Advent leverages Europe's fragmented landscape of 44 nations, each with unique regulations and politics. This complexity creates inefficiencies and transformational deal opportunities, like corporate carve-outs, which are less common in the more uniform US market.

A European founder targeting the US market shouldn't dismiss European VCs. You might be the top priority in a European firm's portfolio, receiving more attention and support than you would as a lower-priority deal for a top-tier, oversubscribed Silicon Valley firm.

While US and European PE buyout funds show similar net returns, CVC's CEO argues Europe offers greater alpha. The continent's complexity and bureaucracy deter macro investors but create unique opportunities for hands-on PE firms to add significant value, leading to returns that are less dependent on market beta.

The huge funding gap for European biotech is structural. European institutional investors like pension funds allocate only 0.02% of their balance sheets to venture, compared to 2% in the US. This factor-of-100 difference creates a major hurdle for the ecosystem's ability to retain its champion companies.

Europe's decentralized biotech ecosystem offers a major operational advantage over hubs like Boston. Lower competition for talent, lab space, and clinical trial sites allows startups to operate at 50% of the cost, coupled with pre-money valuations that are often 40% lower, creating significant capital efficiency.

Unlike their US counterparts, European biotechs have less access to large venture funds. This forces a culture of extreme capital efficiency and discipline. This need to be "cleverer, smarter with less people and less money" is a defining feature and potential advantage of the European ecosystem.

According to Jato's founder, global Limited Partners (LPs) from the US, Asia, and Brazil are showing new, strong interest in European biotech investments, a significant shift from past sentiment. This change is partly driven by geopolitics, potentially creating a valuation arbitrage opportunity as European biotechs are often initially valued lower than US peers.

The $10 billion sale of Metsera to Pfizer highlights a massive valuation arbitrage opportunity in Europe. The company, funded by US VCs, derived significant value from an asset that originated from a London university spinout. This core asset was acquired for only $34 million upfront, demonstrating that European science can be undervalued and represents a source of hidden gems for savvy investors.

While Europeans criticize US tech culture, that same industry has fueled massive capital formation and productivity growth, leaving Europe's economy far behind. Europe excels at seed-stage funding but lacks the late-stage capital to scale giants like Anthropic.