In partnership with
DEEP ECOSYSTEMS CONFERENCE ESSEN, GERMANY
Oct 2021
360
The 2nd edition of the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Conf- erence took place in Essen, Germany on 18th October 2021. The event was held at the Impact Hub Ruhr and convened ecosystem lead- ers, entrepreneurs, policy makers and investors from across Europe and beyond to foster discussion and strengthen connections between startup ecosystem counterparts and create a virtual think tank for a deep analysis on the most pressing challenges that startup ecosystems face today. The one-day conference comprised a plenary session on impact, three data-driven workshops hosted by leading ecosystem orga- nizations, keynotes by thought-leaders, networking sessions, and a presentation of the DEEP Ecosystems Accelerator followed by our Ecosystem Project Award. Each conference session related to exploration of topics with a high potential to determine the success of ecosystems, with a particular focus on impact. The DEEP Conference hosted a panel discussion on Cities & Impact with Invest Stockholm, Climate Founders and H2UB. The event also featured keynotes with High-Tech Gründer- fonds on learnings of involving private and public investors in the German ecosystem, as well as Amazon Web Services on how working with the startup ecosystem helps AWS to build its platform. The conference also com- bined data-driven work- shops with expert present- ations and structured dis- cussions on emerging trends and ecosystems’ challenges. Topics included Future of Work, the Value of Exits and Financing Models for Social Entrepreneurship. The an- alysis and recommen- dations developed during workshops are presented in this publication. The event also provided a forum for open networking between participants with startup portfolio exchange included, whereas 360 startups have been re- presented. The conference has been closed by presentation of the DEEP Ecosystem Accelerator Gen- eration #2 and the Ecosystem Project Award, where 5 ecosystem ini- tiatives pitched their projects to the audience.
We need to talk...
Thomas Kösters CEO 
DEEP Ecosystems
STARTUPS REPRESENTED
The DEEP Ecosystems Conference brings together professional innovation managers and ecosystem builders to discuss the emerging trends in the field, learn from each other and initiate collaborations.
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Highlights
About DEEP Ecosystems
DEEP Ecosystems is a world-wide community of tech ecosystem builders who collaborate to build more transnational, incl- usive, entrepreneur- driven and impactful innovation systems. The main activities of DEEP are the Startup Heatmap Europe, an unparalleled database on ecosystem development metrics, the DEEP Ecosystem Conf- erence, which brings together a community of more than 400 professional ecosystem leaders twice a year. Finally, DEEP orga- nizes the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator which directly supports the growth of local ecosystems. DEEP regularly organizes peer knowledge exchanges and educational formats for ecosystem builders ranging from Ecosystem Hacks, data trainings to full-scale educational programs.
Take a step back, look at the big picture, find a strategy to create impact - DEEP Ecosystems Conf- erence offers a space to share ideas and brainstorm with peers, uninterrupted by startup pitches, without need to impress investors you can focus on honest and constructive exchange among professionals.
FEMALE PARTICIPATION
This publication sum- marizes the discussions among ecosystem leaders from all over Europe and beyond on how to tackle emerging challenges and ongoing dynamics in innovation support. It brings together the extensive research in preparation of the conference as well as the many inputs shared during the event and workshops.
On this Publication
A big thank you to the individuals on the DEEP Team who contributed greatly to this publication: Valentina Forrer Dr. Erica Santini Irina Ispas Takhmina Lolakova Thomas Kösters
Why an 
Ecosystem Builder Conference?
Executive Summary
COUNTRIES
20
The Center of Leadership in the future of Work at the University of Zurich focuses on the human side of the future of work. It promotes joint studies between business and academia, offers learning programs on people-centered leadership and supports startups. The Center co-hosted the Future of Work Deep Dive at the DEEP Conference and presented the Global HR Valley, which is a future-of-work ecosystem aiming to change the world of work.
Invest Stockholm
Impact Hub Ruhr is part of a global network and is committed to anchoring innovation through sustainable approaches. As a coworking space, event organizer and consultant, it connects freelancers, creatives, social entrepreneurs and companies in the same mission. As an event partner for the DEEP Conference, it brought together ecosystem leaders across the world to Essen to explore topics with a high potential to determine the success of ecosystems.
Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, University of Zurich
PARTNERS
IMPACT HUB Ruhr
Invest Stockholm is the official investment promotion agency of Stockholm that promotes and develops Stockholm as a business and tourist destination under the brand Stockholm – The Capital of Scandinavia. Focusing on impact ecosystem, Invest Stockholm has partnered with DEEP Conference and led a panel discussion on “Cities & Impact: Can Entrepreneurs and Cities jointly accelerate the sustainable transition?â€
"
What Participants Say
Click to see the videos
Jaber Tannay Senior Vice President at 
Corum Group
Perrine Lhuillier Head of Partnerships and Communications, UZH at University of Zürich
Martyna Waliszewska Investment Manager at 
Invest in Odense
Gergo Kalcsics Senior Manager VC Business Development Team at AWS
Vidar Andersen Founding Principal at +Andersen & Associates
Our mission is to create the best startup ecosystem in Japan. To do so, we need to learn about how to build a good ecosystem for entrepreneurs. That's why we came here, to learn from other participants and exchange!
