Venture capitalist Luciana Lixandru has worked with some of Europe’s best-known start-ups, including food delivery app Deliveroo, business process automation pioneer UiPath and second-hand marketplace Vinted, as well as sitting on the board of fintech giant Stripe.
A former Morgan Stanley analyst, she began investing in start-ups at Accel in London in 2011 before joining Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia as its first European partner in 2020. She now co-leads Sequoia’s early-stage investment business globally.
In this conversation with the FT’s global technology correspondent Tim Bradshaw, she discusses why it’s time for an “act two” for European tech, how investing today is different from the 2021 bubble and what she looks for in an AI start-up.