Stripe commissioned the research agency B2B International to explore perceptions among the European tech ecosystem and the challenges fast-growing internet companies are facing. The research, “European tech voices: perspectives from Europe’s fastest-growing startups,’’ is a quantitative and qualitative study covering nearly 200 Stripe users, including rapidly-growing success stories like Kry, Doctolib, and TicketSwap. The report examines the European startup experience through the lens of policy and regulation as enablers or barriers to growth.
In the last decade, Europe has undergone a technological revolution, driven by the ingenuity of European innovators taking advantage of the continent’s already strong foundations. As we move further into 2022, macroeconomic conditions are becoming more challenging.
For European startups to come out of this period stronger than before, and for the ecosystem to be set up for future success, it is crucial to understand the role that public policy and the legislative and regulatory environment play in the success or failure of startups —how they can hamper or bolster growth and innovation.
The research shows that startups on Stripe continue to think that Europe has a lot to offer, but they don’t believe the legislative environment is currently tailored to support Europe’s fastest-growing internet businesses. To strengthen the tech ecosystem, startups want lawmakers to prioritise policies that reduce “friction,” alongside clear, easy-to-implement regulatory frameworks to ease the burden on their limited resources.
Based on the insights from this research, Stripe has outlined a number of areas policymakers should look to prioritise to ensure startups can survive and thrive going forward. They include digitizing government processes, harmonizing regulatory regimes, and more structured communication between startups and policymakers to ensure startup priorities are reflected in policymaking.