Index Ventures and Slush will bring together policymakers, founders of startups, investors and ecosystem builders to discuss the practical steps that Europe must take to become the best place to start and grow world-changing startups.
As 500 European founders and CEOs noted in a letter to policymakers: "The European tech sector has never been stronger. From London to Lisbon, Paris to Prague, Europe is now nurturing some of the world’s most dynamic and creative companies. The days of living in Silicon Valley’s shadow are over. Europe is a shining powerhouse of bold, new business models that drive economic growth, generate jobs and improve people’s lives."
As we battle Covid and the economic impact it has caused, it has never been more critical to make startups a strategic priority, and build the most entrepreneurial continent.
As Director EU Policy at Allied for Startups Benedikt engages on policy files ranging from AI to online platform regulation.
He is passionate about building legislation that empowers innovators, after having worked on the Digital Single Market (including GDPR, Copyright, P2B, Geo-blocking, Digital Taxation) in the last four years. Prior to joining AFS he worked for the European Small Business Alliance, Deutsche Welle and completed a traineeship at the Council of Europe.
Benedikt holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History from Jacobs University Bremen and a Master of Arts in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Jörg Kukies is the state secretary for financial market policy and European policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance since April 2018.
Before that he was co-chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs AG and managing director of the Frankfurt branch of Goldman Sachs International from 2014 to 2018. He has previously held positions in the product development team of Goldman Sachs International in London, in the equities division for Germany and Austria in Frankfurt, and as head of equity derivatives for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Goldman Sachs International from 2011 to 2014.
Dr Kukies studied economic sciences at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris. He has a master in public administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a PhD in finance from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.
Eva Kaili is a Member of the European Parliament, part of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Delegation since 2014.
She is the Chair of the Future of Science and Technology Panel in the European Parliament #STOA, Member of the Industry and Energy Committee (ITRE), Member of the Committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Member of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG). In her capacity, she has been working intensively on promoting innovation as a driving force of the establishment of the European Digital Single Market. She has been the draftsperson of multiple pieces of legislation in the fields of blockchain technology, online platforms, big data, Fintech, AI and cybersecurity.
She is the founder of the Future Forum, a network of influential politicians, officials and public figures promoting innovation.
As a high ranking and influential MEP she is often invited to talk for her work in important conferences and academic institutions world widely.
She has also been the Chair of the Delegation to the NATO PA in the European Parliament, focusing on Defense and Security of Europe.
Prior to that she has been elected as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament (2007-2012), with the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).
She also worked as a journalist and newscaster prior to her political career.
She holds a Bachelor degree in Architecture and Civil Engineering, and Postgraduate degree in European Politics.
Jean-David Malo studied in the Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (INSEEC Paris) and the University of California (Berkeley). He started his career as Head of internal control management in the Comité Professionnel de la Distribution de Carburants in France before joining ARMINES, a body managing contractual research and innovation for French engineering schools (Ecoles des MInes, Ecole Polytechnique, ENSTA, …), where he created, developed and managed the European Affairs Directorate.
He joined the European Commission in January 2001. In the Directorate General for Research and Innovation, he participated actively to a number of developments on the design of funding instruments, rules for participation, funding schemes, etc, both for FP6 and FP7. Assistant of Director Robert-Jan SMITS (2003-2006), Head of Sector in charge of the Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), Head of Unit in charge of regional aspects (2006-2010), he was managing from 2011 to 2013 a newly created unit in DG Research and Innovation, the main objective of which was to contribute to increase private finance and close market gaps in investing in research and innovation by expanding the scope and scale of existing EU innovative financial instruments (like the RSFF) and by developing new ones in the fields of debt (including guarantees) and equity financing, notably in the context of Horizon 2020 ("InnovFin"). The EU state aid framework, tax incentive schemes and philanthropic funding were also areas covered by the work of the unit, as well as Horizon 2020SMEs (i.e. EUROSTARS II, SME Instrument and the Fast Track to Innovation). Appointed as Director for Open Innovation and Open Science in February 2017, he designed/launched and/or expanded initiatives such as the European Innovation Council (EIC), the VentureEU Initiative, the RDI dimension under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the European Open Science Cloud, the long-term sustainable investments for Research Infrastructures, the monitoring of the ERA Roadmaps, the transposition of Plan S principles, etc…
Since June 2019, as a follow-up of the European Council request to immediately set up the EIC, he has appointed as Director of the EIC Task Force. In charge of the EIC, the EU innovation ecosystems programme as well as R&I related financial instruments (InnovFin, EFSI, InvestEU), he is also a member of the EFSI Steering Committee, an alternate member of the EIF Board of Directors, as well as the High Level Representative of the Commission in EUREKA. Last but not least, he is the proud father of 2 boys.