Miho Tanaka Shibuya Startup Support, Tokyo, Japan
Jenny Berthling Invest Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Christina Weber Naturland Fair & Social Responsibility, Munich, Germany
Raluca Preluca Co-founder & Community Manager at consolid8
Dr. Anke Cassing Principal in the Life Sciences Investment Team at High-Tech Gründerfonds
Shivam Dhawan Founder & CEO at 
GetBoarded Technologies
Contributors
In our DEEP Dive we attempted to define that emerging space, which is taking shape between HRtech and EdTech. And it was a fascinating journey together with peers from all over Europe and the ideas we generated!
Jenny Berthling Senior Business Development Manager at Invest Stockholm
Text
I am completely inspired. I'm going back with a lot of memos that I will work around. The most interesting thing is that I came here to match two worlds: The fair business and the organic farmers perspective and the tech perspective, because we have to work on the society and we have to end silo thinking!
It was so exciting! I was so delighted to be in front of the audience, to be able to have this direct interaction with the colleagues and other ecosystem builders. The experience was just amazing.
Perrine Lhuillier Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, Zurich, CH
Ulrike Trenz Co-Founder and Managing Director at Impact Hub Ruhr
Cyril Okoroigwe Chief Executive Officer at
RegTech Africa
Jan Verkooijen Co-founder & Capital Management Director at WorldStartup
Harald Eisenhauer Co-Founder DEEP Ecosystems & Head of Platform
Takhmina Lolakova Project Manager DEEP Ecosystems Conference, european startup initiative
Dr. Serghei Glinca Co-Founder CrystalsFirst & DEEP Ecosystems
Christina Weber Teamleader Naturland Fair & Social Responsibility
David C. Stephenson Officer Digital Economy and Business Models at the Ministry for Economy of the State of Northrhine-Westphalia
Markus Sudhoff Founder & CEO at
Climate Founders
Valentina Forrer Research Fellow european startup initiative
Sebastian Diaz Mesa Co-Founder DEEP Ecosystems and Head of Accelerator & Community
Irina Ispas Analyst at DEEP Ecosystems
Kathy Mulders-Vredeveldt Senior Consultant at 
Entre Vistro
Uwe Kerkmann Build-up Team H2UB Essen
Maria João Silva Brand Marketing Manager at 
GetBoarded
Leyla Karaha Founder at 
Your Y Network
Benedikt Brester Co-Founder - Programs, Finance, Business Development Impact Hub Ruhr
Dr. Erica Santini Professor Universit of Trento, President european startup initiative, Co-Founder DEEP Ecosystems
Almost all of our participants work directly with startups and the DEEP Portfolio list combined information on over 360 startups that could directly be reached by the conference attendees. This kind of portfolio exchange powers internationalization and scale-up growth.
The sectors of startups ranged from Robotics represented by Invest Odense who manage one of the most successful clusters for automation in Europe to Sport & Fashion. The latter has a strong base around serial entrepreneur Jacob Fatih, who built one of Germany's most successful fitness startups in Essen and runs the Crealize incubator there now. Impact and Deep Tech companies are represented by our Host Impact Hub and for example the H2Hub in Germany which focuses on Hydrogen startups. Of course due to our DEEP Dive into the Future of Work also HRtech startups represented by Alt+F summit could not be missed.
360 startups represented by our Ecosystem Builders
Total jobs created in the startup sector by city per month
Startup by Sectors
Origins of startups represented during the DEEP Ecosystems Conference
Statistics on the Conference
Jan Feb Mar
20 countries represented
Diversity is Key
The 62 participants share a common profession but arrive from a wide range of different backgrounds. This diversity is not only enriching for the exchange, but also is the cornerstone of new knowledge creation through the re-combination of insights and experiences that can only grow among a diverse set of people.
The participants attending the DEEP Ecosystems Conference in Essen came from all over the world. We brought ecosystem builders, innovation managers, investors, entrepreneurs and policy makers from Chile and Japan to our community of European ecosystems.
180 150 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 10 0
In this high-level panel discussion representatives of the City of Stockholm, the Essen-based hydrogen innovation hub H2UB and the Climate Founders accelerator discussed how sustainable innovation can succeed.
Co-hosted by consolid8
Can Cities and Entrepreneurs Speed Up the Sustainable Transition?
