Eu Startup Powerhouse Actionplan
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Action Plan to Make Europe the new Global Powerhouse for Startups
Today’s situation
Startups and scaleups are key to Europe’s future economy and society. They are essential players to make the ambitions with respect to the European Green Deal and the European Digital Strategy a reality. Startups and scaleups are important in any innovation ecosystem that aims to deliver breakthroughs to the market. They are key in creating new jobs and sustainable European prosperity.
Currently, EU27 boasts more than 80.000 startups of which 51 1 are unicorns. The investments raised by European startups was 41 billion US dollars in 2020, up from 36,6 billion US dollars in 2019.
It has been reported 2
that during Q1 2021 27 innovative companies got a valuation of
more than 1 billion US dollar in Europe, based on their latest funding round. At first
glance, this is very positive news. However, a closer look reveals that only 13 of these
companies were located in EU27 before the funding round, and that only 7 of them will
stay in EU27 after the funding round, which paints a much bleaker picture. In the same
period, the US produced 67 new unicorns.
Estonia: an EU best practice
Estonia has given birth to more unicorns per capita than any other country in the world.
With 7 such companies for a 1,3 million population, this represents 1 case per 185.000
inhabitants. To put this in perspective: to achieve a similar feat, Germany would have to
produce more than 400 innovative companies valued at 1 billion US dollars and France
more than 300.
Main Themes
Theme 1: Definitions and data
Theme 2:
Talent
Talent
Theme 3:
Ecosystems
Ecosystems
Theme 4: Policy advising to Member States
Download the Whitepaper
To achieve these ambitious goals, the group of independent ecosystem leaders called
upon by Commissioner Gabriel to give voice to the innovation ecosystems in the making
of future EU Innovation Policy recommends a series of concrete actions, grouped below
in 4 main themes.
