The Commission aims to improve the EU start-up ecosystem by easing regulation, increasing funding and creating an attractive environment to retain talent.
The European Commission is turning towards easing regulations as it aims to grow its start-up and scale-up ecosystem with a new strategy aligned with the ‘Choose Europe’ initiative launched by EU president Ursula von der Leyen earlier this month.
According to the ‘Choose Europe to start and scale’ strategy launched today (28 May), the Commission proposes a ‘European 28th regime’ which would help companies set up, scale up and operate across the European single market without as much regional fragmentation.
Much of the financial system in Europe is supported by banks, with the existing lack of equity culture, risk aversion and region-wise fragmentation adding to the comparatively smaller size of the EU venture capital market, the EU says.
The Commission plans to address this by expanding and simplifying the European Innovation Council (EIC) – the region’s innovation incubator.
Working with private investors, the Commission plans to deploy a market-based, privately managed and privately co-financed Scaleup Europe fund – as part of the existing EIC fund. This fund will have a focused investment strategy aimed at bridging the financing gap in deep-tech scale-up companies, it said.
With the Scaleup Europe fund, the EU plans to mobilise private financing and make direct equity investments into strategic sectors, aiding the development of Europe’s tech and economic independence.
Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com at the Dublin Tech Summit today, EIC board member Bart Becks said that the new strategy targets regulation and funding – two aspects key to improving Europe’s position in the global start-up ecosystem.
Creating the right ecosystem
Despite several schemes to attract and retain highly skilled talent, the demand for qualified workers remains “fierce”, the EU says. These issues are exacerbated by obstacles in cross-border mobility, a “significant” underrepresentation of women, as well as limited diversity.
To address this, the Commission said that it will launch a Blue Carpet initiative aimed at attracting and retaining highly skilled and diverse talent from EU and non-EU countries. This would include “actively” strengthening entrepreneurial education and upskilling and promoting a gender balanced and diverse participation in the entrepreneurial space.
Becks says that the EU is also looking to create an ecosystem which invites not just innovators and researchers, but their families too. This would mean that the talent that comes to the EU stays in the EU.
“I think everybody now understands that you have to move a bit as a family,” he said. The intention is to transfer families instead of just hiring a person.
In addition, the Commision will also launch a ‘Lab to Unicorn Initiative’ to accelerate the commercialisation of European research. It intends to do so by supporting leading start-up and scale-up hubs to collaborate across borders and share resources.
While in another proposed measure, the EU plans to target and ease regulatory burdens in “strategic sectors” through legislative and non-legislative proposals.
Becks says that the right environment will not just create successful businesses, but a network of like-minded entrepreneurs – or as he puts it – “a mafia”. According to him, these networks would ultimately create more successful businesses, similar to the several companies that stemmed from former PayPal or Skype employees.
According to Becks, the recent Irish unicorn Tines could potentially create such a space for businesses in Ireland.
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