Macron rallies Europe to build ten €100+ billion tech behemoths

French president Emmanuel Macron is rallying the EU to produce ten tech behemoths worth €100 billion in the next decade, based on new analysis by Scale-Up Europe – a collaborative initiative that counts Roland Berger among its partners. 

Scale-Up Europe aims to put EU on the global tech entrepreneurship map – by building a tech and innovation friendly atmosphere on the continent that can rival the likes of China and the US. The initiative was launched by Macron in December 2020, and now counts over 170 members – spanning tech founders, experts, corporate CEOs and government officials. 

A number of those involved – including Roland Berger, La French Tech, European Startup Network and Sifted, among others – have now published a concrete roadmap for Scale-Up to meet its goals. Per the experts, creating European-bred global tech majors should be the North Star that dictates digital policy. 

“Over the past decade, Europe has built a prosperous, fast growing and resilient startup ecosystem that attracted over €40 billion in 2020 – sixfold the investment of 2010 – and spawned global scale-ups including 70+ unicorns, creating more than 2 million jobs,” states the new report.

“Looking forward, we are convinced Europe can reach the next level, and have set an ambition for the continent to become home to 10 technology companies each valued at more than €100 billion by 2030.”

Macron has backed this ambition, as well as the 21 recommendations made by the experts – across key themes of investment, talent development, deeptech capabilities, startup-corporate collaboration, and oversight. 

Specific measures put forward include more funding for venture capitalist asset classes; tech worker status for European talent, complete with cross-border applicability; fast-tracked tech visas for global talent; startup culture development; new regulations and patent frameworks to encourage deep tech innovation; tax credits for investing in tech startups; and the launch of a European tech mission to coordinate all of these efforts. 

These tools in hand, the researchers are confident that Europe can cover key weaknesses in its current innovation ecosystem. Helping things along, many European governments have launched their independent digital initiatives – securing the regulatory framework for a high-growth environment. 

“There’s rising hope that European companies are ready to evolve into something bigger, with a concerted, data-driven strategy needed to move the process along,” reads the report, which cites the likes of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Alibaba or Tencent as examples of tech behemoths that must be replicated on the continent.