E553 | Stephen Lowery, HSBC Innovation Banking: Financing the Future: Evolving the Capital Stack (EUVC Summit 2025)

At the EUVC Summit 2025, Stephen Lowery of HSBC Innovation Banking laid out a vision that wasn’t just about capital—it was about building the infrastructure to unlock the next wave of innovation.

“The future is not going to finance itself.”

And the tools we need? Most of them don’t exist yet.

We’re entering a new era—one where emerging categories like robotics, deeptech, AI hardware, and compute-intensive models demand new forms of financial support.

But most of our current instruments were built for a different generation of tech.

Stephen reminded us of the pre-SaaS era, when software businesses lived and died by upfront license fees. It wasn’t until financing models evolved that subscription software (and eventually SaaS) could flourish.

“Just like we innovated in software 20 years ago, we need to do the same now—in hardware, robotics, and beyond.”

Stephen called for three key building blocks:

1. Blended Capital
   → Mix long-term venture equity with creative debt structures
   → Pair revenue-based financing with contract support
   → Add credit insurance into the mix

2. Category-Specific Models
   → Think robot-as-a-service, compute-as-a-service
   → Let hardware businesses monetize more like software ones

3. Collaboration
   → VCs, banks, LPs, and operators need to co-build
   → “Let’s do more than finance innovation—let’s finance the infrastructure that enables it.”

Stephen’s message wasn’t just for investors. It was for architects—those willing to help engineer the future of capital itself.

“We need to work together in partnership to build the tools that will finance the industries of tomorrow.”

Finance is no longer a back-office utility. It’s a frontline enabler of innovation.
And if we want European ventures to lead the next wave—we need to start building the financial rails today.

The Problem: Our Financial Stack Is OutdatedWhat We Need: Purpose-Based Financing for a New AgeA Call to Builders (Not Just Founders)