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On Wednesday, British podcaster-turned-VC Harry Stebbings of 20VC announced a new project backed by 100+ top European tech founders to fund the next generation of young entrepeneurs — and it had the European VC set buzzing.
“Project Europe” is a €10m fund backed by 20VC, Berlin-based Point Nine and New York-based Adjacent along with over 120 tech founders from companies like Klarna, Mistral, ElevenLabs and Shopify. The fund will support founders under 25 by providing mentorship and investing in 10 to 20 of them, offering €200k in exchange for 6.66% equity.
It comes as the US is growing considerably more critical and less supportive of Europe. And as Stebbings told me: “We’ve never seen such de-growth in Europe since probably the 70s. We are in a shit macro situation.” But the inspiration for the new fund — which Stebbings said came together in about three weeks — is to “change the narrative” around how Europe builds companies and innovation, and help fuel Europe’s next €100bn company. Stebbings described it to me as a cross between the Peter Thiel Fellowship and Y Combinator.
The project has sparked lots of conversations on social media — and many in the VC space are raving. “Absolutely love Project Europe,” Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures, wrote on LinkedIn. “Between that and the EU Inc Petition it’s clear real change is happening, driven by exceptional entrepreneurs.”
From Mignot’s perspective, just building companies isn’t enough. “If we want to convert this momentum, I’m convinced European entrepreneurs and investors have to go one step further and get actively engaged in politics,” he wrote.
Other VCs cheered the announcement. “Absolutely love this! Giving back Silicon Valley style,” Deepali Nangia, a partner at Speedinvest, wrote in a comment.
Problems with “Project Europe”
Not everyone was full of praise.
“I’ve felt nothing but unease” since the project launched on Wednesday, Nicolas Colin, cofounder of French startup incubator The Family, wrote on LinkedIn. “When I look at projects such as Project Europe, I think of emerging countries that invest heavily in higher education but fail to create enough high-skilled jobs, leading to brain drain, unemployment, and social unrest. Apply that to the tech ecosystem, and you get the picture.”
Some bemoaned the project’s structure as just another accelerator. “Are there not enough of these all running the exact same model the world over[?]” one commenter wrote. Lucas Bédout, founder of French B2B SaaS startup Hyperline, added: “While I support pro-European initiatives like Project Europe, Europe does not need more seed capital or more young entrepreneurs.”
“I actually think Europe needs [fewer], higher quality companies that can cover the whole continent and get big enough to compete with US players,” Bédout wrote.
Others thought the project’s strict age limit was “shortsighted”, and some decried the 6.66% equity stake the fund will take as a “pretty poor deal.” There was criticism about the lack of female representation in the project, too.
And the size of the fund was also a point of concern. One founder commented that “there’s quite a contrast between the ambition of this project (doubling down on Europe, Thiel Fellow, 125 top entrepreneurs…) and its means: just €10m. The impact of the announcement would have been bigger if they had included more information on the commitment of the VC partners, for instance.”
Stebbings didn’t return Sifted’s request for comment on the criticism.
I’m curious to hear from you, VCs: what do you make of this new founder-led fund? Is the size and aim sufficient to boost Europe’s tech ecosystem? What tweaks would you make to it? What else is needed? Do you think an age limit is the right way to go? I’m all ears.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/problems-project-europe-fund/
