Cloudberry Ventures)

    May 26

    Why Businesses Can't Rely on Regulation - Mahir Sahin (Cloudberry Ventures)

    Can a business survive if its economics depend on anticipated regulation? Mahir Sahin, General Partner of Cloudberry Ventures, argues it cannot — a lesson that shapes every deep-tech investment decision his firm makes, from quantum computing to hydrogen generation. The conversation unpacks how early-stage investors navigate highly technical markets where product-market fit is measured not in downloads but in customer validation calls with industrial buyers who may take two years to pay. Sahin explains why his fund focuses on infrastructure-layer companies that can retrofit into existing production lines, why 80% of deep-tech exits happen through acquisition rather than IPO, and how decentralized on-site hydrogen generation sidesteps the transportation challenges that have plagued the hydrogen hype cycle. The discussion also reveals a counterintuitive portfolio construction strategy: three verticals — AI compute, industrial infrastructure, and financial infrastructure — deliberately chosen not because they correlate, but because they don't, allowing the fund to lean into whichever sector offers the best value when others overheat. **Key discussion points:** 🔬 Why error-corrected qubits matter more than raw qubit count in quantum computing's path to commercialization 🏭 The hidden $4 trillion sitting idle in pre-funded cross-border bank accounts — and how stablecoin rails unlock it 🤖 How 4D photonic radar gives autonomous vehicles 360-degree vision through rain and fog, up to 500 meters ⚡ Why high-purity hydrogen's first killer app isn't cars but lab-grown diamonds 🌍 The arbitrage opportunity in European deep-tech valuations versus US equivalents doing identical work Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/WfmTuzLjgbU Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Mahir Sahin [General Partner of Cloudberry Ventures]:General Partner of Cloudberry Ventures, a European deep-tech fund investing across industrial, financial, and compute infrastructure. He spent sixteen years at Google, including time at Google X where he advised Taara, Alphabet's laser-internet moonshot. A German-born economist from Bonn, he founded Cloudberry in 2025 and has since built a portfolio of roughly a dozen companies across quantum computing, hydrogen, stablecoin infrastructure, and physical AI.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    55 min
  5. Why Not Every Good Business Is a Good Investment - Alexey Bulygin (Verb Ventures)

    May 21

    Why Not Every Good Business Is a Good Investment - Alexey Bulygin (Verb Ventures)

    Not every good business is a good investment — and for venture capital, the gap between the two can cost billions. Alexey Bulygin of Verb Ventures explains why intellectual honesty from founders matters more than polished pitch decks, and why his fund focuses on the unsexy, archaic backbone of global trade: a $33 trillion market still running on fax machines, Excel spreadsheets, and paper documents transported in buckets. Verb Ventures invests in digital platforms that help businesses source, transact, move, and settle B2B trade deals. The thesis is simple: roughly five trillion dollars in annual leakage exists due to inefficiencies and fraud in global trade infrastructure. Disruption in this space is hard, boring, and capital-intensive — which is exactly why generalist VCs avoid it and why Verb sees opportunity. The conversation unpacks how tariffs and supply chain shocks create natural market pull for platforms, why Verb has maintained a 0% write-off rate to date while targeting concentrated 10–15x returns rather than chasing power-law home runs, and how the firm thinks about exits in a world where IPOs are statistically improbable. 🚢 Ofiniti is digitalizing maritime fuel trading — an industry where a bucket pushed on a rope between barge and ship remains standard practice 🔥 Installio tackles the UK's heat pump installation bottleneck, where the government mandates 600,000 installs per year but the market delivers 100,000 📉 Verb assumes roughly 30% write-offs in its portfolio model but has lost zero companies since its first 2020 deal 🎯 Saying "no" is 70–90% of the job, and founder honesty about problems beats sugarcoated hockey sticks 💼 M&A-driven exit environments in B2B infrastructure offer liquidity paths venture generalists overlook Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Alexey Bulygin [Founding member at Verb Ventures]:Founding member at Verb Ventures, a London-based fund investing in supply chains and trade infrastructure with just over €30 million under management across two funds. The fund backs companies digitising sectors that have long relied on personal networks and paper-based processes, including maritime fuel delivery, cross-border notarisation, and heat pump installation. Prior to Verb Ventures, he studied economics in Moscow before moving into venture capital.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    1h 21m
  6. Could AI Insurance Replace Legal DD Fees? - Jorrit Willaert (Jurimesh)

    May 19

    Could AI Insurance Replace Legal DD Fees? - Jorrit Willaert (Jurimesh)

    Can AI truly replace the weeks lawyers spend grinding through due diligence documents — or will it just reshape how legal value is delivered? As M&A dealmaking grows more complex, the manual work of reviewing thousands of contracts remains a massive bottleneck, and the answer may lie in workflow integration rather than raw automation. Jorrit Willaert explains how Jurimesh tackles legal due diligence by embedding AI not as a standalone assistant, but as part of the entire DD workflow — from data room integration and gap analysis to automated issue spotting and Red Flag report generation. The company sells both to law firms seeking efficiency and private equity clients looking for preliminary DD at a fraction of traditional cost. Willaert discusses the technical challenge of building reliable AI in high-stakes contexts: moving legal reasoning into "rulebooks" authored by domain experts, rather than relying on LLMs prone to hallucination and silent assumptions. He also reflects on the broader market dynamics — why vertical solutions may outlast horizontal platforms in legal tech, how law firms are experimenting with AI-assisted pricing models, and why consolidation is likely as the space matures. The conversation touches on the practical realities of fundraising as a technical founder without legal background, the pivot from generic knowledge-base search to M&A-specific tooling, and the long-term vision of an end-to-end transaction operating system. **Key Discussion Points:** 🔍 Jurimesh automates legal due diligence by integrating the full workflow — data room coupling, gap analysis, issue spotting, and report generation — rather than just offering a chatbot interface ⚖️ The system uses expert-authored "rulebooks" to handle legal reasoning, with LLMs only generating language, to avoid hallucination and non-determinism in high-stakes M&A contexts 💼 Both law firms and private equity clients are adopting the tool, with PE using it for preliminary DD and firms exploring AI-assisted pricing and vendor readiness offerings 🧩 Vertical solutions with deep workflow integration may prove more durable than broad horizontal platforms, especially where "good enough" AI creates liability risk 📈 The company raised €1.6M, grew from two to eleven people, and reached €500K ARR by obsessing over workflow fit and pitching vision over product Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPWy-cJx21M Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Jorrit Willaert [Co-founder of Jurimesh]:Co-founder of Jurimesh, a legal tech company that uses AI to automate contract analysis and due diligence for M&A transactions. He studied computer science and built side projects before founding the company, which has grown to serve clients across multiple European jurisdictions and raised funding from prominent Belgian tech operators.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    50 min
  7. Why Healthcare Is Still the Least Digitalized Industry - Christoph Kausch (MTIP)