Co-hosted by University of Zurich Center for Leadership in Future of Work and getboarded
DEEP Dive 1: Future of Work
"How working with the Startup ecosystem helps AWS to build its platform"
Metropolitan areas have set themselves ambitious sustain- ability goals ranging from climate to waste management, to education as well as urban mobility that often go beyond what state governments can agree on. For example Stockholm has an ambitious goal of making Sweden's capital carbon- neutral by 2040 with a plan that overtakes the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. At the same time it is clear that such objectives demand techno- logical solutions that are not yet on the market. Startups appear to be an apparent partner for cities on this path and during our panel we have seen that both our host city Essen as well as co-host Stockholm are betting on their innovation ecosystems to help them on this journey. Stockholm's mayor Anna König Jerlmyr has recently announced the ambition to turn Stockholm in the epicenter for impact investments and startups. Of course the story of northvolt gives credibility to this plan, as it is Europe's most successful impact unicorn with over 6.5bn € in capital raised to date. There is however much more to this, as Jenny Berthling of the city of Stockholm says: "We need to work together with other cities and private initiatives who share our vision of transforming Europe into a green economy to learn from each other and grow together." This idea is mirrored by Uwe Kerkmann of H2HUB head- quartered in Essen, saying that there is more need for international collaboration: "We have large industry players in the region who want to partner with startups in the hydrogen sector, but we cannot only focus on startups from here. We need to bring together the excellence of the world on an international level and not compete who is the most innovative region." Markus Sudhoff of Climate Founders is delighted to hear such statements from the city side, as he is accelerating startups with his private accelerator and sees an enormous potential in the collaboration of startups with cities in the future: "If cities setup procurement processes to allow also emerging innovators to provide solutions for their problems, they can turn into testbeds for the future." Finally, all three agree that the current wave of investments in CleanTech industries as well as EdTech and other sustainable business sectors offers an opportunity to match startups with disruptive technologies with the needs of cities trying to improve the lives of their citizens.
DEEP Dive 2: The Value of Exits
Part II: DEEP Dives
Keynote: Gergo Kalcsics, Senior Manager VC Business Development at Amazon Web Services
Part I: DEEP Visions
DEEP Dive 3: Financing Models for Social Innovation
Keynote: Anke Cassing, Principal in the Life Sciences Investment Team at High-Tech Gründerfonds
Co-hosted by Corum Group
Part IV: DEEP Accelerate
Welcome and Introduction
Thomas Kösters, Co-Founder & CEO at DEEP Ecosystems Ulrike Trenz, Co-founder & Managing Director at Impact Hub Ruhr Dr. Erica Santini, Head of Research at Startup Heatmap Benedikt Brester, Co-founder of Impact Hub Ruhr
Part III: DEEP Match
Cities & Impact
co-hosted by Invest Stockholm A Panel discussion: Jenny Berthling, Senior Business Development Manager at Invest Stockholm Markus Sudhoff, CEO & Founder at Climate Founders Uwe Kerkmann, Build-Up Team H2UB Essen, Germany
Ecosystem Project Pitch Competition & Awards
Cities & Impact: Can Entrepreneurs and Cities jointly accelerate the sustainable transition?
“16 years of HTGF: Learnings from shaping the German Deep Tech Ecosystem by bringing together public and private investorsâ€
AGENDA 18th October 2021 Essen Germany
>600 weekly curated calls for startups
Database with >8,500 startups
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The Startup Heatmap
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All Ecosystems in Europe
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The Ecosystem Pitch Competition offered a unique glimpse into current projects peer innovation managers are implementing around the globe. During the 5 minute pitch the contestants have to follow similar rules as startup founders and must answer questions on the unique value proposition of their ecosystem, the concrete objectives of their project and what impact it will generate in the long-term. Some projects are looking for partners among the audience others are just eager to gain feedback and learn from the peer exchange on a global level.
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The development of start-up ecosystems is an important factor for the economic development of regions and countries. The rapid transformation of digital technologies requires not only the necessary structural conditions but also the consideration of the cultural, social, conceptual and financial factors that support start-ups in their emergence and development. The resulting complexity is beyond the scope of classical management models and poses a new challenge to people with a mandate to contribute to the ecosystem. The professional group of "managers of the start-up scene" or Startup Ecosystem Builders is facing up to this task and needs targeted further training courses in order to always be informed about the latest findings and best practices and to critically review their own approaches.
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on Exits & Their Value
The growing number of successful startups in Europe promises a wave of exits in the near future. It usually takes 10-15 years from the foundation of a startup until it exits successfully on the capital market either via a M&A transaction or an initial public offering on the stock market. Therefore, for the European startup ecosystem we have not yet seen a lot of exits, as the height of startup activity was reached only in the years between 2012-2016. 2021 has been a particular year, with effects of the pandemic, driving traditional companies to invest in digitalization and therefore increase their appetite to acquire existing digital startups. Until October Europe saw 84 new startup unicorns, overtaking China's unicorn growth of only 21 unicorns in 2021 (Dealroom). With a growth of 2.9x YoY, Europe is the fastest growing major region by venture capital invest- ment growing faster than the US and Asia. The total investment sum at time of writing in 2021 stood at 49 bn €. 65 of the 170 cities globally that have at least one unicorn are in Europe (Dealroom, Startup cities in the Entrepreneurial Age). In 2021 the number of exits grew by +89% compared to 2020, which itself was +38% higher than 2019. This is the first time Europe saw more than 2,000 exits in a year since 2017. This increase is not only important as a signalling for Venture Capital that investments in startups pay off, but also in the creation of entrepreneurial talent with experience of exits and own capital to re-invest.
THE VALUE OF EXITS
Most companies never exit, but stay private Around 12% of companies go bankrupt before they get bought If companies exit, it takes on average 15 years from their foundation until the big day Only 0.2% of European companies exit via an IPO 46% of all exits in the Health sector of the past decade happened in 2020 and 2021
2021 has seen the highest number of venture exits since 2017 in Europe. The total exit transaction value surpassed 421bn € at the time of the DEEP Ecosystems Conference in October. During the conference we came together with experts from startup hubs all around Europe and even beyond to discuss what the effects of exits on the ecosystem could be and how we can ensure the positive re-percussions we hope for are actually achieved.
