On Tuesday 15 June 2021, the European Startup Network (ESN) held its General Assembly in Paris and welcomed 7 European startup associations as new members, bringing the membership base to a total of 31 members. Furthermore, EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel joined the General Assembly for an interactive exchange of ideas about how to make [...]

On 10 May 2021 EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel has met with leading independent startup ecosystem leaders from across the 27 member states, who officially unveiled their “Action Plan to Make Europe the new Global Powerhouse for Startups“. The initiative, supported by 27 national EU startup organisations, aims to increase the number of unicorns (privately [...]

Press release for today's (10 May 2021) meeting between Commissioner Mariya Gabriel with leading independent startup ecosystem leaders from across the 27 member states, Let's increase the number of unicorns in Europe tenfold in ten years! Read the press release:

In March 2018, the SEP 2.0 project of the European Commission kicked-off with the very first Scaleup Summit at the Stock Exchange in Milan. Now, eight editions later we look back at a project where we selected Europe’s most promising scaleups and successfully matched them with corporates and investors to foster their growth. Our role [...]

ESN deplores the big blow to the budget considered as crucial for Europe’s future. For the association, the agreed budget is at odds with the ambitions to achieve strategic technological autonomy for the Continent. Read the full press release:

A list of 13 concrete recommendations from startup organisations to national governments and international organisations in the fields of investment, talent and policy The document is also a call to the European Union and governments across the globe to provide startups with financial and political support, empowering them to thrive and build the economy of [...]

ESN is excited to announce that Nicolas Brien, CEO at France Digitale, was elected as president of its board. He will succeed founder Karen Boers and lead the board in pursuit of ESN’s mission to create a common voice for European startups so that more can start, scale and succeed in the EU. Read the [...]

ESN  is supporting the NotOptional campaign (https://notoptional.eu/), whose aim is to ask for an improvement to the treatment of stock options, both at Member State and EU level , to enhance the ability of startups to attract talent. Read the letter sent by a coalition of CEOs, founders and startup networks to the European Commission [...]