For European founders with global ambitions, the United States represents both the ultimate opportunity and the ultimate challenge. The world’s largest technology market offers unparalleled access to capital, talent, and customers – but the graveyard of European startups that expanded too early, too late, or without the right support is vast.
Nenad Marovac, the founder and managing partner of DN Capital, has spent twenty-five years helping European startups navigate this crossing. His venture capital firm, with offices in London, Berlin, and Menlo Park, was built to bridge the Atlantic – and his personal biography embodies that transatlantic mindset.
A Transatlantic Life
Marovac was born in Croatia but moved with his family to California as a child, growing up in San Diego before studying finance at San Diego State University. His early career took him from Wall Street to Berlin in 1991, where worked on the integration of the economies of East and West Germany during a period of historic transformation.
An MBA at Harvard Business School followed, where Marovac met Steve Schlenker, his future co-founder at DN Capital. After graduating, Marovac joined private equity firm Advent International in London, gaining experience in cross-border technology investment before launching DN Capital in June 2000.
“I’ve lived and worked on both sides of the Atlantic my entire career. That perspective – understanding how European founders think and what American customers and investors expect – is something you can’t learn from a textbook.”
Nenad Marovac, DN Capital
The DN Capital Model: Deliberate Transatlantic Infrastructure
DN Capital’s three-office structure – London, Berlin, and Menlo Park – is not an accident of growth but a reflection of a deliberate investment thesis. The firm backs European startups at the seed and Series A stage with a clear expectation: the best companies will need to (and deserve to) go global, and that means succeeding in America.
But this also works in reverse, helping US-founded companies expand into European markets.
The model has produced remarkable outcomes. AUTO1, the Berlin-based used car marketplace, received its Series A investment in a round led by DN Capital in 2013. Marovac and the DN team helped the company navigate international expansion before its 2021 IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at a valuation of ten billion dollars.
Remitly, the Seattle-based digital remittance platform, represents the reverse journey. DN Capital was an early European investor, backing the company at seed stage and supporting its expansion into European send markets. Remitly listed on NASDAQ in 2021 at a valuation of seven billion dollars and now transfers more than twenty billion dollars annually for families worldwide.
Cognigy: From Düsseldorf to Global Enterprise AI
The Summer 2025 acquisition of Cognigy by NiCE for US$955m, Europe’s largest AI acquisition at the time, exemplifies DN Capital’s transatlantic approach in action.
DN Capital led Cognigy’s Series A in 2019, well before the large language model hype cycle that would supercharge AI investment. The Düsseldorf-based company had developed a platform-agnostic agentic AI solution for enterprise customer service, technology that allowed businesses to automate complex customer interactions while maintaining quality.
Critically, DN supported Cognigy to pitch to and generate revenue from US enterprise customers early in its journey. The firm’s Silicon Valley presence allowed it to make introductions to American buyers and help Cognigy build the go-to-market infrastructure required to compete against US-based rivals.
“When we invested in Cognigy, they had great technology and early US traction. One of our jobs was to help them build the commercial muscle to win enterprise deals against American competitors. That’s where our transatlantic network makes the difference.”
Nenad Marovac, DN Capital
Common Mistakes: Why European Startups Fail in America
Marovac has observed patterns in how European startups stumble when expanding to the United States. The most common mistakes fall into three categories:
- The first is timing. Many European founders expand to the US too early, before achieving product-market fit in their home market, or too late, after American competitors have established dominant positions. The right moment, according to Marovac, is when a company has proven its model in Europe and has early signals of US demand, but before the market window closes.
- The second is underestimating the differences. American enterprise sales cycles, customer expectations, regulatory environments, and talent markets all operate differently from their European equivalents. Founders who assume their European playbook will translate directly are frequently disappointed.
- The third is inadequate local leadership. Successful US expansion almost always requires a presence on the ground in the US who can quickly get to grips with the market, whether that’s a founder heading over from Europe or a well-integrated senior US hire.
Why the Transatlantic Advantage Will Define the Next Generation of Startups
As AI reshapes the technology landscape, Marovac believes the transatlantic advantage will become even more valuable. European companies have deep technical talent in applied AI and machine learning, while American markets offer the largest enterprise customers, the easiest access to tokens and compute capability, and the deepest pools of growth capital.
The founders who can bridge both worlds, building technology in Europe while selling to American customers, will have a structural advantage over competitors confined to a single market.
“The next generation of global technology leaders will be transatlantic from the earliest stages. They’ll build where the talent is, sell where the customers are, and raise capital from investors who understand both.”
Nenad Marovac, DN Capital
For European founders with global ambitions, the path to America remains challenging. But with the right timing, the right team, and the right investors, the transatlantic bridge is more traversable than ever.