How Successful Startups Fuel Ecosystem Growth in A City
DEEP Dive The Value of Exits for Ecosystems
Top 5 Facts
The Nutrition Cycle of Ecosystems
PayPal alumni who started their own companies after PayPal got sold to eBay in 2002 are called the PayPal Mafia. They started to reinvest money in other startups through VCs firms. 100+ companies grew from this group, example companies of the PayPal Mafia are: LinkedIn, Yelp, Yammer, Keva, Palantir, Flickr, Mozilla,T esla, SpaceX, and Facebook.
2021 saw a strong increase in the number of exits in Europe (+89%), taking up the exit market from an all time low of less than 1,000 exits per year in 2019 to the levels of 2015-2018 again. In terms of transaction value 2021 was a record year with the double of the sums recorded in the previous years.
Timeline of Exits and Transaction Sums in Europe
Time to Exit
There are large regional differences between European cities in terms of exits. Not only the sums of exits are varying but also the growth. While London has by far the largest exit market with an average of 24.1bn € per year, the largest growth have been recorded in Manchester (+800%) and Oslo (+780%). The numbers are however driven by singular events mostly. For example Essen's 2nd rank in the average yearly sums of exits is explained by the spinout of ThyssenKrupp's TKE which was sold for more than 17bn € in 2020. With such a volatility we cannot correlate the current volume of exits with the startup activities in various cities over the past 10 years. This is explained also by the time it takes until exit, that averages at 15 years. Therefore it is rather important to look at the effect of exits in the past on the growth of startups today than the other way around.
Top 10 Cities based on Exits 2018-2020
*Essen: TKE - a spinout of ThyssenKrupp, sold for >17bn € in 2020.
Source: Own calculations based on dealroom.co
There is at least 30 companies that were founded by Skype alumni, among them the Atomico ventures fund by Niklas Zennström, that is one of Europe’s most active investors. Three are holding the status of Unicorn:Bolt (HQ in Estonia), Wise (HQ in UK but founded by Estonians) and Pipedrive (HQ in US but with Estonian founders).
Successful founders who exit their companies can obtain a level of wealth that exceeds their individual needs for a good livelihood putting them in a position to re-invest into other projects and startups. For the ecosystem a positive effect can be expected by exits that “free up†experienced entrepreneurs. This effect is larger the more aligned the ecosystem is to support these re-investments. There is two cycles that drive the growth of an ecosystem: The recycling of failing entrepreneurs who give back their experience and the re-investment by successful founders who bring both their experience and own capital.
There is around 180 companies founded by ex-Rocket internet employees Among them are the unicorn neobank N26, smart home application tado° or Kreditech, Germany’s once biggest fintech that re-branded to Monedo before it went bankrupt in 2020.
The Master of the Exit
This paper results from our conversations around the DEEP Dive on the "Value of Exits" during the DEEP Ecosystems Conference in Essen on 18th October. The issue that we discussed is the impact of M&A exits on an ecosystem. Does M&A add value to an Ecosystem? Or does it only have a negative impact by taking away the best technologies and selling them to foreign firms? I was very interested by DEEP Ecosystem’s approach that introduces a geographical angle to its analysis. At Corum Group, we have a global method where boarders and geo- graphy are irrelevant. Our focus is on advising Tech entrepreneurs in finding the best M&A exit any geo- graphy. Still, we work with many entrepreneurs and have firsthand experience of M&A exits. I thought that by combining both methods, we could extract interesting insights. For this paper, we focused on three representative European ecosystems: Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris. These three are large enough to provide sufficient M&A data for analysis. We have only used publicly available data from Pitchbook, Capital IQ, and 451Research. These three sources provided us with data on 2680 firms, 2329 investments, and 856 M&A deals. The firms in our research are all innovative firms focused on digital tech, and the timeframe is the decade that ended in 2020. The first observation is the strong correlation between M&A exits and investments. Within each of the three ecosystems, an increase in M&A activity is strongly correlated with an increase in investments. In Paris, the correlation ratio is 76%. Amsterdam and Berlin see correlations ratios equal to respectively 59% and 70%. One explanation of this could be the availability of funds to founders, and professional investors, that had a successful exit and that reinvest in startups in the same or nearby ecosystem. Our data shows that the majority of the founders (71%) were still with the acquirer firm four years after the acquisition. A higher percentage are still based in the same region and the ones that left and restarted another venture tend to also do so in the same region. Another possible reason for the correlation between M&A and investments is the increase in expertise of each Ecosystem. A successful entrepreneur has more funds after an exit, but also more experience and sophistication. This is true in technology and marketing terms; it is also true for the financial aspects of a deals. The way ventures were funded in 2020 is more diverse and sophisticated than it was in 2010. The second observation is that M&A in the three ecosystems is mostly Euro- pean, with about 65% of acquisitions in Berlin and Paris made by European buyers. In Amsterdam, the ratio is 60%. Amsterdam is not only the most open ecosystem to non-European acquirers, but also the one that grew faster in number of deals over the decade. The third observation is that M&A is rather an exception when it comes to exits, with only 10% of the firms which went through a successful M&A exit. This is lower than the rate of bankruptcies which is equal to 12%. Among the remaining firms, 0.2% experienced an exit via an IPO and the remaining 78% were still privately held. Our conclusion is that M&A does contribute positively to an ecosystem by providing more funds for investments in innovative startups and by increasing the financial sophistication of the ecosystem. By the way, this is the only “exit†offered to European firms as IPOs represent only a marginal number of exits.
