(L-R) Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation; Franz Fayot, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy; Arthur Jordão, Executive Director of ESNA; Credit: MECO

During his working visit to Paris, France, on Wednesday 14 June 2023, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, presented the new strategy for the future development of Luxembourg's startup ecosystem.

Minister Fayot presented the "From Seed to Scale" road map during a press conference organised at the Viva Technology (VivaTech) entrepreneurship fair in Paris. The road map proposes actions for the startup ecosystem to reach its next stage of maturity, by promoting the transition of young innovative companies to scale-ups that have an already proven business model.

Approved by Luxembourg's Government Council (Cabinet) on 9 June 2023, the road map and related measures are based on the inventory of the Luxembourg startup ecosystem, which was drawn up in 2022 with the support of the specialised firm Startup Genome, as well as on the needs gathered in the field, following a consultation process with the main stakeholders of the ecosystem.

In its latest mapping, the national innovation agency Luxinnovation has identified more than 550 active startups in Luxembourg for most of the priority areas of the country's economic diversification, such as cleantech, healthtech, fintech, space, industry 4.0 and cybersecurity.

The road map proposes a series of measures specifically adapted to the Luxembourg ecosystem which revolve around five main axes:

  1. Pursue efforts to support startups from their launch: while confirming efforts to support the startup and development of existing initiatives (e.g. Fit 4 Start), the objective is to increase the number of startups and facilitate breakthrough innovation through the creation of spin-offs;
  2. A more connected, stronger and more visible national ecosystem: through the development of the Startup Luxembourg platform allowing to connect more and more visibly all the actors of the ecosystem, the ambition is to strengthen the startup community and to increase the links between its various actors and to improve the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial environment as a whole;
  3. Improve access to talent for startups and scale-ups: using pragmatic and targeted actions, the aim is to enable startups to recruit more easily, particularly internationally, and with attractive forms of remuneration;
  4. Create an environment conducive to the development of scale-ups: promote open innovation, strengthen support for startups towards scale-ups, further promote private investment in startups, support them in obtaining financing and consolidating the international visibility of the Luxembourg ecosystem, etc.;
  5. A startup ecosystem anchored at the heart of the European Union: Luxembourg will continue to engage in European initiatives that build connected innovation ecosystems, such as the European Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA), in order to play a driving role and facilitate the access to European aid for innovative companies and for players in the ecosystem.

In line with the second axis, Luxinnovation announced its partnership with Dealroom, a company based in the Netherlands specialised in data aggregation and the creation of platforms for startup ecosystems, in order to further expand the functionalities of its Startup Luxembourg platform and in particular its mapping of startups.

In connection with the fifth axis, Minister Fayot officially announced Luxembourg's membership (via Luxinnovation) of ESNA.

Minister Fayot commented: "This road map guides Luxembourg's innovation and future action in favour of the startup ecosystem. Our economic fabric will be further strengthened by the dynamism of startups and scale-ups that contribute to our objectives of sustainable economic development and trust."

Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation, added: "As promoters of the Start Luxembourg initiative, we are committed to building on this roadmap and doing everything possible to develop new tools that will strengthen the cohesion and efficiency of our ecosystem."

This marked the fifth time that Luxembourg participated with a national pavilion, organised jointly by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy and Startup Luxembourg, in VivaTech. Minister Fayot, accompanied by the President of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, Fernand Ernster, visited the national pavilion and met the exhibitors hosted there on Wednesday. Afterwards, the Economy Minister attended the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Luxembourg's public incubator Technoport and the South Korea-based Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC). This MoU aims to strengthen their collaboration as well as bilateral support programmes for the development of innovative technology companies in EU-Asia markets.

Minister Fayot later visited the national pavilion of Belgium, where he met with Belgium's Secretary of State for Digitalisation, Mathieu Michel. The two went on to listen to French President Emmanuel Macron's speech in the main hall; the latter presented a national plan to support artificial intelligence (AI) in French and startups in general.

The day ended with an official reception at the residence of the Ambassador of Luxembourg in Paris, Marc Ungeheuer, organised in collaboration with the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of the Economy. About 100 people attended.