EU-Startups Podcast

In this special episode of the EU-Startups Podcast, we kick off a five-part interview series recorded during Leonard Launch Day in Paris, in partnership with Leonard, the innovation and foresight platform of the VINCI Group.

Leonard supports startups and internal projects shaping the future of construction, infrastructure, energy, and mobility, and during their Launch Day we sat down with five companies from its 2026 cohort for in-depth conversations.

The first interview in the series features Ryan Luke Johns, CEO of Gravis Robotics, a Swiss ConTech company enabling autonomy in heavy machinery. Gravis retrofits existing excavators and loaders with advanced robotics and software, transforming them into remote-controlled, semi-autonomous, or fully autonomous machines.

We discuss why autonomy is becoming critical in construction, the challenges of deploying robotics in unpredictable environments, and why retrofitting existing equipment is key to real-world adoption.

This is episode one of five, with one interview released each day this week (Monday to Friday).

Key points in this episode:

- Why autonomy in heavy machinery is becoming a necessity, not a luxury
- The safety benefits of removing humans from high-risk machine operations
- Retrofitting existing equipment versus building autonomous machines from scratch
- The realities of deploying robotics on live construction sites
- How human operators’ roles are evolving alongside autonomous systems

In this episode of the EU-Startups Podcast, host David Cendon Garcia sits down with Friedrich Schwandt - founder of Statista and CEO of ECDB - to unpack nearly two decades of building one of the world’s most trusted data platforms, and why he decided to step back as CEO to start again.

Friedrich founded Statista in Hamburg in 2007 with a simple idea: make reliable data accessible. Seventeen years later, it had become a global data and business intelligence platform with over 1,400 employees, millions of users, and customers ranging from media giants to global enterprises. In 2024, he moved into a chairman role and turned his focus to ECDB, a company built to bring clarity to the fast-moving world of eCommerce data.

We talk about:
• The early problem Statista was really trying to solve
• The hardest moments of scaling that never make it into success stories
• What corporate life at Deutsche Telekom and BCG prepared him for - and what it didn’t
• Letting go of control as a founder, and knowing when it’s time
• What young SaaS and data founders get wrong
• How AI is changing the way data companies are built
• And our shared connection to Ireland (and his fondness of card games)

This episode is about data, yes - but also about leadership, timing, and the long game of building something that lasts.

After 100+ episodes over two years, this is Marcin Lewandowski’s final episode as host of the EU-Startups Podcast.

We flipped the script: this time Marcin is interviewed by David Cendon Garcia (News Editor at EU-Startups) — who will be taking over the podcast going forward.

We recorded it live on a padel court, in one take, while playing.

It’s a fun behind-the-scenes look at:
→ Marcin's story and how it all started
→ the conversations that made the biggest impact
→ the toughest moments
→ favorite guests + lessons learned
→ and what’s next

Thank you, Marcin. David — welcome to the mic.

If you haven't already.... Subscribe to the EU-Startups Podcast on YouTube!

Or follow along on your other favorite podcast platforms... Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4QU85dN... / Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast...

Follow EU-Startups on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-startups-menlo-media/

Visit our Website:
https://www.eu-startups.com/

Subscribe to our Newsletter:
https://www.eu-startups.com/newsletter/

Most people talk about AI in the cloud. Karim Saleh is putting it on the factory floor.

This week on the EU-Startups Podcast, Marcin Lewandowski sits down with Karim Saleh — Co-Founder & CEO of Cerrion, the company building agentic AI that watches factory lines 24/7 and intervenes in real time to prevent safety incidents, scrap, and costly downtime.

Cerrion plugs into standard cameras, understands production flows like an expert operator, and can instantly take action — slowing conveyors, shutting down machines, or triggering alarms. Factories using Cerrion resolve issues 50% faster, cut downtime and scrap in half, and run operations with far less stress.

Karim’s journey is unreal:
→ Grew up in a manufacturing family in Egypt
→ Professional athlete & captain of Egypt’s national water polo team
→ Electrical engineering at ETH Zurich
→ Founder building AI across 15 countries and 3 continents
→ Just raised an $18M Series A from Creandum, Hanel, YC, 10x Founders, Robin Chan, Justin Kan, Harry Stebbings and others

We cover:
• The moment on a factory floor that shaped the mission behind Cerrion
• Why frontline teams everywhere face the same structural problems
• How agentic AI can safely intervene during production
• Real stories where Cerrion caught what humans couldn’t see in time
• The surprising similarity between factories in 15 different countries
• What elite sport teaches you about building a hypergrowth startup
• What the factory of the future feels like for a shift leader in 2030
• And the “one myth about factories” Karim wants the world to forget

This is one of the most grounded, mission-driven, high-clarity deep-tech conversations we’ve had.

