Eindhoven once again becomes the epicenter of entrepreneurship during LEVEL UP 2025 - the premier event where startups, scale-ups, investors, and stakeholders converge. High on the agenda: financing the European innovation landscape. In addition to inspiring keynotes, the program brings together diverse perspectives from venture building, corporates, venture capital, and public investment.
Source: IO + / Bart Brouwers
At first glance, Europe's innovation scene appears vibrant. From groundbreaking AI research to climate tech breakthroughs, the continent is buzzing with startups and scale-ups tackling global challenges. Yet behind the glowing headlines lies a persistent issue: too many promising European companies fail to scale or relocate abroad when growth capital dries up. Compared to the United States or China, Europe still lags in late-stage investments, scalability, and IPOs.
LEVEL UP 2025 is being organized for the fourth time in Eindhoven. Its primary goal is to accelerate startups and scale-ups in the Netherlands and Belgium. With a dynamic program under one roof, impact-driven entrepreneurs have much to learn and experience. The ecosystem also meets and debates to cultivate fertile ground for both startups and European decision-makers. The event is hosted by The Gate, BOM, and Braventure, in close collaboration with partners such as TU/e.
Against this backdrop, four influential voices will take the main stage at LEVEL UP 2025 in Eindhoven on Monday, 29 September: Dirk Deroost - Founder, Cronos Group, Evelien de Vries - Partnership Manager Startups & Venture Capital, ASML, Martijn van Dam - Chair, NVP (Dutch PE & VC Association), and Rinke Zonneveld - CEO, Invest-NL. Their panel, 'Financing the European Innovation Landscape', will unite perspectives from venture building, industry, venture capital, and public investment. Together, they will attempt to answer a pressing question: How can Europe build a smarter, more sustainable, and future-proof innovation funding model?
Searching for that answer aligns with the message of Eindhoven University of Technology during the Opening of the Academic Year - keep investing in innovation. "As TU/e, we actively contribute to strengthening the regional and European ecosystem for deeptech innovation. LEVEL UP provides a platform to build bridges between knowledge, innovation, and capital," says Silvia Lenaerts, Rector Magnificus of Eindhoven University of Technology. "This is essential to translate groundbreaking ideas into real value."
TU/e as an engine of innovation
As an academic partner in the ecosystem, TU/e plays a key role in driving innovation. Collaborations such as The Gate (a one-stop shop for startups) and initiatives through the Knowledge Transfer Office create spaces where student startups and spin-offs from scientific research can emerge and grow. This is exactly what the European ecosystem needs: stronger connections between universities, industry, and investors to bring scientific breakthroughs to market faster.
A fragmented playing field
The challenges are well documented. While Europe is producing more startups than ever, the transition from early-stage to growth remains difficult. Seed and Series A funding are relatively accessible, but Series B and beyond are often led by non-European investors. Around 82% of European scale-up deals already have a foreign lead investor, and many successful founders eventually move their companies to the U.S. to access the funding and market they need.
The reasons are structural: fragmented capital markets, cautious pension funds, complex insolvency regulations, and unequal rules for employee stock options.
Sector-wise, Europe's position is mixed: AI lags behind the U.S./China in investment and scaling; Biotech IPOs are smaller; Cleantech is competitive in innovation but struggles with scaling production, and Defense tech is a fast-growing outlier, with a strong rise in venture capital since 2022 - and more is on the horizon.
What Europe still lacks
Engines for venture creation tied to markets. Europe needs repeatable capacity to build companies around universities and corporates that can rapidly convert intellectual property into customers, especially in deeptech.
Bridge capital for "first-of-a-kind". Hardware pilots (factories, robotics, photonics, climate tech) struggle through the "infrastructure valley." Blended finance and anchor customers can help.
A tighter triangle of public funds, corporates, and private VCs. Winning strategies combine early risk mitigation (public), market access (corporates), and scalability discipline (VC/growth).
Still, Europe is not standing still. Public actors like the European Investment Bank, InvestEU, and national development banks are injecting record amounts into the system to attract private capital and build a more robust capital base. Corporates like ASML are beginning to see themselves not just as buyers, but also as investors. New venture-building models show how startups can reduce the risk of failure.
A chain of responsibilities
Together, the four experts outline a funding chain that Europe urgently needs to strengthen. Venture builders like Cronos reduce early-stage risk by providing services and attracting first customers. Corporates like ASML can act as strategic investors and demanding launch customers. Industry associations like NVP advocate for regulatory reforms to unlock private capital at scale. And Public investors like Invest-NL ensure strategic sectors receive the funding and favorable conditions they need.
The question for Europe is how to make this chain more efficient and coherent. The continent does not lack talent or ideas. What it lacks is a seamless financial infrastructure that allows those ideas to grow into global companies without crossing the Atlantic.
The LEVEL UP 2025 panel on financing could design a practical roadmap: From idea to customer, from startup to scale-up, from Europe to the world. Whether that roadmap will ultimately close the continent's scaling gap depends on how these players - and the ecosystems they represent - act in the coming years.
