Policy initiative | Type | Status |
---|---|---|
aws (Austria Wirtschaftsservice) | Government Startup Financing (Equity, Grants, Loans) | Implemented ✅ |
Austrian Research Promotion Agency | Government Startup Financing (Equity, Grants, Loans) | Implemented ✅ |
Red-White-Red Card | Immigration reform / Visa | Implemented ✅ |
This year, we wanted to shine a light on the growing pace of government intervention across Europe to implement pro-startup policy initiatives designed to foster the accelerated growth of tech ecosystems across the region.
To our frustration, no such data source exists. So to bridge this gap, we partnered with Form Ventures, Europe’s only dedicated VC fund investing in the future of regulated markets, to build our own dataset.
This dataset is focused on tracking the status of policy initiatives in the following areas: financing, startup procurement, government fund of funds, pension fund reforms, IPO & public capital markets reforms, stock options, startup investment & entrepreneurship tax incentives, administrative easing for startups, domestic labour law, immigration & visas, supportive programmes, and diversity measures. An overview heatmap is below, click here for the full dataset. We've also sprinkled 'policy spotlights' throughout topically relevant sections of this report.
The result is, to our knowledge, the most extensive dataset of its kind. And yes, we also acknowledge that it is not exhaustive in its coverage. In fact, we know we have missed a lot of great work that we simply haven’t been able to track down.
To address that, we are sharing a simple form here, enabling the State of European Tech community to help us to fill the gaps we have missed. Please do share your comments - whether it is to notify us of policy initiatives we have missed, or to tell us where our data is wrong. It is all valuable feedback that will help to make this resource better for everybody.
Together with the team from Form Ventures, we will continue to build on this work to further refine the dataset set and to publish deeper insights into the policy landscape during 2023.
Though we didn't cover every European country in our analysis (yet!), we prioritised as many as we could, particularly focusing on those with the largest share of European VC capital invested.
A few honourable mentions:
- In France, the Tibi initiative, launched by President Macron in 2019 to "finance the Fourth Industrial Revolution", after 18 months secured pledges of €18 billion from institutional investors to invest in tech companies and has since become a model many policymakers are seeking to replicate. La French Tech, the government's 'one stop shop for tech startups', serves as a hub - a source of publicity and support - for French startups.
- In Germany, this year the government announced Die Start-up-Strategie der Bundesregierung - a 10-point plan to improve the German startup ecosystem, including a funding allocation of €30bn by 2030. Additionally, the plan mentions facilitating pension fund and insurance company investment in VCs. The government plans to implement new laws by the autumn of 2025.
- In Spain, the Spanish Startup Law has been approved by the Spanish Parliament in November 2022 and is expected to come into force in January 2023. It is closely aligned with the Startup Nations Standards and will bring tax benefits to attract and retain tech talent, be it startup founders, remote workers or digital nomad wishing to work in Spain. It will also facilitate other aspects of company building - e.g. low touch incorporation, stock options taxation, access to finance.
- In Italy, the Italian Startup Act amongst other initiatives have led to a flurry of initiatives to support startup innovation. In fact, this is the country for which we were able to identify the most implemented coverage across all policy topics covered in this analysis.
There is much more to explore - from the UK's expansion of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), to Latvia's Welcome Pack and Startup Law, to digital nomad visas across Europe.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies supporting the local entrepreneurial ecosystem
One barrier in the IPO process is how complicated it is to go public. While still maintaining necessary financial and risk-related rigour, there have been recent policy initiatives attempting to reduce the unnecessary administrative burden on scale-ups. How effective these attempts will be - and whether they become a more popular policy choice across Europe - remains to be seen.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies on IPO & public capital markets reforms
Country | Title | Status |
---|---|---|
Germany 🇩🇪 | Future Financing Act | Announced 📣 |
UK 🇬🇧 | Changes to prospectus regime | Announced 📣 |
Another way to help bring in more angel investors, and amplify existing angels' impact, is via tax breaks. Tax incentives for young tech company investment both raise awareness of this asset class and help new investors with limited funds see it as a viable investment opportunity. A sample of policies that we could find in this category are below.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies on startup investment & entrepreneurship tax incentives
Country | Title | Status |
---|---|---|
Estonia 🇪🇪 | 0% Corporation Tax on Reinvested/Retained Profits, 14-20% Corporation Tax on Distributed Profits | Implemented ✅ |
France 🇫🇷 | Wealth tax reform, replaced by Impȏt sur la fortune Immobilière (IFI) | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Employment Investment and Incentive Scheme | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Italian Startup Act equity investments tax incentives | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Semente Program | Implemented ✅ |
Spain 🇪🇸 | StartUp Law (investment incentives) | Announced 📣 |
UK 🇬🇧 | Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) expansion | Announced 📣 |