PARIS
Jaber Tannay
2009: Founded by Martijn van Horssen and Hans Disch 2015: Funding from Newion 2018: Serie A from No Such Ventures
2019: Exit to Amino Tech (nka: Aferian) a London Stock Exchange company Today: Both founders still with acquirer
2014: Founded by Jasmine Anteunis and Patrick Joubert 2016: VC Round of 2M€ Kima Ventures 2018: Exit to SAP Today: Jasmine is still working for SAP. Patrick founded a new venture.
AMSTERDAM
1996: Founded by Frank Zahn 2014: Funding from SGT 2019: Acquisition by Endava Today: Founder still working with acquirer.
BERLIN
The numbers of companies who reach an exit event in their lifetime is relatively low. 78.32% stay private, while 11.79% go bankrupt. Only around every 10th company is acquired via a M&A transaction (9.69%) and only 0.2% of startup companies go to an IPO. Below three examples of typical exits in Europe's main startup capitals Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin that show both the timeline as well as the typical situation of founders after the acquisition, which often leads to the founder still working for the aquirer.
Senior Vice President at Corum Group
Jaber has over 25 years of experience in the technology sector. He has also invested time and funds into start-ups and young companies over the recent years in a diverse range of sectors. Earlier in his career, he worked as equity analyst covering Software stocks for ABN-AMRO, and held senior positions in global accounts management within SAP.
Types of Exits
Investment Manager at Invest in Odense
Odense's Robotics Cluster
Martyna Waliszewska
A Positive Re-Investment Story
Correlation of past Exits with Today's Investments
Odense is a Danish city, with over 200 000 inhabi- tants, that is ‘the-place -to-be’ when it comes to robotics. The strength of the local cluster lays within robotics, drone and automation applications, with a unique know-how in regard to cobots, which are robots capable of working alongside humans. With +145 companies, it is one of the densest clusters, which in first 5 years of its existence has attracted over 860mn € in investments. Nevertheless, couple of decades ago, Odense has been a steel shipyard town that was slowly running out of steam. One of the strategies to aid the industry, was to investigate auto- mation solutions for manu- facturing with a research grant for a local university. Although it was not an immediate success, it has created a base for research that has contributed to establishing the knowledge base for the future cluster. What is differentiating the Odense-based cluster is a unique combination of Danish culture and a welfare state approach, where the citizens have the opportunity to take the risk and establish a company. Local institut- ions are collaborating with each other and the entrepreneurs are openly sharing knowledge, ex- perience, and even their past employees. A significant milestone for the ecosystem was the ac- quisition of Universal Robots by Teradyne in 2015, which has put the city of Odense on the map. It has been followed by several other acquisitions & IPOs and has resulted in an influx of capital that was reinvested locally. The importance of re-investment cycles in the ecosystem become very clear looking at the trajectory Odense's startup scene has taken. Only three years after this major exit, in 2018, MiR (Mobile industrial Robots) has also been acquired, which was another event that solidified Odense as a go-to place for robotics companies, but also ignited a reinvestment culture. Exit capital from those 2 exits has been circulating in the Odense-based robotics cluster ever since. The experience gained over the lifespan of the local cluster have highlighted the role of government in the form of the management organization of the cluster. I has found its role as a facilitator with a strong customer-oriented mindset. The focus should always lie on fostering already existing capabilities and pheno- menon, rather than trying to enforce new ones. Under- standing local communities and resources allow to create an environment around the ecosystem and to connect people in a value-creating manner. Best practices developed over the last couple of years, are a great toolbox, which can be used to develop other strongholds within the local economy. In the city of Odense, this happens for example within the medical cannabis sector. Based on the traditions of the island of Funen in horti- culture, research institution and close collaboration with local hospitals, the city is turning its faith once again towards the local entrepreneurs to capitalize on already existing capabilities. Currently, 100% of certified medical cannabis producers in Denmark are based on the island, which are attracting interest from both Danish and inter- national investors. 1/3 of medical cannabis sold in Germany is imported from Denmark, were in terms of the possibilities of the local cluster, the industry has only scratched the surface. The experiences of Odense in nurturing a world-class robotics cluster through strong re-investment cycles of entrepreneurs who after exiting their companies turn to investors themselves has helped to create a blueprint for the City of Odense and its public institutions on how to create functioning innovation ecosystems around nascent verticals.
Odense is a world class robotics cluster that outperforms major startup hubs like London or Berlin year over year when it comes to Robotics investments. This case study highlights how exits and careful public policy made it possible.
