As reported on the pages of Euroalert, “The European Commission has launched the first of the six parts that form the StartUp Europe campaign. A portion of the initiative attempts to structure crowdfunding in Europe. The key objective of the plan is to interconnect the existing ecosystems of innovation and entrepreneurship in the European Union by facilitating the dialogue and the exchange of experiences. The first step of this plan has been taken by creating the Startup Europe Leaders Club.”
The Leaders Club is formally defined as “a group of influential people in the field of web entrepreneurship, who act as guidance and inspiration for the European web entrepreneurs”. The members of the Leaders Group include executives from Rovio and Spotify – two hugely successful European based start up companies.
The entrepreneurship initiative in Europe has been gaining momentum, driven by the desperate need for structural reform and stagnant european economies. In an earlier release European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes stated
“The digital skills gap is growing, like our unemployment queues. We need joint action between governments and companies to bridge that
gap. The ICT sector is the new backbone of Europe’s economy, and together we can prevent a lost generation and an uncompetitive Europe. So I am expecting concrete pledges by companies, everyone I meet will be getting the same request. The Commission will do its bit but we can’t do it alone – companies, social partners and education players – including at national and regional level – have to stand with us.”
Ms. Kroes, a Dutch Politician, has been a vocal advocate of crowdfunding in her role as European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, a position she took in 2010. Prior to this role she was European Commissioner for Competition.
The StartUp Europe campaign was announced in January 2013, is self described as Start Up in Europe and stay in Europe – a not so subtle reference to entrepreneurial hot spots which pull many new companies into their geography due to the dynamic environment. Many are outside the European borders.
Much of the focus is on internet or technology based businesses – an area targeted for growth:
- Leaders Club: guidance and inspiration for the European web entrepreneurs
- Europioneers: Tech Entrepreneurs of the Year
- Tech All Stars: best startups from accelerators and web camp competitions across Europe
- Informing Member States about training and education needs of Web Entrepreneurs (DK Presidency High Level Conference. Session on turning online start-ups into global players)
- Dialogue amongst Web Developers, Social Networks, EC services and Data Protection Authorities about data protection and access to big data for apps development. We facilitated the interaction between the EU social networks founders and DG JUST
- workshops and Communities on Web Entrepreneurship and Social Media
- Major problems of the Web Entrepreneurs in Europe. Video presented at the Informal Competitiveness Council of July 2012 within CY Presidency
The portion on crowdfunding specifically attempts to “foster the crowdfunding environment focused on web entrepreneurs in Europe.” A solicitation was
proposed early this year for a contract (not to exceed Euro 60,000) which would;
- Acquiring data and knowledge about the current status of the web related crowdfunding sector in Europe
- Drawing some conclusions on the possible measures which would further strengthen the crowd funding environment for web entrepreneurs and facilitate the pan-European growth of the sector
- Supporting higher visibility and accessibility of existing crowd funding opportunities for web entrepreneurs in Europe
- Contributing to strengthening the links and networking between existing European crowdfunding platforms, as well as to foster the creation of new web focused platforms
- Raising the level of education of funders and web entrepreneurs as regards investment opportunities and access to finance through crowdfunding.
At this writing it was not certain how many proposals had been submitted for this European Project.
Last year a group of business leaders and academicians released a widely read report “A Framework for European Crowdfunding” in recognition of this disruptive form of capital allocation and the benefits which could be delivered if Europe facilitated crowdfunding.