Johannes Reck is the Chief Executive Officer at GetYourGuide. He leads the company’s long-term vision and strategy.
Johannes co-founded GetYourGuide in 2009 while attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and has grown the company into the leading booking platform for incredible travel experiences.
Under Johannes’ leadership, over 30 million tickets have been booked to date via the GetYourGuide website, mobile app, and partnership network. GetYourGuide has raised over $650M from investors such as the SoftBank Vision Fund, Battery Ventures and KKR. Johannes leads GetYourGuide’s 550-person global team from its headquarters in Berlin, Germany.
Johannes originally hails from Cologne, Germany and holds an M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Liz is currently leading the development of Scale Ireland, the policy voice for high-growth tech startups and scale-ups in Ireland. Most recently Liz held a variety of roles at startup hub Dogpatch Labs, and previously worked with Kerry-based Fexco and two fintech startups. Liz is an Economics and Policy graduate with an MSc in Local Economic Development (summa cum laude) from the LSE and has lots of volunteering experience centred around economic and community development.
Since joining Farfetch in December 2012, Sian has guided the company’s global people strategy. She champions a focus on culture, engagement and the development of people; managing the implementation of Farfetch company values, global career ladder and global employer brand.
With over 15 years’ experience, Sian previously worked as an in-house Director developing recruitment outsourcing projects in the financial services & technology industries. She has also supported a number of e-commerce start-ups in fashion and technology. Sian holds a BSc (hons), is an Associate Member of the CIPD and Level A&B qualified in psychometric assessment.
Across Index Ventures' portfolio of 160+ startups, Dominic works with founders on talent-related issues. This includes building leadership teams, international expansion, compensation, culture, and org design.
Dominic has published three books on scaling startups: Expanding into Europe, Expanding to the US, and Rewarding Talent - the playbook for European entrepreneurs using stock options. His web app, OptionPlan, has become the go-to resource for designing startup stock option plans.
Before joining Index in 2012, Dominic twice served as a chief operating officer, in both New York and London. He has first-hand experience scaling companies, building teams, managing international operations, and steering company culture through periods of growth, crisis, M&A, and public listings. Dominic's passion for data drives his decision-making. He has a Masters in organisational psychology from Oxford.
Founder of Dealroom.co which was launched in 2014 in Amsterdam to provide insights and intelligence about the world's most promising companies. Top tier venture capital firms and world class corporates use Dealroom software and data to stay at the forefront of innovation and discover the world’s most promising companies. Before founding Dealroom, Yoram was a media investment banker in New York and London. Yoram has a cum laude Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.
Neil co-founded Index Ventures in Geneva in 1996. His vision was to support the most ambitious entrepreneurs, bringing Silicon Valley-style investing to Europe at a time when venture capital was a new term outside the U.S. 20 years on, staying true to its European roots, Index has become one of the world's leading VC firms, with principal offices in London and San Francisco. The firm has raised $7.25 billion, with more than 160 companies in its portfolio. Today, Neil works with entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic, and has led Index investments in Betfair, Climate, Supercell, and Trello.
Born in Montreal, Neil studied at Stanford and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He spent four years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, and joined Index Securities in 1990 — the predecessor of Index Ventures. Neil also serves on the board of Human Rights Watch, a non-profit, non-governmental organization.
Cédric O was born on December 18th, 1982 in l’Arbresle and graduated from HEC Paris in 2006. He is a founding member of En Marche! political movement and has sit at its Executive Board since its creation. In May 2017, he joins both the Office of the President and the Office of the Prime Minister, as an advisor for State’s holdings and the digital economy.
On March 31st, 2019, he is appointed Minister of State for Digital Affairs. His three priorities are the support and development of the digital economy in France, regulatory policies and the promotion of digital inclusion.
On July 26th, 2020, within Prime Minister Jean Castex’s Government, he is appointed Minister of State for the Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, in addition to his former responsibilities. He is now in charge of the digital economy, regulatory policies and all types of telecommunications, from infrastructures to daily uses for the French people.
