Dublin, Ireland · Venture Capital Atlantic Bridge is a Dublin- and London-headquartered growth-equity firm founded in 2004 by Brian Long, Elaine Coughlan, Gerry Maguire and Peter McManamon. It manages over €1.2bn across eight funds, including flagship growth vehicles (Atlantic Bridge III at €140M, AB IV at $317M), two China-Ireland Technology Growth Capital funds, and two University Bridge Funds (€65M + €80M) seeding deep-tech spinouts from Irish universities. Its defining 'Bridge Model' accelerates the internationalisation of European technology companies via the partners' US networks.
The firm invests at expansion and growth stage — typically €10–20M cheques — across AI, next-generation semiconductors, cybersecurity, enterprise software, quantum computing and digital health. It has recorded 50+ exits worth over $7bn, including Movidius (Intel), Decawave (Qorvo), NUVIA (Qualcomm, $1.4bn) and the Nasdaq listing of Navitas Semiconductor. Active holdings include SambaNova, Vectra AI, Equal1 and Cambridge Mechatronics. The team is led by co-founders Brian Long and Elaine Coughlan with Managing Partner Kevin Dillon.
Brussels, Belgium · Person Audrey Scozzaro Ferrazzini serves as Vice President of Government Affairs at Qualcomm, one of the world's leading semiconductor and wireless technology corporations. Based in Europe, she represents Qualcomm before EU institutions and national governments on matters including the European Chips Act, 5G spectrum policy, mobile connectivity standards, and digital competitiveness strategy. She is a prominent industry voice in European technology and semiconductor policy discussions, regularly engaging with senior EU officials and member state governments.
Palo Alto, United States · Person Co-founder and Managing Partner of Atlantic Bridge, the Dublin- and London-based growth-equity firm. A serial semiconductor and technology entrepreneur, he leads the firm's transatlantic 'Bridge Model', helping European deep-tech companies scale into the US market.
Bristol, United Kingdom · Startup Graphcore is a Bristol-based semiconductor company founded in 2016 that designed the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), a processor architecture built from the ground up for machine learning and AI workloads. The company raised over $700 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, BMW, Microsoft, and Samsung, reaching a valuation above $2.5 billion. Graphcore developed both hardware and a Poplar software stack to compete with NVIDIA in the AI accelerator market. Its IPU technology represented one of Europe's most ambitious attempts to build a homegrown AI chip ecosystem.
Eindhoven, Netherlands · Innovation Hub High Tech Campus Eindhoven is one of Europe's most concentrated technology innovation ecosystems, hosting over 300 companies and 12,000 researchers, developers, and entrepreneurs on a single 100-hectare campus in the south of the Netherlands. Originally developed by Philips as its corporate research campus in the 1990s, HTCE was opened to external companies in 2003 and has since evolved into a thriving open-innovation community often called 'the smartest square kilometer in Europe.' The campus specializes in hardware, semiconductors, photonics, medtech, AI, and IoT, anchored by the presence of NXP Semiconductors, Philips, and ASML nearby. Startups on the campus benefit from shared R&D facilities including cleanrooms, prototyping labs, and testing equipment that would otherwise be inaccessible at early stages. HTCE also operates the HighTechXL accelerator on-site, providing deep-tech startups with structured programs, ESA and CERN technology transfer partnerships, and investor introductions.
Antwerp, Belgium · Event imec's flagship technology forum, bringing the global semiconductor and nano-electronics value chain to Antwerp. Founders in chip design, AI hardware, quantum, and sensing get direct exposure to imec research roadmaps and corporate R&D leads.
Bristol, United Kingdom · Person Co-founder and CEO of Graphcore, the Bristol-based AI chip company building Intelligence Processing Units. A veteran semiconductor entrepreneur, he previously co-founded Picochip and XMOS.
Bristol, United Kingdom · Person Co-founder and CTO of Graphcore and the chief architect of its IPU processor. A serial chip designer, he co-founded Picochip and Element 14 before Graphcore.
Bratislava, Slovakia · Startup Tachyum is developing the Prodigy Universal Processor, a bold attempt to unify CPU, GPU, and TPU workloads into a single hyperscale chip. The vision is a high-efficiency architecture that could dramatically reduce data center power consumption and cost. By 2026, the company is in moonshot territory, with tape-out success positioned as a potential disruption to incumbent giants like Nvidia and Intel. It is one of the most ambitious semiconductor bets in Central Europe.