- 15 hours ago
Europe produces world-class talent, research, and entrepreneurs. Yet many startups still face obstacles to scale across the continent's fragmented regulatory, procurement, and investment landscape. Still, Europe's innovation ecosystem (startups, corporates, investors, and public institutions) holds the power to shape its own technological future. This session explores how collective action and aligned procurement choices can turn that potential into sovereignty and scale.
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00:21good afternoon my name is Kristin Davis and it is a pleasure to welcome you here to this session
00:26choose European tech Europe's innovation ecosystem our startups corporates our investors and our
00:33public institution hold the power to shape our own technological future this session we're going
00:40to be exploring how collective action and aligned procurement choices can turn that potential into
00:47sovereignty and scale we're going to be hearing from a number of ministers many European voices
00:55but first it's an absolute pleasure to invite to the stage the Delegate Minister for Artificial
01:00Intelligence and Digital Affairs for the French government Anne Lehennav welcome
01:14thank you very much monsieur le ministre dear Benjamin Haddad dear Julie Huguet director of the French Tech
01:26Mr Minister from Belgium dear European friends ladies and gentlemen today I stand before you to
01:36celebrate the success of just was the La French Tech an initiative that embodies our commitment to
01:44innovation and sovereignty launched in 2023 this program aims to bridge the gap between startups and large
01:55corporations fostering a thriving ecosystem where innovation meets opportunity one year ago at Viva Tech 10 major French
02:08companies made a bold commitment 1 billion euros dedicated to purchasing solutions from French tech startups and scale-ups
02:20this was a turning point proving that collaboration between established giants and agile innovators is not just possible it is
02:33essential
02:33since then the momentum has only grown a dozen companies joined the initiative bringing their total commitment to over 2
02:47billion euros this is more than a financial milestone it is a testament to the trust they place in our
02:59startups and the future we are building together
03:02whatever but let me share my conviction our ambition must extend beyond borders in a world where technological sovereignty is
03:14no longer optional Europe must stand united our startups are not just French even if our startups are very good
03:29and we are of course we support a lot our French startups are very good and we are of course
03:32we support a lot our French
03:32start-up they are also European across the EU exceptional startups and scale-ups deserve this visibility and opportunities these
03:44startups and scale-ups drive Europe's technological leadership they hold their the key to our sovereignty by choosing European tech
03:57we can reduce our dependencies strengthen our economy
04:02our ecosystem and assert our leadership in the global digital digital economy
04:09so today I call on our European partners let us encourage our companies to choose European tech together we can
04:24amplify our impact by doubling our efforts and fostering cross-border collaboration
04:30collaboration to how our partners answering this call I said thank you this is just the beginning
04:40the mission the mission French tech and all our European partners have critical work her head I event I invite
04:51you to reconvene this autumn to unveil the next steps of this European ambition
04:59together we can turn challenges challenges challenges into opportunities and ideas
05:06and ideas into reality the future of tech is European let us build it together thank you
05:24thank you
05:25minister
05:26now let's please welcome to the stage the delegate minister in charge of Europe for the French government Benjamin Haddad
05:35welcome
05:42thank you
05:44thank you very much thank you dear administer dear minister dear Julie and all friends who are here I'm really
05:50delighted to be here at the launch of this very exciting opportunity this very exciting venture by the French
05:57the French tech choose European tech and as I just mentioned it follows the great success of what we laid
06:03out already years ago
06:04with the French tech and the network and the coalition of choose French tech and we're taking it now to
06:09the European level and it's true that when we talk today of supporting our ecosystem of innovation and our entrepreneurs
06:16are great startups all across the European continent
06:19and when we talk about the AI revolution and the incredible opportunities that it will open of cyber of medicine
06:28of all the areas that are discussed here today at the Vitec
06:32it's not just a question of growth and jobs and industrial acceleration it's now first and foremost the question of
06:40European sovereignty we see the geopolitical competition around us
06:45our partners are partners and competitors weaponizing dependencies and relationships on tech as tools of power and so we need
06:54to support our own actors our own innovators because this is the key to sovereignty and for a long time
07:02when entrepreneurs heard about the European Union I'll be frank they thought sometimes about paperwork regulation rules maybe fragmentation of