Direct funding initiatives are one form of incentive governments have. . . but they also wield tax incentives as well. To help aid young and growing ventures, governments have instituted tax breaks supporting costs associated with R&D, hiring employees, and just generally locating a business within a country's borders. Below is (likely) a small sampling.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies on startup investment & entrepreneurship tax incentives
Country | Title | Status |
---|---|---|
Denmark 🇩🇰 | Expat tax scheme | Implemented ✅ |
Denmark 🇩🇰 | Research and Development Tax Credits | Implemented ✅ |
Denmark 🇩🇰 | Startup Account | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Favorable corporation tax regime | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | R&D Tax Credit Scheme | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Three-year corporate tax exemption | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Start Your Own Business scheme | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Hyper and super depreciation | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | R&D tax credit | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | The Patent Box | Implemented ✅ |
Latvia 🇱🇻 | Startup Law | Implemented ✅ |
Poland 🇵🇱 | "Polish Order" - New Tax Incentives Package (2022) | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | KEEP - Key Employee Engagement Programme | Implemented ✅ |
Spain 🇪🇸 | StartUp Law (tax incentives) | Announced 📣 |
UK 🇬🇧 | Research and Development Tax Credits | Implemented ✅ |
Ukraine 🇺🇦 | Diia City Tax Reform | Implemented ✅ |
In terms of ecosystem-expanding policies, a common government strategy across many different entrepreneurial ecosystems is to amplify private venture capital investments via funding for VCs. This is a benefit for governments that don't want to get involved in direct investments (requiring expertise and infrastructure to wade through and assess manifold ventures), but still want to help spur on outcomes requiring higher funding levels in their local ecosystem. There are many different flavours - a sample is included below.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies on government fund-of-funds
Country | Title | Status |
---|---|---|
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Belgian Growth Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Denmark 🇩🇰 | Vaekstfonden | Implemented ✅ |
European Union 🇪🇺 | EIF | Implemented ✅ |
Finland 🇫🇮 | Tesi | Implemented ✅ |
France 🇫🇷 | Bpifrance funding | Implemented ✅ |
Germany 🇩🇪 | KfW Capital | Implemented ✅ |
Germany 🇩🇪 | ERP / EIF umbrella fund | Implemented ✅ |
Greece 🇬🇷 | Equifund Fund of Funds | Implemented ✅ |
Greece 🇬🇷 | Hellenic Development Bank | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Irish Innovation Seed Fund | Announced 📣 |
Italy 🇮🇹 | National Innovation Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Latvia 🇱🇻 | Acceleration Funds | Implemented ✅ |
Lithuania 🇱🇹 | The Accelerator Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Norway 🇳🇴 | Investinor | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | 200M Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Portugal Venture Capital Initiative (PVCi) | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Portugal Growth | Implemented ✅ |
Ukraine 🇺🇦 | Fund of Funds | Implemented ✅ |
A wide variety of countries in Europe have implemented policies supporting entrepreneurs and tech talent to relocate within their borders - from specific visas for work "of essential interest" to the national economy, to general 'digital nomad' visas, to immigration policies aimed at investors, this is one of the policy areas where we were able to find the most activity.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies on immigration reform and visas
Country | Title | Status |
---|---|---|
Austria 🇦🇹 | Red-White-Red Card | Implemented ✅ |
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Entrepreneur Visa (self employment) | Implemented ✅ |
Denmark 🇩🇰 | Startup Denmark | Implemented ✅ |
Estonia 🇪🇪 | StartUp Visa | Implemented ✅ |
European Union 🇪🇺 | Long Term Residence Directive negotiations | In discussion 🗣 |
Finland 🇫🇮 | D-visa | Implemented ✅ |
France 🇫🇷 | French Tech Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Germany 🇩🇪 | Increasing / simplifying access to international tech employees | In discussion 🗣 |
Greece 🇬🇷 | Golden Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Greece 🇬🇷 | "Startup Visa" White Card / Digital Nomad Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Start-up Entrepreneur Programme (STEP) | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Italia Startup Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Investor Visa for Italy | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Italia Startup Hub | Implemented ✅ |
Latvia 🇱🇻 | Digital Nomad Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Latvia 🇱🇻 | Startup Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Lithuania 🇱🇹 | Startup Visa Lithuania | Implemented ✅ |
Lithuania 🇱🇹 | Startup Employee Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Malta 🇲🇹 | Digital Nomad Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Self-Employed person residence permit | Implemented ✅ |
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Startup visa | Implemented ✅ |
Norway 🇳🇴 | 2021 visa reform | Implemented ✅ |
Norway 🇳🇴 | Entrepreneur visa | In discussion 🗣 |
Poland 🇵🇱 | Start-up Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | D7 / Passive Income Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Digital Nomad Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Tech Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | StartUp Visa | Implemented ✅ |
Spain 🇪🇸 | StartUp Law (Workers) | Announced 📣 |
UK 🇬🇧 | UK Startup Visa | Implemented ✅ |
One of the most common ways governments will try to support their local entrepreneurial ecosystems may be the most obvious: money. Young startups need cash to expand and governments across the world have used this tactic to help amplify their ecosystems. These cash injections take manifold forms - to the highly specific on certain areas of interest (SDGs, climate, AI, etc.) all the way to purely general initiatives supporting those starting ventures. Below is surely a small sample of what we could find in our research.