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Not only founders, but also employees can be part of a positive re-investment cycle. The company Revolut has produced more than 70 millionaires owning more than 10mn USD (Sifted). Also Wise gives its employees vested options and recently allowed them to turn these shares into cash. A group of alumni used this benefit to start a new company called Salv. In May 2021 startup associations from all over Europe demanded that ESOPs should be taxed as capital gains, not ordinary income(full text)
Combining public initiatives with the leadership and vision of successful entrepreneurs from the region offers the chance to accelerate ecosystem growth. Founders who have exited - even with smaller amounts - can leverage the public funding and support structures to place bets on emerging business fields. Such an approach can counterbalance the effect of small exits in Europe so far, which gave founders enough capital to live a carefree life, but not enough to leave a dent in the global startup scene.
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Not only did alumni of companies with successful exits like skype, uber or Rocket Internet use their networks to pool their funding, but also to speed up the replication of the success in new firms. It might be counter intuitive for public servants to nourish companies that focus on e-commerce, mobile games or delivery services, but in the end these companies create the experiences, talent pool and capital needed to tackle real world problems through innovation. This is shown by the many deep tech companies founded by alumni of very profane startups.
Ecosystem Angels
Encourage the Emergence of Mafias
Ease the Use of Employee Stock Options
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Leyla F Karaha
YourY Network is a global community of social entrepreneurs and changemakers. They are working on launching their new initiative called WE Founders
collaborate to attract Funding
YourY was supported by the DEEPSEA program - our 6-week Acceleration program for ecosystem projects
Social Entrepreneurs & Funding
The DEEP Dive on Financing Models for Social Entrepreneurship organized together with consolid8 from Romania, Naturland in Germany and EntreVistro in the Netherlands started with a look at the frenzy of investments being labelled "impact" in the past year. While the word impact is seemingly mentioned in every financing round today, local supporters of social entrepreneurship report a continued struggle of socially oriented founders to find financing. This separation between "investable" impact startups in deep tech and the neglect of investors for socially-driven solutions created the motivation to explore new ways of financing beyond venture capital for social entrepreneurs.
Female Minority Founders
An Interview with the Founder of YourY Network
Global Funding for Impact Focused Startups over Time
Commonwealth Fusion System: The US-based company aims to find a new way of power production through collecting energy directly from the sun and has raised over 2bn USD to date.
ecovadis: The French platform allows companies to assess the environmental and social performance of their suppliers and raised >200mn € so far.
What is the WE Founders initiative? YourY Network’s WE Founders initiative aims to equip new female impact / social entrepreneurs with the right mindset and confidence building work- shops to be more resilient in the startup world. Why does the WE Founders initiative focus on female impact / social entrepreneurs? Research showed us that more females tend to want to set up impact startups. However, women have their own unique sets of challenges to work on before they can become successful in this space. What makes an impact / social entrepreneur? An impact / social entre- preneur is an individual who is driven to make a sustainable, positive and social impact in our society. How can we reduce the funding gap for women founders in general and women impact startup founders? We need more women in every area, from VC, impact and ESG investments to more women founders. If we all decide to make an impact in all of these spaces then the funding figures in the near future won’t still be at 2% investments that go to female founders. How do you see the current fundraising records in “purpose-driven†startups? Is it real or is it greenwashing? We are living in a capitalist world and ESG and Impact investments are trending at the moment so there definitely will be some greenwashing but at least now there’s a large pool of investment that will also go to some of the real “purpose-driven†startups. What are you missing in the conversation about impact? More crowdfunding plat- forms to invest or finance social impact startups. The mainstream investment models don't really apply to impact startups and most impact investment copies the VC model. The increase of democratization to bridge the funding gap for impact startups will be a way forward. What other funding models for Impact / Social enterprise startups are out there? The social financing space is growing slowly, most of these organizations help bridge that financing gap that social enterprises need to fill. Also, more exploration in the co-op startups model space.
northvolt: The Swedish green energy startup focuses on the production of modern batteries to power the e-mobility revolution and has raised more than 6bn € so far.
