Allied For Startups at the 2025 CMU KPI Report Launch Event by Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME)

On 26 November, our Director-General, Serena Borbotti-Frison, spoke at the launch event of the 2025 “Capital Markets Union: Key Performance Indicators” report by Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME).

She joined the panel “Increasing risk capital firepower, improving the future of innovative companies”, alongside Eric de Montgolfier (CEO, Invest Europe), Jacopo Losso (Director General, EBAN – European Business Angel Network), Nicholas Smith (Managing Director, Private Credit, Alternative Credit Council), and Rosa Armesto Plaja (Director General, Federation of European Securities Exchanges – FESE), moderated by Stefano Mazzocchi (Managing Director – Advocacy, AFME).

The panel explored the persistent structural challenges holding back Europe’s innovation financing and what it will take to build a world-class risk capital ecosystem.

Europe’s weak IPO market is already pushing high-growth, successful companies to consider listing in the US. Without stronger exits, the region risks limiting venture capital growth and sustainable innovation funding.

Serena emphasised that Europe has effectively lost this generation of unicorns and that structural weaknesses need to be addressed now to prevent further losses.

A big thank you to AFME for convening this important conversation and to all the speakers for their insights. Strengthening Europe’s capital markets is essential to ensure innovative companies can grow – and stay – in Europe.