We all know the ingredients of a successful innovation and startup ecosystem: top-notch universities, abundance of venture capital funds, an entrepreneurial spirit with risk-taking mentality, supporting infrastructure such as incubators and accelerators, and light-touch (if any) regulation by state. However, the question remains how to combine these ingredients to make an ecosystem self-reinforcing, capable of attracting capital and talent from all around the world.

In the EU in particular, we are facing the financial scaling gap, as the US not only has twice the number of startups (470,000 vs. 220,000 in the EU respectively), but also the proportion of scale-ups (startups that have more than EUR 1m in funding) is also higher, 7.3% in the US and 5.8% in the EU, while in Israel 14.4%. Similarly, in 2022, the US was headquartered for almost 30% of all roughly one and a half million startups worldwide, the EU's share was 14%, and Israel's share was 0.7%. However, the US concentrated 56% of the world's 2,530 unicorns (startups with a market value of more than USD 1 billion), the EU only 9.5% and Israel 1.7%. Nevertheless, in countries with a highly developed innovation and startup ecosystem, startups are concentrated in few hubs with enormous scaling opportunities, for instance there are more unicorns in San Francisco alone (294) than in the EU as a whole (241).

Our panel with top experts from Israel, Estonia, the UK and the US will discuss the burning question of what policies could help innovation and startup ecosystems to scale. Do we need new policies when the success is no longer about global giants taking over the startups, but about strengthening the startup ecosystem of the country?

Participants:

  • Molly Livingstone, Ecosystem Manager, MassChallenge Israel, Jerusalem
  • Daniel Bajer, Director for Business Development, Enterprise Estonia, Tallinn
  • Amiram Porath, Amiram Porath Consulting, Tel Aviv
  • Jon Steinberg, Partner, Mountside Ventures, London
  • Eitan Kyiet, CEO of Road2, Haifa
  • Patrick Grady, policy analyst, Center for Data Innovation, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Washington

Moderators (MCC students):

  • Veronika Péter and Marcell Dengi

Registration

We welcome all those interested!