The lack of late stage capital
Welcome to the Eighty-Eighth edition of Unstoppable Founders!
👑 #Unstoppable Female Founder
This week's Unstoppable Female Founder is Estonia's youngest patent holder and inventor, Karoli Hindriks, Founder & CEO of Jobbatical. At 16, she developed reflective pedestrian accessories as part of a student project. This early win taught her that age and resources matter less than identifying real problems and solving them decisively.
Her career trajectory took her into Media, becoming MTV Estonia's youngest CEO at 23 and launching seven television channels across Northern Europe. She then went on to study at Singularity University in Silicon Valley. Here she observed how a high concentration of talent created competitive advantages and began developing the thesis that would become Jobbatical: global talent mobility is constrained by immigration friction, not availability.
Karoli’s Career Highlights & Key Insights
Serial Entrepreneur from Day One: Founded her first company at 16, creating safety reflectors that quite literally saved lives while establishing her as Estonia's youngest inventor, proving that age is no barrier to meaningful innovation.
Media Industry Leadership: Led the launch of seven television channels across the Baltic states, including MTV and National Geographic, becoming the youngest MTV CEO globally at 23 and gaining invaluable experience in scaling operations during economic downturns.
Pivot Master: Made the bold decision in 2019 to pivot Jobbatical from a recruitment marketplace to an immigration technology platform, walking away from nearly half a million users to focus on solving the more fundamental problem of talent relocation.
Global Recognition: Named one of Europe's 50 most influential women in startups by EU-Startups, recognized as one of 8 most inspiring women in Europe by the EU Council, and featured at Fortune's Most Powerful Women International Summit and TED.
Policy Influence: Directly contributed to Estonia's digital nomad visa policy after pitching the concept to the country's president, with over 60 countries now adopting similar programs, demonstrating how entrepreneurs can shape global policy.
Crisis Navigation: Grew Jobbatical 3x during the pandemic year of 2020, proving that the global talent shortage trend is resilient and that companies with strong "change muscle" can thrive even in uncertainty.
It was clear from a very young age Karoli was destined for entrepreneurship, focused on solving real world problems that help people in their everyday lives.
📣 #TheRant
The lack of late stage capital
It’s nothing new, Europe has a growing startup ecosystem, but it still significantly lags behind the U.S. and China in terms of late-stage capital. Over the past decade we’ve seen early-stage funding explode across Europe, however we’ve yet to establish significant capital for ambitious startups to scale beyond Series B. This often leads startups to seek capital from U.S. investors, or worse, relocate their entire operation such was the case for 11x .
Late Stage Funding Stats:
Only 8% of global scale-up funding goes to European companies, compared to 54% to U.S. companies.
Europe has more unicorns than ever, but only a fraction grow into category leaders or global IPOs due to capital constraints at the growth stage.
Sectors most affected include AI, semiconductors, climate tech, and biotech, which require long-term, capital-intensive investment.
In an attempt to combat this, the European Commission recently announced a new €10 billion “Scale-Up Europe” fund. The fund is part of the EU’s Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) and will focus on bridging the capital gap for high-potential tech companies in Europe, particularly in deep tech, green tech, healthtech, AI, and quantum.
What impact will this have?
Retention of Innovation: High-growth startups frequently exit Europe to access capital elsewhere. This initiative is designed to keep scaleups in Europe and strengthen sovereign tech capabilities.
Economic Competitiveness: The EU wants to better compete with SVB-style networks, U.S. growth capital, and Chinese industrial backing.
State & Private Blend: The fund will blend public funding with private LP capital, mobilized via the European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Innovation Council (EIC).
For founders, it’s a positive signal that Europe is finally getting serious about supporting more soonicorns become unicorns while keeping their roots planted here.
💰#HypeCorner
This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!
🇮🇹 Irene Giani Co-founder & CEO of Deeva
🇮🇪 Naomi McGregor Founder & CEO of Movetru
🇩🇪 Tamara Ciullo Co-founder & COO of Cariqa
🇪🇸 Clara Bernardes Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Biorce
🇩🇪 Dana Aleff Co-founder & CEO of Circonomit
🇬🇧 Claire Trant PhD FRSA Co-founder & CEO of Untap Health
🇬🇧 Danai Antoniou Co-founder & Chief Scientist at Gradient Labs
🇪🇸 Eva Romagosa Co-founder & CSO of BusUp
🇦🇹 Susanne Haspinger Co-founder & COO of Hololight
🇬🇧 Jodie Sinclair Founder & CEO of Theo Health
🇳🇱 Petra Doelman Co-founder & COO of Novenda Technologies
🇨🇭 Leila Jaafar Founder & CEO of NUCLIDIUM
Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!
🎤 Events for founders
🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!
🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.
🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!
👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!
☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen
PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!