Boardwave X McKinsey Report

Europe's Moonshot Moment: Fuelling its Tech Ecosystem for Scale

Europe’s Tech Ecosystem is at a turning point. A rare alignment of geopolitical, regulatory, and technological shifts is creating new momentum and opportunity for Europe’s software sector, offering a critical window to build and scale global leaders.

In collaboration with McKinsey & Company, Boardwave has produced a new report offering an insider’s perspective on what’s working, and where focused change could unlock the region’s full potential and enable it to overcome some of the structural barriers, fragmented markets, and scarcity of late-stage capital that have historically prevented it from fulfilling its full potential. Grounded in firsthand insights from European tech founders, CEOs, investors, and ecosystem leaders, as well as Boardwave’s annual member survey, the report also examines the continent’s most successful software companies: those achieving over €100 million in ARR within 10 years or surpassing €500 million in 20 years.

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Report Authors

Ruben Schaubroeck

Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Phill Robinson

Co-Founder & CEO, Boardwave

Julien Gagnon

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Kath Easthope

COO & Co-Founder, Boardwave

Nick Padgett

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Aamanh Sehdev

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Imogen Sinclair

New Ventures Lead @ Arena SNK | Ex-McKinsey

Sounding Board

Chano Fernandez

Boardwave Ambassador, Klaviyo's co-Chief Executive Officer

Jean-Philippe Courtois

Boardwave Ambassador, President & Co-founder, Live for Good Chair, SKEMA Business School Former President and EVP at Microsoft Corp

Léo Apotheker

Boardwave Ambassador, Chairman, Syncron, Eudonet & Harvest Former CEO, SAP & HP

Stephane Kurgan

Co-Founder, QDE Studio Investor, Index Ventures Former COO, King Digital Entertainment

Vin Murria OBE

Boardwave Ambassador, Chair, CEO. Founder, NED and Investor. Softcat, Bunzl, ADVT, Molten Ventures

Yves Padrines

CEO, Nemetschek

Boardwave Contributors

Abakar Saidov

Co-Founder and Chair, Beamery

Achim Weick

Founder & CEO, EQS Group

Claudio Corbetta

Group CEO team.blue

Dawn Marriott

Boardwave Ambassador, Serial Exec Chair at Hg

Federico Leproux

Boardwave Ambassador, CEO Team System

Franck Cohen

Boardwave Ambassador, Chairman CYE, GoCardless, Nomadia

Maggie Buggie

Co-Founder In this Together

Martin Ott

CEO, Taxfix

Maxime Dubois

CEO, Normandia

Pippa Begg

CEO, Board Intelligence

Ruud Hendricks

Founder Startupbootcamp, Innoleaps & The Talent Institute

Sabine Bendiek

Boardwave Ambassador, Managing Director, SLB

Sian Jones

Founder & CEO, Correla

Susan Steele

Chair, Filtered Technologies | Venture Partner | Emerge VC Board Member, OpenClassrooms

Ready to scale faster with Europe's best

Boardwave is open to European tech founders and CEOs scaling to €100M ARR and beyond.
Membership is curated.
Tell us your stage. Tell us your ambition. We'll show you what's possible.
Boardwave members shaking hands while networking at a community event.

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Propel
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Highland Europe
KKR
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