    May 14

    Why Healthcare Is Still the Least Digitalized Industry - Christoph Kausch (MTIP)

    Healthcare remains one of the least digitalized industries — still largely operating in the "dinosaur phase" with paper records and fragmented systems. Yet the sector is expected to grow at over 20% annually for the next decade, creating massive opportunities for investors who understand both the technical and regulatory complexity of healthcare innovation. Christoph Kausch, Managing Partner of MTIP, explains how healthcare technology investing differs fundamentally from traditional software. Long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, and heavy regulation mean that explosive growth requires proven business models and real market traction first. Once adoption happens, however, the stickiness is unmatched — MTIP recently exited two companies, one growing more than 100% annually above €100 million in revenue, the other growing 80% on a profitable basis. The conversation covers how MTIP evaluates AI-enabled healthcare companies, the importance of cybersecurity in clinical settings, and why identifying multiple exit routes before investing is non-negotiable. Kausch also details the Oviva case study: a digital diabetes management company where MTIP led the Series B, helped build a cost-efficient platform, and saw enterprise value increase more than 15x. Key discussion points: 🏥 Why healthcare tech requires sector specialization — understanding fragmented European systems, reimbursement models, and regulatory pathways is essential 🔒 Cybersecurity as infrastructure — MTIP's investment in Cynerio, sold to Axonius, reflects how hospitals are increasingly vulnerable to data breaches 📊 The profitability-first approach — MTIP invests in companies with proven revenue, not just promising technology 🌍 The US expansion challenge — scaling across Europe is hard; entering the US typically requires acquisition rather than organic growth 🎯 Exit preparation as daily practice — identifying strategic acquirers and PE buyers upfront, never relying on IPO timing Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU5JBvTlViA Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital. About Christoph Kausch [Managing Partner of MTIP]:Managing Partner of MTIP, a Basel-based healthcare investment fund that shifted from medical devices in Fund I to focus exclusively on healthcare software from Fund II onward. Previously worked as an engineer at BMW before transitioning into healthcare investing. Guest lecturer at ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen, and recently joined as a panelist at LSI USA on the impact of GLP-1 drugs on medical devices.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    48 min
  8. Why Were Athletes a Red Flag on Cap Tables? - Arthur Bernard (Athletico VC)

    May 12

    Why Were Athletes a Red Flag on Cap Tables? - Arthur Bernard (Athletico VC)

    Athletes writing cheques into European startups was once considered a red flag by VCs. Today, it's a legitimate asset class—but only if founders and investors understand what's actually on offer beyond the Instagram following.Arthur Bernard launched Athletico Venture to bridge Europe's top athletes with the tech ecosystem, following a model that had already matured in the US two decades earlier. The conversation unpacks why Europe lagged behind, how deal-by-deal syndicates evolved into a disciplined fund structure, and why Bernard spends as much time assessing the lead investor's rationale as he does the company itself. The discussion moves through practical mechanics: neither inbound deal flow nor athlete referrals have contributed a single investment across thirty-one completed deals, how a Formula 1 driver can unlock introductions to automotive CEOs in the paddock, and why a €100k–500k cheque at late seed or Series A creates asymmetric value when deployed correctly.**Key discussion points:**🏁 Why European athletes face structural barriers—academies isolate footballers early, VIP seating keeps worlds apart, and business elites remain siloed unlike their US counterparts🎯 The hidden value of competitive resilience and network access—not brand endorsement—and why textile recycling found traction through motorsport connections to automotive supply chains📊 Due diligence runs two directions: understanding why a lead partner personally backs a deal matters more than the firm's logo, especially when reserves are limited⚖️ Moving from syndicate to fund solved the Grand Slam problem—athletes racing or competing mid-close meant missed opportunities and overexposure to consumer betsWatch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNYF-R5kvWQSubscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.About Arthur Bernard [founder of Athletico Ventures]:Founder of Athletico Ventures, an athlete-backed investment platform focused on early-stage European startups. He began his career at French VC firm Alven, then moved to BetClic during a period of explosive growth before spending seven years at Lagardère Sports running corporate strategy and integrations for one of the top-three global sports agencies. He launched Athletico after identifying an opportunity to bring elite athletes into venture capital as strategic investors and partners to founders.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/

    55 min
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Conversations with the people shaping private capital. Jump into the world of Private Markets. Your front-row seat into the world of private capital. We’ll be sitting down with top investors and industry-leading executives across sectors, unpacking the strategies, stories, and mindsets that drive private equity and beyond. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, dealmaker, or just curious about how capital really moves, this is your chance to listen in on the conversations shaping the future of business.

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