It's Harry Stebbings, the U.K. podcaster who torpedoed the world of tech with his 20-minute interviews of venture capitalists and founders and parlayed that fame into becoming a VC himself. Now Stebbings has closed his third investment vehicle, the largest fund yet: 20VC, the firm named for the podcast series, has closed a $400 million fund. 

At a time when European tech companies are still behind their U.S. peers at nearly every stage of investment, 20VC's new fund will focus on backing startups in the region, using Stebbings' media nous and connections to bring more attention to them.

"I am really tired of everyone s**ting on Europe," he said in an interview earlier today. "We have unbelievable companies, and we have incredible people. We need to make Europe great again. MEGA!" he added with a grin.

Of that, around $125 million will go to seed investments, while $275 million will focus on Series A rounds. As Stebbings mentions, the fund hasn't been fully deployed yet because 20VC is still investing out of its second fund, which raised $140 million in 2021.

According to Stebbings, the new fund was raised in four weeks, which would be an exceedingly quick turnaround, considering the constraints that continue to swirl around venture capital. (Business Insider reported he was at least in pitching mode back in June.)

Other notable takeaways from the news:

Much as the climate for founders is hard, a reminder that there is money out there to be invested, and the pot is clearly still growing.
Europe remains an interesting opportunity for U.S. limited partners when it comes to startups. Most of the backers in this fund, Stebbings said, are U.S.-based, half or more of it institutional money. "I'd never get into MIT as a student," Stebbings said. "I'm thrilled that they decided to give me money to invest.".
Hence, European VCs do have a good ace in their hand as far as European startups are concerned in terms of connectivity.

Venture capital firms like Accel and successful founders who are turned into investors all sit in London and the region. Yet many such investors will still put money into 20VC. Why? Stebbings has given a very personal face to his firm, and he helps investors hedge their bets.

Altogether, 40 founders from companies like Atlassian, Candy Crush, Canva, Capital One, Datadog, Deliveroo, Eventbrite, Iconiq, Procore, Spotify, UiPath, and Vinted had invested in the fund alongside founders of Accel and Benchmark; general partners from Coatue, Cyberstarts, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, Khosla, NEA, TCV, and Thrive also invested.
"We are the feet on the ground for the U.S. funds too," he said.

Stebbings has hit the zeitgeist about being an online creator who has a business built off his content. For him, that business falls in the category of venture capital, but it allows him to use his profile to help open doors and get in on term sheets.

"The media platform has really helped," he said. The firm was essentially a "micro VC" when it launched in 2020, with only $8.3 million to put to work, usually to ride the seed round of companies. Now it gets upwards of 50 million views on TikTok and YouTube — large numbers for what is effectively VC and startup inside baseball. "Having your Sam Altmans on the show, your Marc Benioffs, it makes a big difference.". Founders do really want to take your money."

Stebbings himself isn't a technologist by training — he was at university studying law when he started 20VC and dropped out when it all took off. He makes no attempts to hide this. 

"I don't follow technology," he said when I asked him if any categories are standing out right now. "I follow great entrepreneurs. I think it's absolutely bullshit that we think we're smarter than markets. If there's one thing we have to learn, it is that great founders shape markets. And if that's the case, my job is to simply find the best founders before anyone else."

Beyond that, his selling point from early on has been that he brings operational experience to his portfolio companies.

"20VC has done over £10 million in revenue and is a very profitable and sustainable business," he said. "No, I'm not a technology founder, but I am an operator. I work seven days a week, 15 hours a day, and I have done for years."

Now, that has mushroomed out a bit, with 20VC running what Stebbings describes as "sub-funds" in areas such as sales, product, and growth. These have teams too run by people with operator experience, who have their own carry and look for companies (and founders) that look interesting and could benefit from practical advice in those areas.

He changed the paradigm of the creation of VCs, but hasn't yet shifted the economics of VC. This was "like any other market," he said. "One percent of the companies make 90% of the gains."

That might not be such a bad thing, though. "We can do more to normalize that in Europe, encouraging trying and failing," he said.

Ironically, for VCs that extremely lopsided math might mean more chance for megawins, not fewer, he said. "Venture returns on the whole will go down, [but] for 1% of firms, they will be much, much bigger than ever, and better than ever, because the size of the outcomes is so much larger than ever," he predicted.

That said, Stebbings is still waiting for his "MEGA" payout. Many of the firms he's invested in are still very young, the IPO market is still pretty dead, and some of the startups in its portfolio still point to the U.S. focus that 20VC had when it started.

According to Stebbings, closest is, however, Tripledot, a London-based gaming studio, apparently valued at just over $1 billion, according to PitchBook, and last raised in 2022.