07:14the internal market
07:15and rules to ensure level playing field to protect our youth to fight against foreign interference or disinformation all of
07:23this is important but now we're going to another level another level when we're talking about scaling investing massively to
07:31support the innovation simplifying our rules deepening our single market we're pushing the 28th corporate law regime to make sure
07:40that it's going to be the same rule now all across Europe to create to start your own
07:45business to do it in a dematerialized way to do it in 48 hours and to make sure that when
07:49you do it in France it's recognized in the same rules in Poland in Ireland in Germany or in Spain
07:56we're negotiating right now the next multi-annual financial framework it's the budget for the next seven years of the
08:04European Union where France alongside our partners is pushing for a competitiveness fund where we'll invest massively
08:11into AI into AI into AI into AI into AI quantum defense space green techs all of these areas where
08:17we need public money to bring in private investment to leverage and to go to scale the European level but
08:24all of this effort that right now is being led by European institutions by government will never lead to anything
08:32if we don't get the same level of commitment from private companies
08:36and this is why this initiative is so important because we're now finally getting major companies all across Europe that
08:44commit also to supporting our ecosystem of startups to investing in them to purchasing from them to supporting them and
08:52this is what we've done successfully with Choose French Tech and now we're leading it to the European level
09:00and this is why when Julie came to me a few months ago to start discussing this initiative I told
09:06her what can I do and we've opened our network of French embassies all across Europe to look for companies
09:14that will bring in that will join into this coalition and you can count on our support to help you
09:19succeed once again thank you so much for this initiative thank you first and foremost for all the great work
09:25that you're doing each and every one of you in your field in your respective countries to push
09:30reach the edge of innovation in Europe and you can count on our support to make you succeed and conquer
09:34the world thank you so much
09:40thank you minister Harad now I invite the minister for economy and employment from the Brussels capital region Laurent Houblet
09:48welcome Laurent
09:57dear Anne dear Benjamin dear Julie dear VivaTech friends it's a great pleasure to be here with you today as
10:06I think the world of tech is changing very rapidly and somehow we are entering a new history and making
10:15a new history
10:16I'm a Belgian citizen and our national motto in Belgium maybe you've passed our stand it's not small country big
10:26in tech that's our motto for today but our national motto is unity makes us strong
10:35union makes us strong and I think this motto is very true for what is happening in technology today across
10:48the globe and particularly in Europe we do have very strong ecosystem scattered around our continent here in Paris you
11:02have a unique
11:03I think AI ecosystem top-notch world class Berlin has a top-notch world-class ecosystem Stockholm does Amsterdam does
11:17we have quite a nice I wouldn't say top-notch ecosystem in Brussels especially around sovereignty in Belgium we also
11:27have Ghent which is now part of the top 10 most advanced ecosystem
11:33ecosystem in the world so we have all these ecosystems in the world so we have all these ecosystems but
11:39we need to create a true European stack this is what we're lacking today we have done it in aerospace
11:49we have created an entire value chain in which we are the best in the world and what we have
11:58done in aerospace we can do it in tech and we need to
12:03to do it in tech it's not a technological revolution it's a cultural revolution it's a cultural revolution that we
12:13need to bring into our institutions our national institutions and our European institutions yes we need to choose European tech
12:27we governments we administrations
12:31administrations we companies and why is it a cultural revolution because we are big believers and especially at the European
12:43institutions in Brussels we believe in free market yes but we see today that it's not enough and when we
12:53say choose European tech we are not being nationalists we are not being protectionist
13:03we are understanding where the world is going to and we are being European patriots we are being European patriots
13:14we need to be allies all around this continent and so yes as government we need to be partners with
13:25our private ecosystems much more than we've been in the past
13:30I think in France I think in France I think in France you've done that very well probably better than
13:33we do in Belgium we can learn from you and we need to amplify that
13:39we need to be allies across ecosystems across ecosystems across companies we have great French tech companies doing well in
13:50Belgium this is very good this is the way to go because if unity makes us strong division will make
13:59us very weak very fast thank you
14:09thank you
14:10thank you Minister
