Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.More than 120 European tech founders — including the leaders of Shopify, Klarna and Mistral — are joining forces to mentor and invest in entrepreneurs as young as 18, as part of an effort to fight back against the Trump administration’s attacks on Europe’s competitiveness. Harry Stebbings, the London-based podcaster-turned-venture capitalist, is spearheading Project Europe, a new €10mn fund that will offer €200,000 to 18-25 year olds to build tech start-ups. The scheme is designed to combat what Stebbings called a “doom loop” in Europe that is causing a “brain drain” of top talent to the US. “The world has made up its mind that Europe is not a place of innovation. That is wrong,” said Stebbings, whose firm 20VC raised a $400mn fund last year. “There is a doom loop around Europe and we need to change that. The brain drain to the US is very real and it’s going to really damage the future of Europe unless something changes.” Project Europe is the latest effort to galvanise European entrepreneurship at a time when many investors in the region are worried that the US and China are outpacing its start-ups, especially in artificial intelligence. Last October, dozens of European founders including Patrick Collison of Stripe and Ilkka Paananen of Supercell launched EU Inc, to lobby for streamlined and standardised investments and business operations across EU member states. Venture firms 20VC, Point Nine and Adjacent are contributing capital to Project Europe alongside more than 125 founders, including Tobias Lutke of Shopify, Sebastian Siemiatkowski of Klarna and Niklas Östberg of Delivery Hero, who will also be available to mentor recipients of the funding. “Bringing together more than 100 of Europe’s top founders under one mission highlights the power and impact of Project Europe in shaping the next generation,” said Siemiatkowski. “We’re here to back young talent tackling the toughest technical challenges — with capital, mentorship and infrastructure.”Other backers include Thomas Plantenga, chief executive of second-hand marketplace Vinted, Thomas Dohmke, chief executive of Microsoft-owned software development site GitHub and Alex Chesterman, founder of Zoopla and Cazoo, as well as founders at AI start-ups Mistral, Huggingface and Synthesia. Data from venture firm Atomico’s most recent State of European Tech report showed that total capital invested in the region’s start-ups increased 10 times between 2015 and 2024 compared with the previous decade, reaching $45bn last year. However, while public perception of start-ups as a career path has improved after successes such as Spotify, Revolut and ASML, Atomico’s survey found widespread concern that European regulation and bureaucracy were making the region less attractive to founders. At February’s AI Summit in Paris, US vice-president JD Vance warned that “overly precautionary” EU rules were stifling innovation, while Elon Musk has repeatedly attacked the EU and pushed the Trump-inspired slogan “Make Europe Great Again”. “The macro doesn’t look great but the truth is companies are built in the micro,” said Stebbings. “We need to change the vibe and be more optimistic.” The new Project Europe scheme resembles US tech investor Peter Thiel’s Fellowship, which pays $100,000 to people aged 22 and under to start companies instead of going to university. Unlike the Thiel Fellowship, which takes the form of a grant, Project Europe will take a 6.66 per cent stake in the companies it invests in. “Investments are treated with much more respect, accountability and consciousness than grants,” Stebbings said. “When we think about building the next generation of great European founders, we have to start with youth.”
