Allied For Startups at AWS' "Realising Europe’s Ambitions Together" Conference

Last week, our Director-General Serena Borbotti-Frison joined a panel at Amazon’s “Realising Europe’s Ambitions Together” conference to explore how Europe can turn its innovation potential into globally competitive companies.

Together with Isidro Laso Ballesteros (European Commission), Desmond McNamara (Zilch), Marta Sjögren (Paebbl), Tom Wehmeier (Atomico) and Lucas Fialaire (Amazon Web Services), they discussed Europe’s strengths and the barriers startups still face when scaling.

A few key takeaways from the discussion:

• Europe has world-class talent and strong research ecosystems. However, scaling remains slower than in other regions as global competition intensifies.
• The growth-stage funding gap persists. Over the past decade, Europe invested roughly €320bn in startups compared to about €1.2tn in the US. Even accounting for market differences, a significant capital gap remains – particularly at later stages where companies need the “firepower” to scale quickly.
• Demand matters as much as supply. Many European startups build world-class solutions but struggle to find large local customers. Without stronger adoption by European companies, startups often look abroad to scale.
• Fragmentation remains a challenge. As Serena noted, Europe’s market and regulatory landscape can make expansion complex – from navigating multiple jurisdictions to dealing with practical barriers such as visas, languages and stock-option frameworks.
• Policy momentum is building. Initiatives such as the European Scale-up Fund and the EU-Inc aim to simplify scaling and unlock greater participation from institutional investors.

The message from the panel was that Europe has the talent, ideas and ambition. Turning that potential into global tech champions will require coordinated action – mobilising capital, strengthening demand for innovation, and building a more integrated environment for startups to grow.

Thank you to Amazon Web Services and Garance Lefevre for the kind invitation and for hosting this timely discussion.