For years, technology investment gravitated towards a familiar handful of markets; many people still name San Francisco by default. Meanwhile, Europe has been quietly building a world-class technology ecosystem rooted in scientific research, engineering and industrial capabilities rather than cyclical consumer apps. For much of that time, it attracted far less attention than its global peers. Today, that is beginning to change, and Hemini Mistry believes she knows why.

Europe’s advantage did not emerge overnight: it is the product of decades of investment in research universities, national laboratories and industrial clusters that produced breakthroughs in semiconductors, energy systems, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. These are precisely the technologies that now sit at the heart of economic resilience and geopolitical competition. 

When we asked Hemini why capital markets are looking at Europe differently, she pointed to a fundamental shift: "Sovereignty matters now more than ever.’’ As technology has become inseparable from energy security, and critical infrastructure, investors have begun to reassess where those capabilities are being developed and owned.

“Europe has spent decades building the technologies that power the real economy. As those capabilities become increasingly strategic, Europe is finding itself at the centre of a new investment cycle.”

According to Hemini, this reappraisal is already underway. Sovereign wealth funds, pension schemes and other long-term allocators are increasingly evaluating through the lens of resilience as well as growth. In a world defined by geopolitical fragmentation and accelerating technology change, capital is beginning to follow the regions that can supply strategic capabilities. 

Having spent more than a decade raising capital from institutional investors including local government, insurers and family offices, Hemini has learnt that markets rarely reward consensus. The strongest returns are often generated before a structural shift becomes widely accepted. 

“By the time the shift feels obvious, much of the opportunity may already have been recognised.” 

Investment cycles are often shaped by prevailing narratives until structural change forces markets to reconsider first principles. Europe, she believes, may now be entering precisely that moment. 

We’ll keep sharing what we’re seeing across European deep tech and capital markets. Follow Earlybird and Hemini to see how these and more perspectives develop.