Source: Startup Heatmap Europe
Source: Social enterprises: A hybrid spectrum. Source adapted from J. Kingston Venturesome, CAF Venturesome, and European Venture Philanthropy Association (2015)
Impact driven entre- preneurship is being adopt- ed by more and more busi- nesses throughout Europe. Given the urgency of tackling climate and social issues, more businesses than ever put their efforts into solving one or several United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the same time, environ- mental, social, and gov- ernance (ESG) criteria are an increasingly popular way for investors to evaluate companies in which they might want to invest: ·In the US, the current level of ESG investing is now over 20% of all profes- sionally managed assets, at over USD 11 trillion (2018); ·Data from Morningstar, which include open-ended funds and exchange traded funds, show that the number of launches of funds that use ESG criteria increased from 140 globally in 2012 to 564 in 2019; ·The Global Impact Invest- ing Network (GIIN) est- imates an annual average growth rate of 12% between 2015 and 2019 worldwide. The European impact start- up market is ambivalent and very much focused on CleanTech and Climate Tech: ·Atomico and Dealroom estimated impact start-ups in Europe to have received >5bn € in 2020 alone (55% addressed climate quest- ions); ·Even though not marketed as a financing instrument for impact enterprises, the European Innovation Cou- ncil Accelerator has selected for funding since 2019 mainly impact driven enter- prises active in the Climate Tech or MedTech sectors; ·However, an analysis by DEEP Ecosystems has shown start-ups starting under the same conditions as their peers in Europe’s Top 100 accelerators raised 77% less capital compared to the average if they focused on the environment Financing Models of Social Entrepreneurship: Social Entrepreneurship has an inherent difficulty to find external funding, mainly due to the following reasons: ·Reduced focus on profit- ability and therefore return of investment ·Little incentives for financial investors to consider alt- ernative returns ·In case investors consider alternative returns, there is a remaining difficulty to quant- ify impact ·Lack of growth mindset among impact founders, who like to act locally, rather than to build “impact uni- corns†·Lack of business skills among social entrepreneurs who tend to focus almost exclusively on impact, rather than building a solid business model that can ensure the growth of their companies Current financing opportunities Based on the maturity of the social enterprise, impact businesses can seek fund- ing from a variety of financial products that should be designed to their needs. Nevertheless, all data indicates that there need to be made improvements so that the demand for social finance can be fully met by the supply. 1.Grants The EU makes available different grant programs, especially as seed / pre- seed financing for social impact startups (both NGOs/ and for-profit social enter- prises). Most EU granting opportunities are very comp- etitive and only a few entrepreneurs get funded. At the same time, small social enterprises are generally unable to cope with complex administrative procedures that usually are used in grants implementation according to a study published by the European Commission. Examples: ·EU Programme for Em- ployment and Social Inno- vation (EaSI) - social enter- prises access investments of up to EUR 500,000 via public and private invest- ors at national and regional level. For the period 2021- 2027 the EaSI programme will become a strand under the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and it has an allocated budget of almost € 99.3 billion. ·Some member states have designed programs support- ing social innovation and social entrepreneurs through national ESF allocations for the 2014-2020 financial period (e.g. Portugal), and are currently planning new specific priorities under the 2021-2027 ESF+ financial period ·Social enterprises receive support through pilot equity investments under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) Equity instrument, namely via funds linked to incubators / accelerators and co- investments with social Business Angels. Grants are also made available through CSR programs of large corp- orations for specific projects of social impact enterprises, but the timeline for launching such calls is unpredictable. 2. Crowdfunding Individuals / companies from a community fund a specific cause to reach a defined target amount of money in a limited period of time. There are four types of crowdfunding: ·Donation based crowd- funding: usually for NGOs; a campaign initiator gathers donations from a large pool of people. Example of platform for social entre- preneurs operating in Europe: GOTEO ·Rewards based crowd- funding: for social enter- prises that offer a product / service on the market. Individuals / companies contribute to a campaign in order to receive a reward (a product / service that the entrepreneur sells in advance). Example of platform for social entre- preneurs operating in Europe: consolid8 ·Lending based crowd- funding: The crowd lends money to a social enterprise with the understanding that the money will be repaid with interest. Examples of platforms for social entre- preneurs operating in Europe: Lumo, inno- investment ·Equity based crowdfunding: The crowd invests in a social enterprise in ex- change for shares in that specific social enterprise. Example of platform for social entrepreneurs operat- ing in Europe: Bolsa Social A current trend that should be further developed is match-funding – combining grants with crowdfunding instruments. The European Crowdfunding Network has shown that match-funding practices have increased in the European Union over the past three years. The flexibility of crowdfunding models and platforms has allowed for new partnerships with public administrations in a range of different orga- nizational, political, social, and economic contexts. 3. Impact investing As mentioned above, invest- ors seek more and more to invest in impact businesses. The Global Impact Investing Network mentions that “while some investors have been making impact invest- ments for decades, recently there has emerged a new collaborative international effort to accelerate the development of a high- functioning market that supports impact investing. While this market is still relatively new, investors are optimistic overall about its development and expect increased scale and efficiency in the futureâ€. Examples: ·Bethnal Green Ventures, a London-based VC. The company was founded in 2012, and focuses on impact tech. It clearly stands by gender equality, with 52% of female founders in their portfolio. ·Norrsken VC, based in Stockholm. The company was cofounded by Niklas Adalberth, one of the creators of Klarna. ·FASE has the vision to create a thriving ecosystem for social innovation by boosting impact finance across Europe. Their vision was supported by the EU through different support mechanisms ·Tilia Impact Ventures is the first impact fund in the Czech Republic investing in social enterprises. ·Demeter probably the largest impact investor in Europe. Major player in venture capital and private equity for the ecological transition. 