Curious? Check out more details here.
This is an incomplete list, compiled to give a flavour of policy initiatives across Europe supporting startups and venture capital. Want to make it more complete? Please share your contribution here.
Example country-level sample policies on government startup financing (equity, grants, loans)
Country | Title | Status |
---|---|---|
Austria 🇦🇹 | aws (Austria Wirtschaftsservice) | Implemented ✅ |
Austria 🇦🇹 | Austrian Research Promotion Agency | Implemented ✅ |
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Innoviris | Implemented ✅ |
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Guarantee Scheme | Implemented ✅ |
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Win-win loan | Implemented ✅ |
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen | Implemented ✅ |
Belgium 🇧🇪 | Walloon spin off grant | Implemented ✅ |
Denmark 🇩🇰 | Vaekstfonden | Implemented ✅ |
Estonia 🇪🇪 | Investment aid for R&D, Shared Service & BPO centers | Implemented ✅ |
Estonia 🇪🇪 | Applied research program | Implemented ✅ |
Estonia 🇪🇪 | Product development program | Implemented ✅ |
European Union 🇪🇺 | Support for Ukrainian Innovation: European Innovation Council | Announced 📣 |
European Union 🇪🇺 | Horizon Europe | Implemented ✅ |
Finland 🇫🇮 | The Climate Fund (Ilmastorahasto Oy) | Implemented ✅ |
France 🇫🇷 | Bpifrance loans | Implemented ✅ |
Germany 🇩🇪 | Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau Bankengruppe (KfW) | Implemented ✅ |
Germany 🇩🇪 | Venture Tech Growth Financing (VTGF) | Implemented ✅ |
Germany 🇩🇪 | Future fund | Announced 📣 |
Germany 🇩🇪 | DeepTech & Climate Fund (DTCF) | Implemented ✅ |
Greece 🇬🇷 | Greece 2.0 | Implemented ✅ |
Greece 🇬🇷 | Greece 2.0 - investment and economy | Implemented ✅ |
Hungary 🇭🇺 | Start a Business at Home, Youngster!' | Implemented ✅ |
Hungary 🇭🇺 | Enter the market!' programme | Implemented ✅ |
Hungary 🇭🇺 | Hiventures | Implemented ✅ |
Hungary 🇭🇺 | Széchenyi Funds | Implemented ✅ |
Hungary 🇭🇺 | Budapest Enterprise Agency Public Foundation | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Enterprise Ireland | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Startup Refunds for Entrepreneurs (SURE) | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA) | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Feasibility study/innovation grant | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | PreSeed Start Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund | Announced 📣 |
Ireland 🇮🇪 | The National Technology Transfer System | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Nuova Sabatini | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Smart&Start Italia | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Fund for emerging technologies: AI and blockchain | Implemented ✅ |
Italy 🇮🇹 | Guarantee fund for SMEs | Implemented ✅ |
Latvia 🇱🇻 | Innovation Voucher | Implemented ✅ |
Lithuania 🇱🇹 | Startuok | Implemented ✅ |
Lithuania 🇱🇹 | Innovation Promotion Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Ambitious Entrepreneurship Action Plan | Implemented ✅ |
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Innovation Credit Scheme | Implemented ✅ |
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) | Implemented ✅ |
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Financial support for self-employed professionals (Bbz) | Implemented ✅ |
Norway 🇳🇴 | Innovation Norway | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Portugal Blue | Implemented ✅ |
Portugal 🇵🇹 | Startup Voucher | Implemented ✅ |
Spain 🇪🇸 | Next Tech Fund | Implemented ✅ |
Sweden 🇸🇪 | Ten areas for a sustainable future with Vinnova, Sweden's innovation agency | Implemented ✅ |
Switzerland 🇨🇭 | Swiss Innovation Fund | Announced 📣 |
UK 🇬🇧 | Innovate UK grant competitions | Implemented ✅ |
Ukraine 🇺🇦 | Ukrainian Startup Fund | Implemented ✅ |