UCL Fintech Society

Written by Chloe Zhang

On Dec 10^th  2025, UCL FinTech Society hosted a fireside chat with Thomas Depuydt, where he shared his experience in tech and venture capital (VC). The event was moderated by Kamiel Cassenaer, followed by an engaging Q&A from the attendees.

Speaker Background

Thomas Depuydt is currently a managing partner with 10 years of venture capital experience at Smartfin, a VC fund focussing on European B2B technology companies.

Mr Depuydt holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Leuven and a master’s in computer sciences from Ghent University. After graduation, he worked in management consulting at Accenture, where his tasks involved software testing, project management and business analysis. In 2009, Mr Depuydt furthered his education by completing an MBA at Columbia University.

Mr Depuydt interned at the United Bank of Switzerland before joining Bain & Company, where he focused on financial strategies and private equity work. Before taking the next step, he reflected deeply on his career path. This reflection led him to become a venture portfolio manager at iMinds, an organisation supporting entrepreneurs during the early development phase of their tech start-ups, bridging research and the market. A few years later, he joined Smartfin.

Insight on Venture Capital (VC)

Mr Depuydt introduced three domanial activities at the fund level:

• fundraising and LP (long-term partner) relations;
• making new investments based on sourcing and screening;
• and working with the portfolio.

Usually, senior employees are more involved in fundraising and relationships, while junior colleagues focus on screening and initial evaluation.

Many people may regard VC as a platform to help entrepreneurs financially, which is what managing partners are indeed pursuing. However, Mr Depuydt emphasised that VC investment requires patience and does not produce fast profits. Firms may review around 1,000 companies for every single investment made. As a result, rejecting opportunities is far more frequent than proceeding. In addition, the process often takes many years to see the outcomes of an investment. Therefore, VC is a place where practitioners must be comfortable with prolonged outcomes and possess the appropriate communication skills to decline many fundraising offers respectfully, while maintaining professional relationships and reputations.

Current Market Environment

When discussing the current venture capital environment in Europe, Mr Depuydt asserted that the market is expanding, and that Europe is moving in a positive direction despite much of the prevailing VC mindset being centred around the United States. He noted, however, that funding has become scarcer and more expensive since macroeconomic conditions shifted after 2021, as higher interest rates and tighter financial conditions replaced the near-zero rate era.

Artificial Intelligence in Venture Capital

Mr Depuydt described how AI is already being deployed in day-to-day VC work, particularly for tasks such as summarisation, drafting, screening, and automation, where the system can save time on administrative and mundane tasks. At the same time, he expressed scepticism that AI will soon replace core investment judgement, emphasising that sustained returns depend on an edge that is not broadly shared. A tool like AI, which leads everyone to similar conclusions, risks eroding that advantage.

Career Guidance Advice

Mr Depuydt gave generous advice for students who hoping to pursue a career in VC, noting that students should consider the real-world abilities required in VC to evaluate a company’s financial performance. As a result, relevant experience and deep technical expertise can gain preference from certain funds and will likely contribute to a candidate’s success in the fierce job competition.

Regarding current skills-in-demand in VC, Mr Depuydt listed financial modelling and solid grasp of key metrics, reflecting the intense analytical nature of the work. However, investment decisions in VC often must be made with limited data and greater reliance on the product itself. Therefore, beyond modelling and metrics, it is crucial to be able to frame sparse data and form reasonable suppositions about a product’s value. This helps VCs quickly evaluate a company’s performance and communicate a clear view under uncertainty. At the same time, VC is not solely analysis. As a fund, you act as an intermediary between LPs and founders. LP conversations tend to be more macro, so basic economics is a helpful foundation, while a CS background can add credibility with technical founders.

For interns and junior hires, Mr Depuydt highlighted that the outstanding contribution at this stage is often saving senior workers time: by supporting active deals, producing clean analysis, and delivering reliable work that helps the team progress faster, rather than making a deal. Mr Depuydt also encouraged juniors to be proactive, curious, and willing to form (and defend) a view.

For students who will start their career path in a year or two, Mr Depuydt encouraged them to study more diligently and accentuated the importance of networking early to build genuine relationships over time. He advised students to conduct research upfront and practice so that when opportunities appear, they can show proof of ability rather than just interest.

Career-wise, Mr Depuydt stressed that personal energy is a critical signal. Ideally, one should spend more time on work that generates energy than on work that consistently drains it. The main risk, he noted, is remaining for years in a role that depletes motivation and performance. Besides, Mr Depuydt underlined that the first job is rarely as irreversible as it may feel, thus, there should be little pressure to persist if the role is clearly not a fit. We are very grateful to Mr Depuydt for providing such insightful advice to our students, and we hope you found the talk useful!