20VC: Inside KKR's Monster $8BN European Fund | The $500M Turkey Gamble That Went Wrong | Do Andreessen & General Catalyst Scare KKR? | Will AI Kill the PE Model? | Can The PE Model Survive without IPOs and Where is the Liquidity with Philip Freise
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Philipp Freise is Co-Head of European Private Equity at KKR, where he manages the largest private fund in Europe with $8BN in the latest fund. Philip has led KKR's investments in FGS Global, Superstruct, Axel Springer SE, BMG Rights Management, Fotolia, GetYourGuide, GfK SE, Leonine, Mediawan SAS, Scout24 Switzerland and Trainline. Previously, Philip worked at McKinsey & Company in and co-founded Berlin-based VC firm Venturepark, Europe's first pan-European incubator.
Agenda:
00:00 – "We Lost $500M in Turkey. Here’s Why We’ll Never Do It Again."
01:40 – Inside Europe’s Biggest PE Fund: $8B of Pure Firepower
03:55 – The $100M Dot-Com Failure That Changed My Career
06:45 – Why Picking the Wrong VC Will Destroy Your Company
10:20 – KKR’s $500M COVID Gamble: Genius or Insane?
12:35 – Why We Ignored the Market & Deployed 40% of Our Fund
15:55 – KKR’s Ruthless Portfolio Discipline: Love Doesn’t Matter
17:10 – Do Power Laws Apply in PE? Freise Destroys the Myth
18:45 – The Truth About Capital Intensity in the Age of AI
20:10 – Can AI Kill the PE Model? Here’s What Philipp Says
26:00 – The Secret to Great Investment Decisions at KKR
32:40 – Why There’s a $3T Liquidity Time Bomb in Venture
34:25 – The Death of IPOs? How KKR Exits Without Going Public
40:05 – Will KKR Europe Hit $20B? Freise's Bold Prediction
43:45 – Helsing, Space, and Defense: The New Age of DeepTech Bets
45:30 – Tariffs, China, and the Future of the German Car Empire
47:00 – Freise vs. Bitcoin: Will USD Still Rule in 10 Years?
48:15 – 4 Global Shocks Happening Right Now That You Need to Know
51:30 – KKR Missed Spotify AND Alibaba?! The Painful Stories
53:00 – Do Andreessen & General Catalyst Scare KKR? Freise Responds
54:30 – The One Metric That Will Define KKR’s Next Decade
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm a free marketeer. I think tariffs are not the answer. We need to work on the underlying issues |
| 0:04.7 | in our Western democracies. To try to raise money through tariffs is not the right approach. In Turkey, |
| 0:09.9 | I think we lost around 500 million. What we didn't see was rule of law was a bit of a flexible |
| 0:14.8 | concept there. And quite frankly, we have so much going on in Western Europe. We just don't take |
| 0:19.9 | the risk. We stay close to what we can control. |
| 0:22.4 | Do you believe the US dollar will be the reserve currency of the world in 10 years? |
| 0:26.9 | You are listening to 20 VC with me, Harry Stabbings, and we have a titan of the private equity and growth world. |
| 0:32.9 | Joining me in the show today, we have Philip Fries, co-head of European private equity, at the monster |
| 0:39.1 | that is KKR. At KKR, Philip manages the largest private fund in Europe with $8 billion in the |
| 0:46.5 | fund just for Europe. At KKR, Phillips-led investments in FGS Global, Superstruct, Ass or Springer, |
| 0:53.5 | BMG Rights Management, Get Your Guide, who we just had on |
| 0:56.5 | the show, and many more. |
| 0:58.2 | Now, this was an incredible show that spanned everything from aging demographics to the rise |
| 1:03.8 | of China in European auto industries to the future of the private equity industry. |
| 1:08.7 | I cannot thank Philip enough for joining me, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can let me know by emailing me, Harry at 20VC.com. |
| 1:16.1 | But before we dive into the show today, I love seeing the team come together to make this show happen. |
| 1:21.0 | What I don't love is trying to keep track of all the information, the data and the projects |
| 1:25.3 | that we're working on across dozens of platforms, |
| 1:27.8 | products and tools. That's why we use Coda, the all-in-one collaborative workspace that's helped |
| 1:33.4 | 50,000 teams all over the world get on the same page, offering the flexibility of docs with the |
| 1:39.5 | structure of spreadsheets, Coda facilitates deeper teamwork and quicker creativity, and their turnkey AI solution, |
| 1:46.3 | the intelligence of Coda brain, is a game changer. Powered by Grammally, Coda is entering a new |
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