Europe is creating more high-tech startups than the United States but continues to lag far behind in funding, according to the latest episode of the Financial Times’ The Next Five podcast.
The latest episode explores the barriers preventing the continent from scaling its brightest tech companies into global giants.
It brings together Marie-Gwenhaelle Geffroy, Head of Growth, Capital and Solutions at BNP Paribas; Ben Blume, Partner at Atomico; and Niklas Radner, Co-founder and CEO of health tech scale-up Nelly. Together, they examine the opportunities and challenges facing Europe’s technology ecosystem.
Geffroy points to progress in areas such as fintech and climate tech but acknowledges structural hurdles.
“Europe is very, very good in the fintech and climate tech space… On the AI and tech front, we have clearly a bit of lag,” she says. “The big difference between EU and US is… you have 27 different regulations to face. And that’s also one of the weaknesses today of our European ecosystem; this fragmented market.”
Blume highlights Europe’s strength in artificial intelligence: “We live in a world right now where AI is changing everything, and Europe has a great opportunity there. We have incredible AI talents in Europe… and that puts us in a really great position to make incredible advantage of that trend.”
For Radner, the culture of funding is the defining difference: “Yes, European investors are more risk-averse than US investors.
“That makes it harder, but it also forced us to be very diligent, very conservative, and very lean because cash was not thrown at us.”
BNP Paribas is playing a role in closing the late-stage funding gap through partnerships such as its work with the European Investment Fund.
“It’s this kind of partnership that’s very beneficial for the ecosystem and for the deployment of capital, private and public, into the economy,” Geffroy explained.
Looking ahead, all three guests agree the next five years will be critical. Geffroy predicts rapid change, Radner stresses the importance of sustainability, and Blume sees the potential for Europe to create millions of jobs, and even its first trillion-dollar tech company.
The Next Five podcast is funded by BNP Paribas and produced in partnership with the Financial Times’ commercial department. It is available now on all major podcast platforms.