The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: The Future of War: Are We Ready & What Needs to Be Done | China, Russia and Trump: What Happens Now | Raising $828M to Build the Defence Champion of Europe | Torsten Reil, Co-Founder @ Helsing
Wed, 11 Dec 2024
Torsten Reil is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Helsing, a new type of defence company providing artificial intelligence to protect our democracies. Torsten has raised over $825M from the likes of Prima Materia, Elad Gil, Accel and General Catalyst. Previously Torsten founded NaturalMotion, one of the UK's most successful games and technology start-ups. Torsten was named as one of MIT's Top 100 Innovators and is a member of the Munich Security Conference Innovation Board. In Today’s Episode with Torsten Reil We Discuss: 1. The World Around Us: China, Russia and Trump: What will happen between China and Taiwan? What will happen between Russia and Ukraine? How will a Trump administration impact the US’ commitment to fund European defence? What conflict do people not pay enough attention to in the world today? 2. Are We Ready and What Needs to Be Done: Are the west ready to fight against our adversaries as we stand today? What do we need to do to equip ourselves? What needs to change in our defence budgets? Where do they need to go? How does the procurement process for defence need to change? 3. The Future of War: Why does Torsten believe the future of war is contactless? In the next wave of defence, what are the most important elements for allies to own? What elements concern Torsten the most? What role does AI and autonomous play in the future of war? 4. Is Europe F********: Why does Torsten believe that Europe’s biggest problem is ambition not capital? Why does Torsten believ that we put too much weight on the location in which companies are founded? Why does it not matter? How does Torsten respond to the statement that we do not have the depth of experienced talent in Europe to recruit?
Full Episode
When we started Helsing in March 2021, we actually put one of our slides that we thought there were going to be two galvanizing events. One of them was going to be an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the other one an invasion of Taiwan by China. There is a big wave coming towards us. It is autonomy and software in defense, and it's unstoppable.
The thing that we have to avoid is the Tesla moment for the defense sector. If we collectively, including the primes, don't understand that and don't adapt, the same thing is going to happen to defense as happened to the car industry. Where are we in three years with Russia-Ukraine? What happens in China and Taiwan? Again, I think it's plausible that there will be...
I mean, my word, those intros have gotten good. This is Harry Stebbings, and I am so excited to welcome one of the great entrepreneurs of Europe to Hotseat today, Torsten Reil. Torsten is the co-founder and co-CEO of Helsing, a new type of defense company providing artificial intelligence to protect our democracies. Torsten has raised over $825 million,
from the likes of Prima Materia, Eli Gill, Excel, and General Catalyst, to name a few. I also had wanted to make this show happen for a long time. Torsten does not do podcasts, and so this one meant a huge amount to me. But before we dive in, what do Henry Ford and AI have in common? Neither could change the world without automation.
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