Talents, investments, startups, large groups and deep tech collaboration, the Scale-Up Europe initiative was officially launched on 4 March 2021 by Cédric O alongside Mariya GABRIEL, European Commissioner for Innovation. The project, announced by Emmanuel Macron last December, already brings together more than 150 scale-up founders, investors, researchers, business and institutional leaders. Its aim is to draw up a series of recommendations to speed up the emergence of European technological champions, particularly in the digital field.
The initiative will focus on four key themes to foster the emergence of scale-up in Europe:
- attracting and developing talent,
- access to financing,
- collaboration between startups and large groups and,
- the development of disruptive technologies.
Members will participate in workshops where they will share their thoughts on the four main issues. A summary of their recommendations will be presented to Emmanuel Macron next June so that they can be taken to the European level, particularly in the context of the French Presidency of the European Union in 2022.
In 2020, Europe’s tech ecosystems have shown great resilience. France has even taken the lead in the EY barometer of venture capital in the European Union with more than €5.4 billion invested in French startups in one year. The economic and health crises have revealed the need to accelerate the digital transition. In this new paradigm, Europe has the opportunity to strengthen its influence and the Scale up Europe initiative aims to bring together in a common approach the key players in “European tech” and to foster the development of technological champions, notably by relying on digital innovations.
Members of Scale-Up Europe include Mariya Gabriel (European Commissioner for Innovation), Dorothea Bär (Minister of State for Digital Transition, Germany), Niklas Zennström (Founder and CEO, Atomico), Lukasz Gadowski (CEO, Team Europe), Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta (CPO, ESA), Adrien Nussenbaum (Co-founder and CEO, Mirakl), Markus Villig (Founder and CEO, Bolt), Daniel Dines (CEO, UI Path), Grazia Vittadini (CTO, Airbus Group), Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder and CEO, Wise), Maximilian Tayenthal (co-founder, N26), Nigel Toon (CEO, Graphcore), Jean-Charles Samuelian (co-founder and CEO, Alan), Belen Moscoso del Prado (Director of Digital and Innovation, Sodexo), Jan Goetz (Co-founder and CEO, IQM), David Nothacker (Co-founder and CEO, Sennder), and many others. Scale-Up Europe partners: STATION F, VivaTechnology, HelloTomorrow, Sifted, the European Startup Network and Roland Berger.
Presentation of the four main themes
1) Talents
This component consists of making careers in digital and entrepreneurship accessible to all, regardless of their origin or social background. Particular attention will be paid to women and minority entrepreneurs, building on success stories. This theme also covers the reduction of discrimination linked to educational background, the attractiveness for foreign talent and the promotion of mobility in a context of developing distance working.
For more information, discover the full description of this theme on Sifted.
2) Investments
Despite the pandemic,the overall positive trend in fundraising by European start-ups has continued, with about $41 billion invested in Europe in 2020 according to Atomico. This trend now needs to be further increased in order to reach the funding levels in Europe necessary for global champions to emerge. Technologies promoting common goods, such as environmental, social or health, will be one of the main drivers of investment in the coming years. In order to feed into European funding channels, we also need to develop exit opportunities, for example by focusing on IPOs. The role of public funding in the growth of European scale-ups will also be discussed.
For more information, discover the full description of this theme on Sifted.
3) Collaboration startups – large groups
Start-ups and large groups need to be able to work together more to make innovation a real lever for economic growth in Europe. This means understanding the different possible models of collaboration, studying what is being done abroad, overcoming cultural differences and facilitating takeovers through mergers and acquisitions. It also means encouraging innovative companies to promote technology transfer, while helping players from the “old economy” to promote their strengths to new players.
For more information, discover the full description of this theme on Sifted.
4) Deeptech
The fourth theme aims to promote entrepreneurship in the scientific community and the emergence of engineering projects. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing and cybersecurity are priorities for governments in the coming years, even as Covid-19 has also intensified attention to biotechnology. Climate change, with its increasingly high stakes, has also become a key issue for scientists. The priority is to increase the attractiveness of European start-ups dedicated to breakthrough technologies in the eyes of a larger number of investors.
For more information, discover the full description of the issue on Sifted.
Translated from Scale-Up Europe : Plus de 150 fondateurs de scale-up, investisseurs, chercheurs, dirigeants et institutionnels rejoignent l’initiative