Photo credit @MINEFI
Eva Maydell (née Paunova) is a Member of the European Parliament (EPP Group/GERB) and President of European Movement International, the largest organisation of associations and civil societies in Europe.
Maydell´s priorities focus on enhancing skills-creation and the use of innovation and technologies, supporting entrepreneurs and investments in Europe. In the European Parliament, she is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy as well as the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. She is a member of the Delegation for relations with Japan as well as the Delegation for relations with the US.
Eva Maydell is among the most active members of the EP. Currently, she is EPP rapporteur on the Data Strategy. She was the main Parliament rapporteur on the Regulation on charges on cross-border payments as well as worked on several legislative files, part of the Digital Single Market Strategy – the e-Privacy Regulation, the Directive for the supply of digital content, the Regulation on portability, Digitising European industry and the European cloud initiative. She was also rapporteur for the EPP Group on the implementation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the New Skills Agenda and the Influence of technology on the future of the financial sector (FinTech).
Eva has been awarded the European Parliament's MEP of the Year Award twice. She has also been included in FT's own 'New Europe 100' ranking of CEE's emerging change-makers, European Forbes' 30 Under 30 list and others.
Reshma Sohoni is Managing Partner of Seedcamp, the European seed fund she co-founded in 2007 with a strong belief that European entrepreneurs have the power to compete on a global scale. Over a decade later and Seedcamp has pioneered the European early-stage investment landscape and backed over 300 companies including three unicorns: TransferWise, Revolut and UiPath.
Reshma is frequently listed as one of the most influential women in technology and VC and sits on the Digital Economy Council, working alongside the UK government and leading tech industry experts to provide policy advice to support tech startups and innovation in the UK. Reshma was recognized on Forbes Midas List for Europe as one of the most influential VCs on the continent in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2019 she also made it to the no1 spot on the FT’s most influential BAME tech leader list.
Pēteris Zilgalvis is the Head of Unit for Digital Innovation and Blockchain in the Digital Single Market Directorate in DG CONNECT and is the Co-Chair of the European Commission FinTech Task Force. He was the Visiting EU Fellow at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford for 2013-14, where was an Associate of the Political Economy of Financial Markets Programme.
From 1997 to 2005, he was Deputy Head of the Bioethics Department of the Council of Europe, in its Directorate General of Legal Affairs. In addition, he has held various positions in the Latvian civil service (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Environment). He was Senior Environmental Law Advisor to the World Bank/Russian Federation Environmental Management Project and was Regional Environmental Specialist for the Baltic Countries at the World Bank.
He has been a member of the California State Bar since 1991, completed his J.D. at the University of Southern California, his B.A. in Political Science Cum Laude at UCLA, the High Potentials Leadership Program at Harvard Business School. A recent publication of his is “The Need for an Innovation Principle in Regulatory Impact Assessment: The Case of Finance and Innovation in Europe” in Policy & Internet. An upcoming publication is “The Law and Political Economy of Decentralised Digital Ecosystems”.
Martin is a partner at Index Ventures where he focuses on startups that develop must-have products that improve with each additional user and operate in large markets like transportation, food, finance, health, and SME. Most of his initial investments are Seed and Series A.
Since joining Index in 2010, Martin has spent a great deal of time and energy helping to build the Parisian ecosystem. He led the first institutional investment in a local startup network called TheFamily and currently sits on their advisory board. He also serves on the board of Drivy, KRY, Revolut, TheFamily, Trainline (following the acquisition of Captain Train) and previously SwiftKey (acquired by Microsoft in 2016).
Prior to Index, Martin was part of the TMT team at UBS Investment Bank and co-founded the beauty subscription business Boudoir Prive (acquired by Joliebox/Birchbox), as well as rsp.fm, a student web radio service. He regularly travels to the Nordics.
Miika Huttunen is the CEO of Slush, a global student-led movement with a mission to create and help world-changing founders. Formerly Miika acted as Chief Operating Officer at Slush. Miika has an extensive background in the Finnish startup and gaming ecosystem through various volunteer communities like Slush, Assembly, Vaasa Entrepreneurship Society, and World Economic Forum's Global Shapers.
Eve is an agile team and business leader with over 15 years of experience in hospitality and marketing management. She has recently started as Head of Startup Estonia, a governmental programme to boost and develop the Estonian startup ecosystem. Her main objective is to help the startup sector grow by working towards favourable regulations, facilitating smooth interaction between ecosystem players, enabling the emergence of new support organisations, and fostering diversity in the talent pool.
