The European Scaleup Ecosystem of the future?

Here is what we envisioned at the third European Scaleup Conference in Rotterdam

In this blog, I walk you through the main highlights and my personal takeaways from the 2025 European Scaleup Conference of the European Scaleup Institute . I focus on the lessons learnt from our scaleup keynotes and the key areas we identified to keep strenghtening our ecosystem, also in line with the new EU startup and Scaleup strategy. Finally, I share some concrete recommendations for entrepreneurs, policymakers, researchers and anybody willing to join our vision of the European Scaleup Ecosytem of the future. I'm looking forward to your reactions!

I still feel the excitement from last week, when for two days Rotterdam became the scaleup capital of Europe. Hosted by Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) and Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), the 2025 European Scaleup Conference brought together the brightest minds from across our continent's innovation ecosystem for one simple question: Where do we want our scaleup ecosystem to be in 10 years, and what do we need to do in the next 12 months to get there?

Sometimes, the timing is just perfect. A few days before our conference, the European Innovation Council (EIC) published its comprehensive EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy – a roadmap for making Europe the go-to destination for technology-driven innovation. No one other than Michiel Scheffer 🟥 , President of the Board of the EIC, opened our conference reflecting on this strategy alongside our newly launched European Scaleup Monitor. For once, it felt like policy and practice could actually come together, celebrating the ‘Return of the Scaleup Momentum in Europe’ (thanks for the Star Wars Reference Dries Faems ) and imagining how to keep it rolling.

The Uncomfortable Truth About the EU ecosystem

Yes, we have a lot to do to strengthen our ecosystem for growth in the EU – but as Maarten Bosch also said, let us for once focus on what we are already doing great and do our best to make it even greater. By simply changing our mindset, the conversation fundamentally shifts. We're no longer just talking about catching up; we're talking about dreaming big while staying resilient enough to withstand the geopolitical storms ahead.

Chantal Schrijver from the European Investment Bank (EIB) put it beautifully during our European Scaleup Monitor presentation: "The urgency for Europe to build a strong and resilient ecosystem has never been stronger, especially when it comes to the capital market." She's right. Between security threats, questions of digital sovereignty, and the productivity challenges highlighted in the Draghi report, Europe faces a simple choice: scale up fast or slowly fade out.

Lessons from the Dutch Scaleup Ecosystem

As proud Rotterdam citizens and a Dutch centre of expertise on high-growth entrepreneurship, at ECE we could not be happier to welcome everyone in our hometown. Most importantly, we took the opportunity to shed light on some of the most brilliant entrepreneurs in our ecosystem, including for instance our yearly #Top250, at the very centre of our conference. 

Our speaker lineup read like a masterclass in diverse scaling excellence:

Clare Jones (CEO Polarsteps ) showed us how to overcome paradoxes: scaling a tech company AND embracing the humanity of your team; let alone how to build globally while staying in the EU.

Maarten Bosch (CEO Mosa Meat ) demonstrated how the Netherlands is leading in the protein transition offering innovative solutions to feed the world. He’s not building a company, but a full ecosystem of partners, laboratories and living solutions in Maastricht.

Florent Geerts (managing director Delft Imaging | BCorp™ ) proved that impact and profit making aren't mutually exclusive, earning recognition as a Top 250 Impact Scaler while advancing medical technology, saving millions of lives where traditional medicine cannot reach.

Simone Brummelhuis (CEO / founder Borski Fund ) spoke about the importance of large investment tickets to support entrepreneurs in key sectors, such as medtech. Because if scaleup entrepreneurs cannot find what they need here… Why wouldn’t they look elsewhere?

For Sonja Meijerink scaling a company until winning the Top 250 Golden Scaler Award in 2023 is not enough, and she’s now on a similar journey with her new company Utilus . She couldn’t but stress more how sourcing the right talent is crucial for any scaleup entrepreneur. And some final inspiration: How nice would it to bring the Top 10 entrepreneurs of the European Scaleup Institute partners for an exclusive and inspiring retreat?