14:11now we have the pleasure of hearing from the director of French tech mission
14:16Julie Julie who go come on up please
14:18welcome
14:24dear ministers dear Anne Benjamin Laurent
14:29good afternoon everyone
14:30so with the French tech mission and all our network we are supporting the growth of French startups for years
14:36now and we are all convinced that we need to move on a European level
14:42it's very important and numbers says that European startups have raised 60 billion euros in Europe in 2025 when public
14:53procurement represent more than 800 billion euros in Europe
14:59that means it's 13 times more
15:03that means it's 13 times more
15:04oh wow
15:06welcome Maurice
15:10surprise
15:16if we look at both public and private procurement across Europe we have the most powerful lever to accelerate the
15:24growth of French and European startups
15:27we will create our own champions thanks to that
15:31choose European tech is the European extension of what we have built in France
15:37convincing European buyers to turn to European startups from Croatia, from Serbia, from Greece, Portugal, Germany, Italy
15:45we cannot ask our startups to conquer the world
15:50if we don't choose them
15:52if we don't choose them
15:53when we collectively decide to change our purchasing habits
15:57it change everything
15:59I would like to thank our ministers
16:01and our French tech communities
16:04for mobilizing their counterparts and large corporations around these ambitious projects
16:10I also would like to thank the eight first countries to come with us in this movement
16:17Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania and Serbia
16:26thank you all of you for your commitment
16:28with this joint effort
16:30with this joint effort
16:32we are launching today
16:36a very important movement
16:38through three different objectives
16:41identifying priority sectors
16:44where we want more sovereignty
16:46understanding the needs of public and private buyers
16:50and defining common actions to accelerate the adoption of European technologies
16:55we are already working to bring more countries
17:00so if you in the room
17:03you are corporate, large corporations, SMVs, public actors
17:09we will be very happy to have you in this ambitious program
17:14I'm pretty sure that together we can build the next generation of tech champions
17:20global champions from Europe
17:23thank you
17:27and Maurice
17:28I'm very happy to have you come
17:30please join me
17:40thank you
17:42I'm sorry I will stay just a few minutes
17:45but it's so important what you are doing
17:48that I thought that whatever happened
17:51and even if I'm late in Versailles
17:55I have to stay here for a few minutes to welcome you
17:58and to encourage you to have a very important conversation
18:05on the development of the European ecosystem on startup technology and AI
18:15sovereignty has been a conversation since a few years
18:21but which is taking shape now
18:23and which is becoming more and more important
18:27when someone can switch off the access to AI
18:35or to some other components
18:38this means that our companies are in danger
18:42that we can be tomorrow out of job
18:46out of business
18:48simply because someone has decided that the tools that you are using
18:53are no longer available to you
18:56and this is a threat that we cannot accept
18:59and this is a threat that we have to fight against very strongly
19:05with all our energy
19:07and to make sure that we can win that battle
19:13because this battle is vital for the businesses in Europe
19:19for the industries, for the development, for the growth
19:23and for the future
19:24because if you are cut off from access to some new technology
19:31new possibilities, new tools
19:33at the end of the day
19:34what you have to be is a lagger
19:38and we can't accept to be a lagger
19:40we have to fight
19:42so I would like to welcome you to the stage
19:45to thank you very much
19:46VivaTech has been today a very great success
19:50we are beating our record year of last year
19:54for the time being
19:55I hope that this will continue
19:57and I wish you a very good session
20:00Merci for your participation
20:07Are you able to stay with us for a photo to commemorate?
20:10I have to go
20:11I have to go
20:12I have to leave
20:14and I'm so sorry
20:15We are very grateful for the time
20:17that we have
20:18So sorry
20:19La photo
20:20La photo, please
20:21La photo, please
20:27Welcome
20:40I have to go
20:40If you have a photo, please
21:05Bravo, thank you so much
21:16Thank you so much to all of our ministers and to Julie
21:26for setting the stage for us, for introducing us to the Choose European Tech initiative
21:33and for setting us up for what we're going to have now, which is going to be a rapid panel
21:39discussion.
21:40I promised more European voices. We have them right here.
21:44Please welcome the Head of Operations and Internationalization at Startup Portugal, Pedro Sacramento. Welcome.
21:52We have the Senior Manager of Strategic Business Development at Wirth Deutschland, Ines Strom.
21:59Welcome, Ines.
22:00And then, very far away from me, hi, General Counsel at CHAPS Vision, Augustin Aujan.
22:08Welcome to all three of you.
22:09Let me just introduce you to these three special guests that we have here now.
22:13Pedro, you've been the driving force at Startup Portugal since 2017.
