In this episode, we welcome Giulia Van Waeyenberge to the pod. Giulia is an experienced investor and judge in the European VC Awards and a Managing Director at Sofina Group, an investment holding company with more than 9 billion in AUM.Sofina Group is a global investor investing mainly in the Venture and Growth stages. Its sectors include digital, healthcare and life sciences, consumer, education, and sustainable supply chain sectors. Sofina has a direct investment strategy, investing from a series B/C until IPO and beyond. They also invest in venture and growth capital funds on a global basis. They invest from their balance sheet and take a long-term view. Sofina is also a shareholder in Vinted (a second-hand marketplace), Mistral AI, Cleo (an AI chatbot providing financial advice to young adults), and ByteDance.On the fund side, they have long-standing relationships with US managers where they have invested for several decades in firms like Sequoia, Iconiq, and Lightspeed. In Europe, they invested in several European GPs, some more emerging than others. In the seed stage, they have a partnership with Point Nine, Moonfire, Atlantic Labs, Seedcamp, Visionaries Club, Stride, and Hoxton. On the seed/series A stage they have invested in Blossom Capital, Singular, and Alven. On the platform side, they have in funds like Northzone, Balderton, Atomico, Dawn, and Felix Capital.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview ?Chapters05:49 Direct Investments and Partnerships06:16 Allocation and Investment Decision-making07:40 Investing from a Balance Sheet08:39 Investment Pace and Diversification09:08 Allocation to Venture and Growth10:44 Investing in Venture for Multiple Decades22:56 Views on the European Venture Ecosystem25:12 Maturity of the European Ecosystem28:37 US Investors' Perspective on Europe32:37 Venture in Eastern Europe33:37 Long-Term Orientation and Dealing with Challenges37:58 Shoutout to Ophelia Brown of Blossom39:25 Learnings from the Last 10 Years41:30 Tips for Emerging VCs in Fundraising42:44 Counterintuitive Lessons in Venture