6 Sept 2017

Our Secret Weapon: Tom Wehmeier becomes Partner at Atomico

When we published our earlier this year, we stated that as a firm we have not been passive spectators as Europe has built its own vibrant technology ecosystem. Rather, we are proud to have been relentless advocates for its growing strength and depth. And we’ll continue doing so because it’s critical to the future of not only the companies in which we invest but Europe’s future too.

We’ve long since observed that Europe wasn’t doing enough to tell it’s own story, and we were constantly being confronted with myths that technology and entrepreneurship could only prosper in Silicon Valley. We knew, from spending day in and day out with European founders, what was really going on in Europe.

But technology is an industry that moves at a million miles an hour and, as a result, investing moves at a similar pace. Finding and investing in the very best European founders is a relentless task, and one we relish, but in Europe it is uniquely travel intensive as we began to prove out our thesis that great companies really are now coming from anywhere.

So, in amongst the breakneck speed of the an ongoing technology revolution, how do you extract signal from the noise?

How do you ensure that you’re consistently staying on top of what’s happening?

At Atomico we constantly challenge ourselves to be forward-thinking in identifying non-traditional roles that could add value to our core investment activities. And we are constantly striving to be the most knowledgeable and forward-thinking investor in Europe because we take our role seriously as a leader. That means being thoughtful and having deep sector expertise. It also means sharing our insights with the broader ecosystem. You.

So we created a role to help us make sure we are tuned in to the important signals. A role that allows us to also share those signals with all of you about what’s next on the horizon for Europe.

For the past four years we have had a secret weapon on our side. A lighthouse in the storm. Somebody that can help us stop and think. To take the time to pause, reflect and share insights with our team. A tireless champion for European tech, fighting with the best weapon there is — deriving insights from data.

That secret weapon is our Head of Research, Tom Wehmeier . And today we are proud to announce Tom as the newest Partner at Atomico.

You may not know his name, but if you are as passionate about the European technology ecosystem as we are, you will know his work.

Tom is the author of the largest unified objective data set on the entire European tech ecosystem, the annual State of European Tech Report . With this report Tom has been able to tell, for the first time, the real story of Europe’s developing tech ecosystem. He has been able to help to dispel myths about what’s happening and to identify where we still have ‘room for improvement’.

And he has been able to do all of this with data.

And a bit of help from all of you via the annual State of European Tech Community Survey which, incidentally, launches today and Tom would be personally grateful for your input by clicking the banner below.

Tom is also the author behind our other proprietary research reports including ‘ Europe Meets China: Opportunities in the World’s Largest Games Market ‘, the first ever global research into $1bn+ companies outside the US and our fortnightly Need-To-Know updates with Stephen Thorne.

But championing Europe a world leading tech hub is only a small part of Tom’s role. His main role is playing a critical part of the investment team dynamic here at Atomico.

One of the most important questions we ask ourselves constantly is ‘what if?’. It’s easy to find all the reasons why something might not work, it’s much harder to allow yourself to be open to the possibilities if everything falls into place. Tom plays an important role in helping us to model these ‘what if’ scenarios for how the future might play out. His input into deal teams evaluating specific opportunities ensures we’re thinking about key macro trends impacting a company, helps shape thinking about market opportunity and also that we understand the wider competitive landscape.

And with Tom now part of the Partnership, we have run the data, modeled all the ‘what if’ scenarios and we can now assure you that the future looks bright for Atomico.

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