| Over 300 organizations rely on The Information for exclusive insights into public and private companies, including in-depth analysis of the ways in which tech moves markets. Click here to contact our corporate and enterprise team to learn more. Welcome back! Hi, it's Katie Roof, spending my first week at The Information schmoozing with Europe's startup leaders at a conference called TechBBQ in Copenhagen. It's been close to three years since I've been at a tech conference on the Continent, and the difference is palpable. In 2022, there was a panic in the air about a stock sell-off that eventually led to investors slashing the valuations of the region's startup darlings. Today, founders and investors are riding high on artificial intelligence fever—and are also getting excited about a rebound in initial public offerings. Like their U.S. counterparts, some European AI businesses are growing very quickly and attracting a lot of investor attention. There's also quite a bit of speculation about which high-valued startup could get sold or eventually be crushed by skyrocketing AI costs. At the same time, European startups face their own challenges—from strict regulation to a culture that prizes life-work balance, something hard-driving startup founders tend to dismiss. Take Synthesia. The AI video-generation startup was one of the most talked-about companies at the Copenhagen conference. I chatted with Victor Riparbelli, a Dane who co-founded Synthesia, which in January announced it raised money at a $2.1 billion valuation. He started the business in London and thinks the EU has a ways to go before it's truly friendly for founding and running startups. Riparbelli lamented last year's passage of the EU's AI Act, which bans some AI applications the law considers high risk. He suggested that it inhibits startup development. EU lawmakers are "restraining innovation before the technology is even invented," he said, adding that too many European government officials view "capitalism as a dirty word." He wasn't the only attendee to mention that the region's culture of monthlong summer vacations was at odds with startup momentum. European policymakers may have heard some of these complaints before. The Danish government is looking to make the country more hospitable to startups and their investors and emulate some of Silicon Valley's business-friendly culture. They also are providing capital to help these ideas grow. The chief investment officer of Denmark's sovereign wealth fund, Erik Balck Sørensen, told me that in recent years the fund has made a big push to invest in local startups and beyond, both as a limited partner in venture capital firms and as a direct investor. Denmark has been "greatly inspired by the U.S. venture market," Sørensen said. The fund is encouraging local pension funds to allocate more of their portfolios to startups. He also said that more growth-stage capital in the region means their "most ambitious companies can scale globally while remaining rooted in Europe." The worry that the region is missing out on much of the AI boom may explain some of the hype around Sweden's Lovable, which makes a coding assistant for nontechnical users. Every local I spoke with was eager to point out that the less than two-year-old startup shows it's possible to build an AI unicorn in a Nordic country and that Europe's AI businesses can exist outside London and Paris. It helps that Lovable, like other coding assistants, has been reporting red-hot revenue growth. Its annual recurring revenue surged to $100 million as of last month, up from just $1 million eight months ago. Despite misgivings about the margin pressure on these coding startups, the business has attracted a swell of investors. The company, which announced a $200 million fundraising at a $1.8 billion valuation last month, has been fielding offers at a valuation of more than $4 billion, The Financial Times reported this week. Lovable's official line is that it is "not fundraising." While the conference was mostly AI focused, I heard some cautious enthusiasm about Swedish fintech giant Klarna, which seems finally ready to go public in the coming weeks, after delaying its listing plans earlier this year when stocks sold off on tariff hikes. A Klarna IPO, even at prices lower than the company's peak private-market valuation, will provide some much-needed cash to local investors and employees, fueling subsequent investment in the region, people pointed out. The chatter about Klarna was a good reminder that even 5,000 miles from San Francisco, investors are caught between the AI investment frenzy—and a desperation for better returns from the last market cycle. Now it's time to say farvel (farewell) to Denmark. Next stop, San Francisco! | 
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