01.2 Executive Summary A Word from Slush Scrolling through the figures of The problem of diversity that Europe, the State of European Tech 2018 like the rest of the world, is having can report, it is easy to feel a nice sense be turned into an opportunity. By lifting of confirmation to what we’ve been up a more diverse set of role models will seeing and hearing throughout the affect the decisions of to-be founders. year in countless conversations with Emphasizing the role that humanities entrepreneurs: European tech is and arts, in addition to STEM, will graduating. Record numbers of both play in the future development of raised funding and exits speak louder technological solutions should be done than words, and they have interesting upfront if we want to gain an edge from consequences. the magnificent creative industry in Europe. As the amount of successful scale-up companies continues to rise on the One more additional thing that continent, so does the need for ever Europe really stands to benefit from greater amounts of top tier talent. is our strong academia. Nailing the combination of bleeding-edge, As the access to venture capital is hardcore research and practical, world- no longer the biggest bottleneck for class company building should be one European tech, our eyes are turning of our main targets for the upcoming towards cultivating the next generation years. of world-class talent for the current and future tech companies that are set out Almost all businesses that want to to solve some of the biggest challenges make it big in Europe have to think on the planet. international or global from the beginning. This is a mindset that For this we need a diverse talent pool to we should utilise also in the next be part of building the European tech generation of education for future companies. entrepreneurs. Stay tuned! Andreas Saari CEO, Slush & 12 In Partnership with www.thestateofeuropeantech.com