And then there was Yu Liu 's fascinating keynote on ecosystem dynamics, particularly her insights on China's approach to scaling – a reminder that understanding global patterns helps us craft better European solutions. Nicole Coviello also has a special place in our hearts, challenging our brains with the sharpest questions, and settling one for all the discussion around the definition of a scaleup… Now time to move on?

The Five Pillars of European Scaling Success

Our discussions crystallised around five critical areas where Europe needs to move fast:

1. Capital that Thinks Big We need larger tickets for massive scaling. No more apologising for ambition. Perhaps it’s time we finally address the capital market integration in the EU?

2. Talent Without Borders Access to knowledge and talent is crucial. While embracing AI for enhancing productivity is now an inevitable choice if you are willing to scale, how do we ensure top talent chooses European companies? The recent developments from the other side of the Atlantic might make the Old Continent suddenly more attractive again?

3. Markets that Welcome Innovation Both demand-side adoption and supply-side integration need to accelerate, especially in sectors that foster transitions to a more sustainable and juster society. As @Liselore also said it, old playbooks might not apply; so we need all trailblazers to think along and discover together how to scale in a not linear (if not circular?) world.

4. Agile Institutions Legal and regulatory frameworks that bend without breaking when innovation pushes boundaries.

5. Internal Capabilities that Scale Here's the piece that often gets overlooked: the entrepreneurial competencies of your leadership teams… Are you actually ready to scale? And are your employees? If you are to scale, you need entrepreneurial talent in all the layers of your organisation!

What’s next? Concrete recommendations

Building a vision of the European Scaleup Ecosystem of the future is a crucial step for actually realising it. This is a story we need to tell –once, twice, ten times, a hundred times—and when it sounds redundant, we should just tell it again in a different way. This is how you ensure alignment, am I right, Clare Jones ? But what can we do today to achieve that mission in the next ten years? Where do we need to be in 12 months to know we are on the good route?

With a record high of 100+ participants to this year’s conference, we all left energised and hopeful for the future, each of us with a different action point on what to do to contribute to that vision in our own regional ecosystems. Why? Knowing you’re not alone is empowering. Building our scaleup ecosystem might sound a bit scary too – but where do we start? There is still so much we don’t know about scaling. Yet together, we do know quite a lot. Looking at the quality and dedication of our papers presenters at the conference, I’m not scared to say at the European Scaleup Institute we have all the ingredients to make that vision happen. So what should we actually do in the next year? Here's what emerged from our collective wisdom:

For Policymakers: Implement the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy with the urgency it deserves. Every month of delay is another cohort of promising companies looking elsewhere.

For Ecosystem Builders: Focus on connecting dots, not just creating them. We have brilliant innovation nodes across Europe – the magic happens when they talk to each other.

For Entrepreneurs: Dream as big as you can. Europe's challenges require European-scale solutions, and that means building with global ambition from day one.

For Investors: Take bigger bets on bigger visions. The risk isn't in going too big – it's in staying too small while the world scales around us.

For researchers and industry experts: We need your brilliant minds to keep uncovering truths and sharing them with the world. Only together, we can build a leading scaleup ecosystem in the EU!

The Rotterdam Reminder

Standing on the Euromast during our conference dinner (yes, this even convinced the most sceptical among us that coming to Rotterdam was not such a bad idea after all), it was impossible not to think about Rotterdam's own story of resilience and reinvention. This city was rebuilt from rubble into one of Europe's most innovative urban centres. If Rotterdam can do it, so can Europe. The question isn't whether Europe can build a world-leading scaleup ecosystem. The question is whether we will – and whether we'll do it fast enough.

The next 12 months will tell us everything we need to know about the next 10 years.

What's your take? Are we moving fast enough, or do we need to accelerate even more? I'd love to hear your thoughts – especially if you're working on the front lines of European scaling.

The European Scaleup Institute is an alliance of eight leading business schools advancing research and education in high-growth entrepreneurship. If you are willing to contribute to making Europe a leading scaleup ecosystem, you will always find in the European Scaleup Institute a powerful ally for scientific-based and impact-driven research, education and ecosystem building.