Takeaways:
1. Frontline teams are overwhelmed; AI reduces stress, not jobs.
2. Agentic AI is shifting factories from firefighting to foresight.
3. Real-time AI intervention works when humans stay in the loop, not out of it.
4. Elite sports taught Karim the founder superpower: discipline beats adrenaline.
5. The factory of the future is calm, predictable, and safe — not chaotic.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction: Karim’s story & Cerrion’s mission
02:13 – Growing up in manufacturing & seeing frontline pain
06:59 – What’s broken in factories today
10:39 – How Cerrion’s AI agents work in real time
12:34 – Human–AI partnership on the shop floor
15:40 – Success stories from 15 countries
18:22 – Athlete mindset → founder mindset
21:29 – Hypergrowth: what broke first
24:50 – The factory of the future
26:42 – Rapid Fire with Karim Saleh

If you haven't already.... Subscribe to the EU-Startups Podcast on YouTube!

Or follow along on your other favorite podcast platforms... Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4QU85dN... / Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast...

Follow EU-Startups on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-startups-menlo-media/

Visit our Website:
https://www.eu-startups.com/

Subscribe to our Newsletter:
https://www.eu-startups.com/newsletter/

Is Europe really at an AI crossroads — or are we already picking a lane?

This week on the EU-Startups Podcast, Marcin Lewandowski sits down with Emmet King, Founding Partner at J12, VC with presence in Stockholm, London, and Paris, backing founders early at the frontier of AI,
to unpack what the AI moment actually looks like on the ground for European founders.

Emmet argues that Europe has world-class AI talent, but faces real constraints in capital deployment, energy capacity, and regulatory timing. The question isn’t “can Europe build iconic AI companies?” — it’s whether we’ll move fast enough on energy, compute, and policy to let them scale here.

Together, we dig into:
• What “Europe at an AI crossroads” means in practical terms for founders today
• Where talent density is an advantage — and where capital, energy, and regulation still bite
• Why calling AI a “bubble” is lazy, and where the froth really is (application layer)
• Where the real compounding value lies: infra (DataCrunch, etc.) vs applied AI (Dropcode, Kovant, Pistachio, Dema…)
• Energy reality: China’s lead, US flexibility, and how Europe can close the gap
• The non-negotiables for building an AI startup in Europe in 2026
• What kind of regulation timing helps, instead of smothering, AI scaleups
• Signals that the tide is turning: talent flows, new strategies, infra investment
• A concrete “order of operations” for Europe: capital, energy, compute, data, visas

We also run through a quick rapid-fire round:
• Europe’s AI superpower — and kryptonite
• One regulation to keep, one to rewrite
• How to spot the copilot mirage (shiny but 0.2% impact)
• What proves an infra startup can actually compound
• And Emmet’s finish to: “AI isn’t a bubble if we…”

Takeaways
• Europe has the AI talent to build global leaders — but still underpowers them with capital, energy, and policy.
• The AI “bubble” narrative is lazy; froth is in shallow apps, while infra quietly compounds.
• Energy capacity and compute access are now strategic levers, not back-office concerns.
• Winning AI startups in Europe will be trust-first, productivity-proven, and talent-dense.
• Europe’s path is clear: align capital, energy, compute, data, and visas around its best teams.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to AI in Europe
03:10 – Europe at an AI Crossroads
08:16 – Energy Infrastructure and AI
10:41 – The AI Bubble Debate
18:01 – Non-Negotiables for AI Startups
22:55 – J12’s Investment Lens & Thesis
26:22 – If Europe Led for a Day: What to Fix First
31:16 – Contrarian Bets, Safe Bets & Myths
35:14 – Rapid Fire with Emmet King

If you’re building AI in Europe — or thinking about where to found your next company — this conversation is a roadmap, not a hot take.

If you haven't already.... Subscribe to the EU-Startups Podcast on YouTube!

Or follow along on your other favorite podcast platforms... Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4QU85dN... / Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast...

Follow EU-Startups on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-startups-menlo-media/

Visit our Website:
https://www.eu-startups.com/

Subscribe to our Newsletter:
https://www.eu-startups.com/newsletter/

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