22:18You oversee major initiatives, including SimConference, Road to Web Summit, and Matchbox.
22:24You also lead Business Abroad Program, which facilitates the participation of Portuguese startups in the global conferences and markets.
22:33So, welcome.
22:35Ines, now, you began your career in B2B sales, and that gave you a very strong understanding of customer needs.
22:42You then moved to strategic business development.
22:44Today, at Ofwerth in Germany, you're focused on venture capital, investments, venture clienting.
22:51Your work sits at the intersection of corporate strategy and the startup ecosystem, with a focus on sustainable innovation.
23:00And Augustin CHAPS Vision, a French organization founded in 2019, specializing in data and artificial intelligence,
23:10and a trusted partner for a number of European and international private and public institutions.
23:16Today, CHAPS Vision has more than 1,000 employees and more than 2,000 enterprise clients,
23:21and you're regularly making the news headlines, also.
23:25So, it's fantastic to have all three of you here for this panel,
23:30and counting on everything that we've just heard from the Choose European Tech Initiative.
23:35Pedro, I want to come to you first.
23:37Startup Portugal, you're working daily with startups, corporates, public institutions.
23:42From your perspective, what can innovation agencies and public administrations,
23:47what can they do to help more European technologies find customers and scale across Europe?
23:54Thank you very much.
23:55Thank you for inviting us.
23:57More than to endorse this initiative, we want to be part of this initiative.
24:02So, I try to highlight a couple of initiatives of our own that we believe that are already in this
24:11path
24:11in addressing this objective.
24:14So, I would say that one of the first things that we all should do is to be able to
24:22map all the startups that are in the market.
24:25So, in Portugal, we just launched our ecosystem mapping platform.
24:33So, I think for both public and private buyers, they need to know where startups are.
24:41So, I think the first step for owning this narrative is to own the data.
24:46So, we should all invest in making this data available for the procurement area.
24:55Then, we are also launching a program that we call Matchbox that wants to bridge the gap
25:04between this startup ecosystem and the SMEs, because we have a lot of corporates with their open innovation programs,
25:14but we don't have the startup ecosystem helping all the traditional sectors of the economy,
25:20also doing these digital transition challenges that they are facing.
25:26So, this is something that we also want to address in this area, but I think we should highlight even
25:33more the work that we've been doing together
25:36with our counterparts in all the EU in building solutions like this 28th regime
25:43that will really flatten the barriers of the borders that we still have within the European space.
25:54And last but not least, we are also launching now a program that is called Tech Foundry,
26:01where we try to accelerate, I would say, the university-based solutions to go fastly to the market,
26:11because one thing that, at least in Portugal, we feel that a lot of knowledge is still secured or kept
26:19inside the university lockers, and it's not in the market, and we cannot lose this potential,
26:27and that's also a way to help the market.
26:30I found it very interesting what you were saying about it's not just the technology companies that you're looking at,
26:36it's also the more traditional sectors as well,
26:38but both that mapping will enable them to understand the ecosystem,
26:42but also anyone that wants to come and work with Portuguese organizations.
26:47Thank you so much for giving us those very real examples there.
26:50In this, let's turn to Germany now.
26:53And, Worth, you work with many innovation companies across all of Europe.
26:57What advice would you give to European startups
27:01that want to work successfully with very large corporations?
27:04What are the key things they should be doing and maybe also should not be doing?
27:09Thanks a lot.
27:11So, I have actually, I'd say, three advices for startups.
27:15The first thing is, if you want to work with a corporate, be patient.
27:21Corporates are slow, and even slower than you think.
27:24So, always when we work with startups, they want to have a feedback within two, three weeks,
27:32and we usually can't do that because there are so many people involved in making decisions
27:37and stakeholder management.
27:40So, I'd really advise, let's give the corporates time to make a good decision
27:47or have everyone on board.
27:50Then, secondly, it's related to the first one, do a good stakeholder management.
27:56So, the more people you know, the more, like, fans you have, the better it is
28:03and the easier it is to get, yeah, good feedback.
28:08And then, the most important thing, I'd say, for all startups, and I've seen a lot,
28:13and most of, like, all of them, I'd say, almost all of them, don't do that very well.
28:21Ask questions.
28:22So, when you have your pitch or whatever, then just ask a few questions related to your product.