Born in Lisbon in 1972, André de Aragão Azevedo graduated in Law by the University of Lisbon, is married and has three children.
He travelled to Macau in 1995 where he worked as a Lawyer and Legal Adviser, supporting the prior and subsequent phase of the transition of Macau from Portuguese to Chinese Administration. In 2005, returns to Portugal to work in the National Parliament, as advisor to the Constitutional Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Ethics Commissions.
Between 2008 and 2011, he integrates the Ministry of Health has the Chief of Staff of the Secretary of State for Health.
In 2012, he joined Microsoft Portugal with commercial management functions in the Public Sector and in 2017 he became an administrator with the responsibility of promoting the use of technology as a factor for transforming national companies and organizations. He was in charge of coordinating the technological training plan for the ecosystem of startups and research centers based on cloud services, as well as the digital training of citizens and professionals throughout their life cycle.
In 2019, he accepted the invitation to integrate the executive of António Costa in the XXII Constitutional Government, as Secretary of State for Digital Transition, in the Ministry led by Pedro Siza Vieira, with the main challenge of digitizing the Portuguese economy.
In March 2020, even before the Covid19 Pandemic crisis reached Portugal, het presented the Action Plan for Digital Transition, a document focused on the objectives outlined for the legislature, with 12 emblematic measures that aim to project the country in the world without leaving anyone behind, through the digital empowerment of people, the digital transformation of companies and the digitalization of the State.
Caroline Hyde co-hosts Bloomberg Television’s afternoon programming from 2pm-5pm ET daily from New York.
Previously Hyde co-hosted “Bloomberg Markets” from London and was the European Technology and Media correspondent for “Bloomberg Technology.” She has also served as the network’s chief European correspondent, traveling the region to report on the most important business, economic and political issues shaping global markets.
Hyde joined Bloomberg in 2008 to cover the European debt markets for Bloomberg News as a corporate finance reporter, focusing on company loans and bonds as well as sovereign debt. She covered the freeze in the European loan market following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the unraveling of the European sovereign debt crisis, as well as breaking news on the sales and performance of government bonds from Greece ahead of its bailout. Hyde has also provided in-depth reports on the London property sector, tech scene and shone a light on the European start-up community.
Prior to joining Bloomberg, Hyde worked in public relations for London’s Moorgate Group, where she was a debt market specialist, managing campaigns for clients including Standard & Poor’s and Lloyds Banking Group. She holds an MA (Oxon) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.
A neuroscientist by education, Job left academia to become the VP of Product of the largest distributed company in the world, GitLab, where he hired talent across 67 countries. He’s now the CEO and co-founder of Remote, an HR technology platform for international payroll, benefits and compliance, enabling companies of any size to build a global team. He’s the dad of one dog and two humans.
Michael previously worked at the Financial Times, where his roles included Madrid bureau chief, Nordic and Baltic bureau chief and senior correspondent in Paris. He is a Europhile, technophile, and a science fiction geek who hopes to live on Mars one day (don’t laugh). Before journalism, he briefly worked at a VC in London, where he realized picking winners is hard and a good idea is not the same as a good business.
John is also the Innovation editor of the Financial Times, where he writes a regular, award-winning column on the impact of technology, hosts the weekly Tech Tonic podcast, and is the founder and editorial lead for the FT125 forum for senior business executives. In a 30-year career at the FT, John has been deputy editor, news editor, European edition editor, and bureau chief in both Paris and Moscow.
John Collison is president and co-founder of Stripe, the software company that is expanding internet commerce by making it easy to process transactions from anywhere.
John and his brother Patrick Collison started Stripe in 2010 while John was studying physics at Harvard. Their goal was to make accepting payments online simpler and more inclusive, after learning firsthand how difficult it was. Today, the 2800-person (and growing) Stripe team powers online businesses around the world.
Prior to Stripe, John co-founded Auctomatic, which was acquired by Live Current Media in March 2008.
Taavet Hinrikus is co-founder and Chairman of TransferWise.
TransferWise is a global technology company that’s building the best way to move money around the world. Whether you’re sending money to another country, spending money abroad, or making and receiving international business payments, TransferWise is on a mission to make your life easier and save you money. TransferWise processes £4bn in cross-border payments every month on behalf of its eight million customers, saving themselves £1bn a year in bank fees. It’s attracted over $1bn in primary and secondary transactions from investors such as world’s largest VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and Sir Richard Branson.
