Still Doubting Europe? Go to Hel
3 days in Helsinki at Europe's biggest tech conference
I spent last week in Helsinki at Slush, Europe’s biggest annual tech conference. Every year, 13,000 people including investors, LPs, entrepreneurs, and startups from over 50 countries descend on Helsinki to gather before the holidays. Close to a third of our portfolio at Crew Capital is based in Europe, and maintaining close ties to our friends in the region is a priority for us, so I made the trip to Finland.
Helsinki, while absolutely freezing this time of year, is a great city and very underrated. It’s beautiful, clean, easy to get around, and most importantly for me - there are some incredible restaurants. If you get the chance to go, I recommend it. At some point I’m hoping to experience it when it’s warm and not in the middle of winter.
Anyway, Slush is a unique conference. It isn’t associated with a particular vendor, like Salesforce Dreamforce or AWS ReInvent, so no one is trying to sell the attendees anything. It’s really about facilitating connections among the European tech ecosystem.
If Slush is trying to sell its guests anything, it’s the idea that the European tech ecosystem is important, and that its stakeholders - citizens, companies, and policymakers - should do more to actively foster it, for the benefit of the entire continent.
That’s a powerful idea, because Europe - despite its geographic size, cultural weight, and strength in industries like luxury goods, autos, and pharma - is punching below its weight in tech. Europe’s tech ecosystem has grown significantly in the last decade - capital raised from tech startups this year is up more than 3x relative a decade ago. But it could be growing more, and faster. There were a few core ideas that people at the conference discussed for how to change that.
4 Ways to Support European Tech
Fixing cross-border regulation. While the countries of Europe are bound by several types of political and economic agreements, most notably the EU, each country is its own patchwork of laws that govern its citizens. For startups, that means radically different rules they have to comply with when expanding operations across countries, especially when it comes to things like incorporating a business, hiring and firing workers, and paying taxes. EU policymakers who spoke at the conference referenced the “28th regime”, a proposed alternative legal framework for companies to follow instead of adhering to each country’s specific business laws.
Improving workforce mobility. In the US, most employees are “at-will”, and can be fired basically for any reason as long as it doesn’t involve discrimination. In Europe, “at-will” employment basically doesn’t exist and employers are required to have documented processes with justified reasons, as well as varying degrees of severance and notice periods. For startups, where speed of execution is often the number one determinant of success, the illiquidity in labor markets is like a governor on a car’s engine reducing the potential speed that startups can reach.
Deepening risk capital system. As Jeff Bezos said earlier this year, America’s system of risk capital is a major contributor to our entrepreneurial system. By comparison, Europe’s risk capital system is much smaller. According to Atomico, Europe’s tech startups are on track to raise $44B this year, compared to $215B in the US. Globally, Europe accounted for 17% of venture capital in 2024. Interestingly however, Europe is on par with the US in terms of the number of startup entrepreneurs - each the US & EU accounts for roughly a quarter of the world’s founders. Where the risk capital depth is most acute is in growth-stage/late-stage funding. According to Crunchbase, earlier this year Europe accounted for 20% of the global early-stage venture funding, but only 10% of late-stage. The largest startup financing round in Europe this year has been Mistral, which raised a $2B series C. Compare that to OpenAI, which raised $40B this year.
Creating a European tech giant. All of the “Magnificent 7” companies, which increasingly dominate the value of global stock markets, are based in the US. Europe has 5 tech companies valued over $100B, but it has yet to mint a trillion-dollar company. While there are a number of candidates who could reach $1T like ASML, Stripe, or Revolut, it likely won’t be until at least the 2030s given their current growth rates. Europe’s lack of tech giants is a challenge for many reasons, not least of which is that much of the massive funding we’re seeing taking place in AI in the US is actually coming from tech giants rather than private investors. However - and surprisingly - Marc Lemaître, the Director-General of the R&D division from the European Commission, who spoke at Slush, said he wasn’t sure if creating a trillion-dollar company was an important factor in fostering Europe’s tech ecosystem. I couldn’t disagree more - American tech giants do a lot of the US tech ecosystem including serving as sources of M&A (and liquidity) for startups and investors, train employees, and as I mentioned make massive investment in R&D to push the industry forward. Most importantly, tech giants supply the north star for every new founder: a visible peak that shows what’s possible when ambition, timing, and luck all converge.
The case for Europe
Europe has no equivalent to the American dream. But many Europeans seem determined to create one.
In my experience, European entrepreneurs are just as ambitious, creative, and determined as those in the US. AI and defense represent two industries with massive tailwinds for Europe to capitalize on over the next decade. Large European tech startups like Stripe and Revolut, as well as global tech players with a presence in Europe such as Palantir, are creating their own “mafias” of employees who leave to become founders.
Some of the most exciting AI-native startups like Lovable, Synthesia, Legora, and ElevenLabs call Europe home. And I’m proud that some of my firm’s most exciting investments, like Membrane, SurrealDB, and Robco (and others still in stealth mode) are based there.
Spending three days at Slush gives you a glimpse into the ambition that Europeans have for their tech industry. If you still perceive Europe as slow, conservative, or allergic to risk - go to Slush and it’ll change your mind.