28:30What's the situation at the corporate?
28:33What problems do they have?
28:35And usually, people tell you, and when they tell you, then present your solution tackling these problems.
28:44And if you do that, the chances are a lot higher that people in the meeting will like your product
28:52and will do the next steps to a test, maybe a trial, or at least consider you, like, profoundly
29:03and not just think, okay, maybe a good solution, but not for us.
29:07So, most people just tell us how great they are, which might be true and often is,
29:14but still, if we don't feel there's a fit in any case, then it's a lot harder to convince our
29:23colleagues to go further.
29:26So, Ines, you've said, understand the timeline and definitely when working with corporates,
29:31understand the stakeholders, ask questions, these are all things we should be doing out there.
29:36Is there anything, maybe just one thing, that you see startups often doing when they're approaching large corporations
29:42and you think, ooh, and maybe step back from that?
29:46The one thing that maybe they shouldn't be doing?
29:49Yeah, it's like not asking questions and just presenting how great the product is.
29:57Because then it's like, yeah, if you don't really know my problem, maybe the things you tell me are not
30:04what I want to hear.
30:06And that is actually, I'd say, the biggest problem we have.
30:11Okay, so create some great open questions to go in with, as well as your deck.
30:17Augustan, I want to come to you because you're a, and Chaps Vision is a leading European technology company now.
30:24What are the biggest challenges that you see that your biggest challenges when trying to sell to large European organizations,
30:35anywhere in Europe?
30:36What do you think would help European technology champions like Chaps Vision to win more contracts and scale faster?
30:44What is your experience and what do you think will help you go?
30:48I think there are maybe two big challenges.
30:52The first one is that the European market is still very fragmented.
30:58It's very, very hard to enter into a new country.
31:01I mean, it's hard because the rules are not the same, but it's hard also because the culture is not
31:06the same,
31:06because the clients don't have the same needs.
31:08And I mean, anytime you want to enter a new market, it's a challenge.
31:12One solution we are using at Chaps Vision is that we're actually buying companies in the markets we're entering in.
31:20And that helps because with the company you bought, you have some employees that know the market,
31:26that know the technology, that know the clients.
31:27Because you already have usually some clients.
31:30But I mean, I'm not sure it's ideal to, if the conclusion is that you need to buy a company
31:36in a European country to enter the market.
31:41And of course, I mean, the government can help because they can make rules easier.
31:47And they can help us erase the cultural and financial and legal barriers that are still separating us.
31:56The other challenge is, I mean, it's true in Europe and it's true in France, is trust.
32:03Because obviously, big organizations, governments or companies are all very risk-averse and they don't want to buy a company.
32:16So they don't want to buy solutions from small companies.
32:18So because they are afraid that the solution is not going to be working or it's not going to be
32:23as good as the American one.
32:24And so they all say that they are very, very ready to choose an European company.
32:31But they will always wait for this company to be actually looking like the American company to buy from it.
32:37And so that's where I think just Brazil, French Tech and I Choose European Tech are great programs.
32:44I think they are giving us trust.
32:45I mean, they are giving trust to the biggest companies because with this kind of collaboration and labels,
32:52I mean, it helps believing that they actually can buy from smaller companies that are European without making a choice
33:03that is lower from a technological standpoint.
33:06And that's also why we're very, very happy, the news on Shell's vision,
33:10because when a service like the DGIC chooses us against Palantir, this means that we have the technology
33:18because no one actually thinks that the DGIC would choose a company for something else than for the technology.
33:25And this proves that there are some European alternatives that are as good as the American competitors.
33:35What I heard here is that indeed some of the challenges that many of us have seen and we've heard
33:40is just that fragmentation.
33:42But this is why exactly some of the tools that Innes and Pedro just talked about as well,
33:47you know, the tools, the maps and the data to be able to navigate the ecosystems,
33:51to be able to go in and ask questions, to understand,
33:55all of these things help to build up that confidence and then trust,
33:59which then underlined with initiative like Choose European Tech should definitely be able to help us cross the boundaries.
34:06And this is how we can indeed accelerate the adoption of European tech.
34:12Pedro, Ines and Augustin, it's been an absolute pleasure having you with us on stage.
34:16Thank you very much.
34:18And it's been a pleasure to introduce this Choose European Tech initiative to you all.
34:23Thank you very much.
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