Episode
David Helgason, Co-founder at Transition Ventures: Raising $150m Fund II
- Podcast
- Scaling Europe
- Published
- May 27, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1236
- Processing state
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Summary
Transition VC raised a new $150m fund to back highly technical founders building the next generation of energy, compute and industrial companies. David Helgason, Co-founder at Transition VC, says AI is increasing demand for compute, power and industrial systems at a time when venture is moving beyond traditional software. The new fund will focus on companies building across energy, hardware and industrial infrastructure. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:22 - Transition VC’s new $150m fund 0:58 - Backing founders rebuilding industrial systems 2:01 - Climate tech, AI and resource constraints 3:47 - Raising Fund II 6:09 - Investing in photonics chip company Olix 9:16 - The founders the firm wants to back 10:26 - Nuclear, hardware and industrial innovation 12:47 - Why venture is moving beyond traditional SaaS 14:00 - Europe vs the US for deep tech 15:45 - Building the investment team 18:13 - What makes a great founder