More than 120 European tech founders — including the heads of giants like Shopify, Klarna and Mistral — are coming together to mentor and invest in young entrepreneurs as young as 18. The initiative is a response to the Trump administration’s attacks on Europe’s competitiveness.
London-based podcast host and venture capitalist Harry Stebbings is leading a new initiative called “Project Europe,” a €10 million fund that will offer €200,000 in funding to young people between the ages of 18 and 25 to build tech startups. Stebbings says he created the program to combat the “doom loop” that exists in Europe and to stem the flow of talent to the United States.
“The world has assumed that Europe is not a hub for innovation. That’s a misconception,” Stebbings said. His company, 20VC, raised $400 million last year. “There’s a dark period in Europe, and we need to change that. The brain drain to the US is very real and will seriously damage Europe’s future if nothing changes.”
The “Project Europe” initiative is one of the latest initiatives to stimulate entrepreneurship in Europe. Many European investors are currently concerned that the US and China are advancing faster than Europe, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. Last October, dozens of European entrepreneurs, including Stripe founder Patrick Collison and Supercell founder Ilka Paananen, launched the “EU Inc” project, lobbying to make investments and business operations in EU countries simpler and more standardized.
Venture capital firms such as 20VC, Point Nine and Adjacent will provide financial support to the “Project Europe” fund, along with more than 125 entrepreneurs, including Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Delivery Hero founder Niklas Östberg. These founders will also mentor young startup founders.
“Bringing together over 100 of Europe’s leading founders around a common goal demonstrates the power and impact of Project Europe in shaping the next generation,” said Siemiatkowski. “We are here to support young talent with capital, mentorship and infrastructure to solve the toughest technical problems.”
Other investors include Thomas Plantenga, CEO of second-hand marketplace platform Vinted, Thomas Dohmke, head of Microsoft-owned GitHub, and Alex Chesterman, founder of Zoopla and Cazoo. The founders of artificial intelligence startups Mistral, Huggingface and Synthesia are also among those backing the project.
According to the latest report by investment firm Atomico, “The State of the European Tech Industry,” total capital invested in European startups between 2015 and 2024 increased 10-fold compared to the previous decade, reaching $45 billion last year.
However, while the rise of successful companies such as Spotify, Revolut and ASML has improved career prospects for startups, a survey by Atomico found that European regulations and bureaucracy are still a barrier for entrepreneurs.
At the Artificial Intelligence Summit in Paris in February, US Vice President JD Vance said that the EU’s “overly cautious” rules were stifling innovation. Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized the EU, launching the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”.
“The macro-economic indicators may not look good, but the reality is that companies are built at the micro level,” Stebbings said. “We need to change this pessimistic atmosphere and be more optimistic.”
The “Project Europe” initiative is similar to the “Thiel Fellowship” program created by Peter Thiel, one of the famous US technology investors. This program gives young people under the age of 22 $ 100,000 to start their own startups instead of going to university.
But unlike the Thiel Fellowship, Project Europe will operate as an investment rather than a grant, taking a 6.66% stake in the companies it supports. “Investments require a much more responsible and conscious approach than grants,” Stebbings stressed. “When we think about the next generation of great entrepreneurs in Europe, we need to start with the youth.”
