Start-ups to be supported by Commission
Tech leaders, global corporations, universities and financial institutions have joined the European Commission in two initiatives to nurture Europe’s tech and digital start-ups into global internet companies.
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for the Digital Agenda, launched a new accelerator (the Startup Europe Partnership) and think tank (European Digital Forum) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Commenting at the launch, she said: “Europe needs thriving start-ups and global internet companies to become a global growth centre again.”
Founding partners of these projects include Telefonica, Orange, the European Investment Bank, the University of Cambridge, Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Mind the Bridge Foundation.
The Startup Europe Partnership will help start-ups break through their national glass ceiling into global maturity. Its secretariat will be led by the Mind the Bridge Foundation, a non-profit corporation and Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation.
Kroes added: “Politicians don’t create jobs, entrepreneurs do. We’re going to support that mindset and push European start-ups beyond their comfort zone. We’re going to get out of the way. Sometimes the best thing a political leader can do is get out of the way.”
The European Digital Forum will give entrepreneurs a voice in policy debates and aims to become Europe’s leading think tank and policy network on digital entrepreneurship. It will also produce an annual Digital Economy Index to measure how friendly Europe is to the mind-set required to succeed in the digital era. Its secretariat will be led by the Lisbon Council in collaboration with Nesta.
The Startup Partnership and Digital Forum are the European Commission’s first actions to deliver new business conditions in Europe following delivery of a manifesto by the Startup Europe Leaders Club to Europe’s prime ministers and presidents in October 2013.
