Europe's answer to TBPN is here and ready to publish 5 days a week from June 27th.
Luke Knight and Ronan Chambers first launched the London-based European Technology Network (ETN) in October last year, analyzing technology trends and news in live streams two days a week. The show is currently livestreamed on X and YouTube and has received over 5 million views.
The network on Monday announced a $1.6 million seed round from top players in the media ecosystem, including Powerhouse Capital, Axel Springer SE (owner of Business Insider and Politico), popular media publication LadBible, and angel investors from OpenAI and DeepMind. With this new capital, the network is announcing its largest expansion to date.
The company has now moved into a larger studio in King's Cross (London's hotspot for AI startups), expanded its team (now just eight people), published a newsletter and, starting today, moved to a five-day-a-week live show schedule, and will soon see Knight and Chambers interviewing the likes of George Robson (partner at Sequoia) and Rishi Sunak (former British prime minister and senior advisor at Anthropic and Microsoft).
Speaking to TechCrunch, Knight and Chambers said ETN is already a hot spot on press tours for European startups. They said they spoke to the founder of Synthesia, the CFO of Regola, the founder of Granola, and Kanishka Narayan, the UK's first AI minister. American investors, including those from Andreessen Horowitz, have stopped by the show when they are in town.
“ETN was born out of a gaping hole in the industry,” Chambers told TechCrunch. “It's all about pace.” He said the UK's current media ecosystem can't keep up with how fast the tech scene is moving. For example, London startups have raised $14.7 billion so far this year, according to Dealroom. Six companies have raised more than $500 million: Wayve, Superintelligence, Celebrities, Recursive, Ineffable Intelligence, and Isomorphic Labs, the latter three of which were founded by DeepMind alumni.
“These things have never happened in Europe before,” Chambers continued, referring to the speed at which capital flows through the ecosystem. As the show's popularity grew, Chambers said he started receiving about 70 offers a week from guests wanting to be on the show. They tried to cram 12 interviews into two hours twice a week, but it ended up being too much. “We needed an outlet that could move at that pace. That's why we're going from two days a week to five days a week,” he said, referring to both the interest in the show and the speed at which Europe's tech ecosystem moves.
The 5-day format is very similar to the 2-day format. From 12pm to 3pm UK time we have a live show explaining trending topics, then for two hours guests come on the show to talk about their favorite things. Chambers said he also wants to start hosting debates, roundtables and Shark Tank-style pitching sessions on the show.
“We want to make it as helpful as possible to the ecosystem,” Chambers said. “We need to talk more about AI in Europe. We need to talk more about venture capital and cash flowing into the ecosystem. We need to talk more about the amazing things that are happening in the technology ecosystem. Our role is to be an arena where people can shout about all the amazing things that they're doing.”
The show, like most media publications, makes money through advertising and already has big-name sponsors including prediction market Polymarket, blockchain company Base, and AI audio favorite Celebrities.
When asked about the impact TBPN has had on them, Knight and Chambers said they certainly see TBPN (recently sold to OpenAI for a nine-figure sum) founders John Coogan and Jordi Hayes as pioneers in this new tech media ecosystem. The show has become a place for technology guests to appear, chat with friendly faces, and announce news of new product releases, adoptions, or funding. “I thought, if ITV and the BBC can do it, why don't they make regional versions of this?” Chambers continued.
But Europe is a big place, with over 40 countries and over 200 languages spoken (24 of which are recognized by the European Union). Mr Chambers said ETN would report from London, but he and Mr Knight were working to bring in guests from across the continent. In addition to hosting guests in the studio, they also travel to the most high-profile technology conferences across Europe. For example, we are broadcasting the Panathenaea Conference in Athens and the RAISE AI Summit from inside the Louvre Museum in Paris.
“There are different cultures, different ideas coming together and producing different products,” Chambers said. “You can taste what is being made.” [Europe] It's a superpower. ”
With all this in mind, they said they would never say no if an American founder wanted to appear on the show. “This is a European technology network, but we believe there is a large network. [global] Knight added, noting that there are often conversations pitting the European tech ecosystem against the U.S. tech ecosystem.
“We are globally optimistic,” Knight said. “We are driving global prosperity from Europe. Wherever you want to go and start a company, wherever is the best place to go and start that company, go and do it. We scream for you to go and do it.”
He and Chambers don't necessarily consider themselves journalists either. Rather, they think of themselves as technology people, interested in what's happening and why. They also do not see themselves as replacing traditional media, but instead intend to work in tandem with those publications. “We rely on traditional media,” Chambers said, adding that's how we find much of the news we talk about on ETN.
Collectively, the duo wants to document the stories emerging from Europe's new wave of success, from Eleven Labs in London to Labubble in Stockholm, and help the next generation understand that technology is one way to move nations forward.
Chambers spoke about the impact of European success stories, saying, “It's infuriating the next generation to the point where it's no longer cool to go straight out of university and work in banking or consulting. People want to come out of university and go straight to building start-ups, which I think is surprising.”
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