Dawn Capital partner Shamillah Bankiya joined TechCrunch’s Equity podcast this week to share insights on the European startup ecosystem and the misconceptions Americans often hold about it.
London-based Dawn Capital manages more than $2 billion in assets, has backed 11 unicorns, and delivered 34 exits. Its portfolio includes AI leaders like Collibra and Dataiku, with investments spanning from seed to Series C. The firm is currently deploying capital from its $620 million Fund V.
Bankiya, one of the few Black women venture partners in Europe, has invested in companies including AI marketplace Qogita and tax automation platform Fonoa. She described her path to venture as a natural extension of her entrepreneurial family background and lifelong curiosity.
“Venture lends itself to that extremely well,” she said. “So in some ways, yes, like for the last 20 years, I wanted to be an investor of some sort.”
On Europe’s appeal, Bankiya noted that the continent has long produced standout companies in AI and fintech, citing Lovable and Klarna, which recently went public in New York. The pandemic, she added, accelerated U.S. investors’ interest in European markets.
Still, challenges remain. Bankiya highlighted Europe’s fragmented stock exchanges as a barrier to companies going public locally. “Europe is a bunch of large disaggregated exchanges,” she said. “It creates an imbalance that we probably need a solution around.”
Regulation is another hurdle, with Europe’s stricter frameworks often slowing innovation compared to the U.S.
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As for cultural stereotypes, particularly the infamous “Euro summer,” where investors supposedly take extended holidays, Bankiya dismissed it as overblown. “It’s a little noise around that, but again, we will see the outcome proof from themselves,” she said. “We’re going to see this interesting pattern of amazing European companies coming out and winning globally, as they’ve always won.”
