🪙 $7T for AI, €70B for Europe, and a Car With Wings...
Inside/VC Weekly #18
Hey - it’s Jannis.
Back at it! ☕️ in hand, inbox full, and the market moving fast. Here’s your 5-minute download on the wildest things happening in startups, AI, and venture this week.
🔥 These are the 5 most important things:Rippling raises $450M at $16.8B valuation (🇺🇸)
AI boom drives $7T global data center investment need by 2030 (🌍)
Flying car startup AirCar targets 2026 launch at €712K price tag (🇸🇰)
Airbnb adds services and plans AI-powered concierge (🇺🇸)
EU bank plans €70B tech fund to fuel European innovation (🇪🇺)
Let’s get into it.
Weekly Spotlight:
🚀 Rippling raises $450M at $16.8B valuation (🇺🇸)
HR-tech rocketship Rippling just raised $450M at a $16.8B valuation and casually dropped that Y Combinator now uses them. Yes, the same YC that backed them in 2017 is now a paying client.
The round includes a $200M tender offer for employees and early backers. This is part of a broader trend: give staff liquidity without waiting for an IPO. New investors include Sands Capital, GIC, Goldman Sachs Growth, and Baillie Gifford. Coatue, Elad Gil, and the rest are doubling down too.
Rippling’s long-term play? Become the foundational stack for startups. Over 15,000 of them already use the platform – from payroll and benefits to identity, bill pay, and even corporate cards. Their new “Startup Stack” offers 6 months free for early-stage teams (YC founders get extra perks).
Oh – and things with Deel are getting spicy. Rippling sued them over trade secrets. Deel countersued. Sounds like a popcorn moment to me.
Inside/VC Shorts
📰 News Shorts:
⚡️ AI boom drives $7T global data center investment need by 2030 (🌍)
A new McKinsey study predicts global demand for compute will skyrocket over the next five years. The world may need to invest up to $7 trillion in infrastructure just to keep up.
About $5.2T would go to AI-specific data centers, with 70 percent of new capacity serving machine learning workloads. That’s the equivalent of laying five million kilometers of fiber.
What that actually means? Chips need fabs. Fabs need water. Power grids need upgrades. And data centers need land, cooling, and enough electricity to light up a city.
I’m watching this less as an “AI trend” and more like a global industrial reset. The biggest constraint in AI right now isn’t models — it’s physical. Whoever builds compute and energy capacity the fastest wins. Feels like infrastructure is having its revenge arc.
🚀 Startup Shorts:
✈️ Flying car startup AirCar targets 2026 launch at €712K price tag (🇸🇰)
Slovakia’s Klein Vision just announced plans to bring its two-seater flying car to market in 2026. The AirCar transforms from car to plane at the press of a button – wings fold out, tail extends, and it’s ready for takeoff.
Top speed? 200 km/h on the road, 250 km/h in the air. It’s powered by a gas engine and keeps steering + pedals for that “drives like a car” feel – even in flight mode.
The company’s aiming for wealthy pilots and aero-taxi services. Entry price: £600K (≈ €712K). Founder says even capturing 5% of the U.S. light aircraft market would be a billion-euro business.
🏡 Airbnb adds services and plans AI-powered concierge (🇺🇸)
Airbnb is going beyond stays. Users can now book massages, chefs, trainers, and more in 260 cities. These services are open to locals too, not just guests.
The company is also reviving its experiences offering with 22,000 activities in 650 cities. Think everything from hikes to hanging with NFL stars or podcast legends.
CEO Brian Chesky wants Airbnb to become “the Amazon of services” — a one-stop shop not just for where you sleep, but for everything you do once you’re there.
🎧 Spotify adds Create menu and smarter AI DJ to push social features (🇸🇪)
Im pretty sure you already saw this, but hey: Spotify is rolling out a new Create menu that lets users build playlists, AI mixes, and collabs with friends. The goal? Turn music into a shared, social experience.
The upgraded AI DJ now responds to voice prompts like “play sad car songs” and builds sessions in real time. It’s already live for Premium users in 60+ countries.
Together with TikTok-style sharing, collaborative playlists, and social profiles, Spotify is starting to look more like a network than a streaming app.
💸 Fundraising Shorts:
💸 EU bank plans €70B tech fund to fuel European innovation (🇪🇺)
The European Investment Bank is launching a centralized funding platform called TechEU to support startups across the continent. Target: €70B by 2027.
With private co-investors, the program could unlock up to €250B in total capital. The platform will combine existing EU tools and fund companies from idea to IPO.
EIB president Nadia Calviño calls it the largest tech push in EU history. The plan still needs sign-off from all 27 finance ministers, expected in June.
💰 eToro stock surges on IPO debut as traders embrace volatility (🇮🇱)
Israeli trading platform eToro popped hard on its IPO last week. Shares opened at $52, peaked near $70, and closed at $67, pushing its market cap past $5.4B.
CEO Yoni Assia called the timing deliberate: “Volatility is good for our business.” And right now there is plenty of it — in crypto, stocks, everything.
Most fintechs are still sitting it out. eToro jumped in. Their bet is simple: when markets move, people trade. And when people trade, eToro gets paid.
Salesforce buys UK startup Convergence.ai (🇺🇸)
US software giant Salesforce just picked up London based Convergence.ai. The company builds smart digital agents that handle complex workflows across websites and apps.
Convergence tech will power Agentforce, Salesforce’s next big AI platform. These agents can click through pages, follow instructions, and get stuff done with minimal human input.
“This is the next wave of productivity,” said EVP Adam Evans. For Salesforce, it is all about faster tools and smarter automation.
🧑💻 Career Corner: Hot VC Internships (US + EU)Internships
🇩🇪 Speedinvest - Visiting Analyst Portolio Success Intern (Munich) ➤ Job desc.
🇩🇪 XAnge - VC Analyst Intern (Berlin) ➤ Job desc.
🇺🇸 Aventus capital - Quant Analyst Intern (Remote) ➤ Job desc.
🇺🇸 Factor Fellowship - Venture Fellows (NY) ➤ Job desc.
🇫🇷 Capgemini - Ventures Intern (Paris) ➤ Job desc.
🇫🇷 Yélé Consulting - VC Analyst Intern (Paris) ➤ Job desc.
🇩🇪 Simon Capital - Visiting Investment Analyst (Düsseldorf) ➤ Job desc.
🇫🇮 Greencode Ventures - VC Analys Intern (Helsinki) ➤ Job desc.
Alright, that’s enough startup chaos for one Monday.
If something in here made you think, smirk, or Google something weird, my job’s done. Feel free to forward this to someone who’d be into it too.
Until next time,
Jannis