Europe got its own TBPN-style live show, and everyone’s angling for a guest spot
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- European Technology Network closed a $1.6 million seed round from Powerhouse Capital, Axel Springer SE, LadBible, and angel investors from OpenAI and DeepMind, timed with its June 27 launch of a five-day-a-week live show.
- ETN, founded by Luke Knight and Ronan Chambers in London, has accumulated more than 5 million views on X and YouTube since its October 2024 debut and is relocating to a larger studio in Kings Cross.
- Upcoming ETN guests include Sequoia partner George Robson and former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who the article identifies as a senior advisor to Anthropic and Microsoft.
- London startups have raised $14.7 billion so far this year per Dealroom, with Wayve, Superintelligence, ElevenLabs, Recursive, Ineffable Intelligence, and Isomorphic Labs each raising more than $500 million.
- ETN receives roughly 70 guest pitches per week and previously squeezed 12 interviews into a two-hour window, with current sponsors including Polymarket, Base, and ElevenLabs.
- Founders Knight and Chambers cite TBPN — recently sold to OpenAI for a reportedly nine-figure sum — as inspiration, while explicitly positioning themselves as tech insiders rather than journalists who rely on traditional outlets for news.
Why it matters: ETN's pivot from a two-day side project to a daily show is backed by $1.6 million from mainstream media (Axel Springer, LadBible) and Big Tech angels (OpenAI, DeepMind), with 5 million existing views and 70 weekly guest pitches proving the pipeline already exceeds the current two-day capacity.