Prior to starting TransferWise, Taavet was Skype’s director of strategy until 2008, starting as its first-ever employee. Taavet acted as CEO of TransferWise until 2017, and since then has stepped into the role of Chairperson overseeing the business’ bigger picture direction and supporting the product teams.
One of the World Economic Forum's Tech Pioneers, Taavet has acted as adviser to the former Prime Minister of Estonia on the digital agenda. He’s also a mentor for the next generation of talent, leading TransferWise’s 20 Under 20 programme to support Europe’s brightest teen CEOs, and volunteering with Estonia’s tech summer school Eesti 2.0. Taavet is an active angel investor; his investments include Tweetdeck, Mendeley, OMGPOP, Property Partner, Sunrise, Improbable and Cleo.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taavet
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/taavethinrikus/
Gloria is a Vice President of the German Startup Association, the policy voice of the German startup ecosystem. A start-up operator and former venture capital investor herself, Gloria is passionate about building a European ecosystem that supports the founders building tomorrow's market leaders.
She currently is the Chief Operating Officer of Back, a Berlin-based software startup, and previously led the global strategy team of KRY, Europe's largest telemedicine provider.
Prior to joining KRY, Gloria was an investor at Index Ventures, where she focused on pan-European growth stage investments.
Constantijn van Oranje leads TechLeap.NL, the accelerator for the Tech-ecosystem in the Netherlands. As Special Envoy he is on a mission to turn The Netherlands into a unicorn nation. He and his team connect the Dutch Tech-ecosystem to help ambitious and promising Dutch Tech companies grow fast internationally by improving their access to capital, market and talent.
Constantijn co-founded StartupFest Europe, which is still the biggest start-up event ever organized in The Netherlands. He used to be Chief of Staff of VP Neelie Kroes at the European Commission in charge of the Digital Agenda and lead the Brussels office of the RAND Corporation.
He is currently also Director Digital Technology & Macro Strategy at Macro Advisory Partners in London and New York and Edge Fellow at Deloitte Centre for the Edge, where he advises companies and the European Commission on their digital innovation strategies. Besides innovation and technology.
Constantijn van Oranje is passionate about art, music, photography and nature.
Andris is Managing Partner of Change Ventures, the first seed venture capital fund in the Baltic States focused exclusively on backing ambitious founders from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Andris has been a key player in the Baltic ecosystem for a decade, having co-founded the TechHub Riga foundation, the leading Baltic startup event TechChill and the Latvian Startup Association. Andris had a 15 year career as a C-level executive in several US, Israeli and European startups, two of which exited for over $100M.
Andris graduated in Class 22 of the Kauffman Fellows program for global venture capitalists and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Marianne is Director of Public and European Affairs at France Digitale. She represents the interests of France Digitale’s 1800 startups and 150 VC members, on all aspects (such as tax, financing, platform workers status, IA, Blockchain, competition, etc.). Marianne is also a tax lawyer and participated in the creation of the Blockchain regulation in France.
Berlin-based Sarah Syed has been a reporter with Bloomberg News since June 2016. She has spent the last decade writing about private equity and M&A and now focuses her time writing on all things technology. Sarah, fluent in German and Urdu, is a graduate in European Studies and Philosophy from Queen Mary University of London.
For the past decade, Vojtech has advised start-ups and challenger brands of all sizes, helping them tell their stories. At Index, he provides strategic communications and marketing counsel to the firm’s family of companies, as well as the brand itself, throughout Europe and the US. His international perspective was shaped by an upbringing in Prague, an education in California, a career in San Francisco and London, and campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic.
Some of the agencies that have benefitted from Vojtech’s expertise and skills include Edelman, Weber Shandwick, and Atomic PR (acquired by Grayling). His work in communications earned him PR Week’s “30 under 30” citation. He continues to be most inspired by the focus and determination of the entrepreneurs he works with every day.
Gorka currently works as a policy officer at the Capital Markets Unit of DG FISMA. Before joining the European Commission, Gorka worked at the Single Resolution Board for 3 years and previous to that he spent 7 years working in mergers and acquisitions, first at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, and then at EDP Renewables in Madrid, where he was an investment officer for renewable energy projects. At his current position at DG FISMA, he deals with policies related to access to finance for SMEs, including innovative and tech companies.