In this interview, Diva Tommei, Chief Innovation & Investment Officer at 28Digital, outlines why Europe needs venture platforms rather than more standalone venture funds. She explains how 28Digital has built a full-stack innovation ecosystem that supports founders from education through international scaling — including Master’s programmes, researcher pre-venture support, startup incubation, open innovation with corporates, access-to-finance services, and soft-landing programmes for global expansion.
Tommei emphasises that today’s startups require far more than “smart capital”: they need regulatory guidance, market access, mentorship, and diversified funding strategies. This is why 28Digital is launching its own fund initiatives as part of a broader public–private venture platform model.
A significant theme of the conversation is Europe’s fragmentation. Tommei highlights the importance of the proposed “28th regime”, a unified regulatory and operational framework that would allow startups to scale across Europe as if it were a single market — simplifying taxation, certification, and data governance.
She also discusses how LPs increasingly value ecosystem-backed strategies that create defensibility, diversification, and long-term resilience. For Tommei, success by 2030 means Europe embracing a distinctly European innovation model — one grounded in public purpose and collaboration — and creating a landscape where founders scale as European startups, not as isolated national ventures.
As private equity adapts to a prolonged high-cost environment, investors are being forced to rethink how they source deals, create value, and deploy capital. Ahead of her appearance at 0100 Europe (April 21–23), we spoke with Geraldine O’Keeffe, Partner at EQT Healthcare Growth, about how one of Europe’s leading investment platforms is transiting today’s market dynamics—across healthcare, technology, and beyond.
