Why Europe Can Build the Next Tech Giants

Europe didn’t fall behind because of a lack of talent, it fell behind because it failed to turn scientific breakthroughs into scaled companies.

In this talk, Alexandra Ntemourtsidou, Co-General Partner at Creator Fund, explains why Europe’s greatest advantage has always been its universities and why that advantage has historically been wasted.

From Cambridge and Oxford to ETH and Imperial, Europe trains some of the world’s best scientists. Yet too often, those minds end up in finance, consulting, or academia, while the technologies they create never become global companies.

Alexandra breaks down:

Why Europe consistently produces breakthroughs but not tech giants

How scientific talent gets lost before commercialization

Why going deep into labs, years before graduation, changes outcomes

How Creator Fund tracks and backs PhDs across Europe at scale

What it takes to turn frontier science into global companies

Through real examples, from quantum sensing to drone delivery and deep tech exits, this talk shows how Europe can build the next generation of tech champions if it stops shelving ambition and starts scaling it.

This isn’t about missing talent.

It’s about unlocking it.

Event: Alpha Summit ’25

Speaker: Alexandra Ntemourtsidou, Co-General Partner at Creator Fund

Connect with the speaker:

Alexandra Ntemourtsidou – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-ntemourtsidou-07a079115/

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