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▶ 12:04 · Advanced Manufacturing · Hardware development velocity now matches software via AI tools and SpaceX playbook
episode briefing
Scaling Europe

Transition Ventures raised $150m Fund II: David Helgason, Co-founder at Transition Ventures

2026-05-27 · 1 company · 6 thematic
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david helgason

Co-founded and led Unity as CEO through IPO ($13B valuation, $2B+ revenue). After Unity, became angel investor then co-founded Transition Ventures, a $150M Fund II focusing on hard tech rewriting industrial systems across energy, compute, and manufacturing.

now playing · Advanced Manufacturing
Energy & Power Generationtailwindscore 7/10david helgason
Power and mineral constraints redefine planetary boundaries investment framework
Using the Stockholm Resilience Centre's planetary boundaries framework, Transition identifies power availability and critical mineral supply as the binding constraints for AI and industrial…
AI Hardware & Chip Architecturetailwindscore 9/10david helgason
Photonics-based compute emerges as fundamental challenger to electronic chips
Photonics computing (exemplified by Olex) represents a foundational shift in the compute stack, attracting elite technical founders and targeting the largest addressable market in technolog…
Data Center Infrastructuretailwindscore 7/10david helgason
Full-stack data center innovation from cooling to power creates venture opportunities
Transition Ventures has mapped opportunities across the entire data center stack — cooling, energy, compute — recognizing that AI-driven demand creates systemic bottlenecks requiring integr…
Nuclear Energytailwindscore 8/10david helgason
Small modular reactors becoming fundable in Europe as energy constraints intensify
Founders with SpaceX-style aggressive execution are now tackling small modular nuclear reactors in Europe, a category that was unimaginable a decade ago, driven by urgent power constraints…
Advanced Manufacturingtailwindscore 8/10david helgason
Hardware development velocity now matches software via AI tools and SpaceX playbook
Modern methodologies, AI-assisted design, accessible global supply chains, and a mindset shift from aggressive operators (SpaceX alumni) enable hardware startups to iterate at software-like…
Venture Capitalheadwindscore 8/10david helgason
Traditional enterprise SaaS model obsolete as software creation becomes near-zero cost
With AI making software creation extremely cheap, the classic high-margin enterprise SaaS playbook no longer works; venture returns now require backing hard tech that rewrites physical indu…