4. Microfinance Microcredit & microloans offered by non-banking financial institutions to social enterprises backed by the European Union through the Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion (EaSI) pro- gramme 5. Ethical Banks Target more mature social enterprises that can show traction and assets or are local banks that have a better understanding of the needs of social entrepreneurs and their business models; usually their products are backed by guarantees under the EaSI programme. Examples: ·FEBEA network (European Federation of Ethical and and Alternative Banks and Financiers) - it gathers 33 financial institutions from 15 countries in Europe, with the aim of developing and promoting ethical finance principles. ·Aspiration- does not invest in fossil fuels, weapons and the bank donates 10% of every dollar that its customers spend to charity. ·Amalgamated Bank- is a New York-based bank that focuses on strengthening communities through re- newable energy efforts and affordable housing ini- tiatives. ·Sunrise Bank focuses on driving social projects that improve the lives of community members across the country. ·Commercial banksthat offer services for social entre- preneurs (example: Erste Bank) 6. Quasi-equity debt A quasi-equity debt security is particularly useful for enterprises that are legally structured as nonprofits and therefore cannot obtain equity capital. Such a security is technically a form of debt, but it has an important characteristic of an equity investment: Its returns are indexed to the organization’s financial per- formance. Example: ·Bridges Social Entre- preneurs Fund loaned £1 million to HCT – a company which uses surpluses from its commercial London buses, school buses, and Park & Ride services to provide community trans- portation for people who are unable to use the conventional public trans- port. ·Quasi Equity Debt feature: The fund takes a percentage of the revenues and shares some of the risks and gains of the business. By tying up the loan to the revenue line, HCT has a strong incentive to manage the business efficiently. Usually, coven- ants on such loans are added to avoid the mission drifting away from social goals. 7. Pooling The pooling model has spread globally, with inno- vators such as IFMR Trust in Chennai, engaged in the securitization and structured finance of micro-finance loan portfolios in which they retain an invest- ment share. Example: ·InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF) by BlueOrchard lends to local micro-finance aggregators who give out micro and meso insurance products against extreme weather events and natural disasters. The value of IIF investments is further enhanced by designated technical and premium support funding. 8. Cooperative Model (co-op) A new strategy in fundraising is a business owned by its workers, users or a combination of both, which makes its decisions democratically and allows shared investments. The concept comes from the agricultural cooperative, where farmers united to create shared resources or sales channels. Examples: ·CoTech is an association of creative technology coop- eratives: o Each member of the network is a company that is owned and democratically run by it’s workers (and, in some cases, customers). o There are no private shareholders who take money out of the company and/or direct the company’s activities. Energy coop- erative: the first renew- able energy cooperative of Romania - raised more than 300.000 € among its mem- bers in the form of a loan in order to buy a clean energy supplier
News Mentions of Impact Startups on European Tech Blogs Over Time
Tim Schumacher
for the Circular Economy
An Interview with the Co-Founder of Consolid8
Crowdfunding
The first ever Romanian crowdfunding platform for social innovation. Satisfying a huge popular demand for supporting social impact startups in Romania, consolid8 matches the best startups from their accelerator with crowd investors.
Raluca Prelucă
Naturland is and association for organic agriculture is a private certification body and an organic farmers association. Since 1982 Naturland promotes organic agriculture throughout the world and is currently active in 50 countries
for Social Innovation in Romania
What we do in the meadows really matters. How will we eat and drink, produce food and conserve drinking water for an 8 billion people population on earth? Naturland as international organic farmers association pioneered food production in many ways: Organic and social audit, „farm2fork“ innovations and „fair business/ fair trade“ in production and processing food marks founding ideas of the association as well as urgent pathways for the future of a world society (Löwenstein, Felix: Food- crash). Naturland Fair has become certification stand- ard for global South and North. Standards and labels are market instruments to create trust and to save time on the consumer side by validating - prescribed and tracked - efforts in time, cost and quality on the meadows. Small farmers all over the world who cultivate soil and respect biodiversity while innovating organic inputs or testing digital solutions need support to compete on global markets. Industrial agricultural oligopols attract and consume most of investments. This challenge in the meadows is partly solved by collaboration namley creation of ICS (Internal Control Systems) that act as certification unit towards external actors while structuring needful standard processes for smallholders. So much mutual learning and reverse innovation can happen in the agricultural smallholder sector. And market entry, validation of standards, access to communication platforms and creation of trust are of similar value for start-ups that try to catch up with investors on highly regulated markets - like health, surgical technology or critcal infrastructures. Social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are needed in the global transformation to a sustainably bending and finally more circular economy. A future vision for an organic farmering fair business network, local-global, a Naturland Fair cosmos, might be a value proposition inherited by fair trade structures: Offering a planetary „window“ and realtime perspective based on trust. 

An Opinion by Naturland Teamleader Fair & Social Responsibility
Dr. Christina Weber
Trustbuilding
Consolid8 was supported by the DEEPSEA program - our 6-week Acceleration program for ecosystem projects
What is the status of Social Entrepreneurship in Romania? Social Entrepreneurship in Romania is a rather new concept, it is however recognized by a special law adopted by the national authorities in 2015. Social entrepreneurs in Romania have been mainly supported by programs ran under the European Social Fund, programs. In fact, thanks to the previous European financial exercise (2007- 2013) over 3,000 social enterprises received EU start-up grants. Yet, there is no evidence of who survived the inflow of “free money†and with no banking product to target the needs of the good willed social entre- preneurs that managed to access this initial batch of funds. The social finance market is still in a nascent phase in Romania and knowledge transfer on best practices and lessons learned in other markets is crucial. Why do you believe a new crowdfunding platform can succeed in Romania? We built consolid8 as a direct response to the needs of the social entrepreneurs we were supporting through our accelerators. We are not only a crowdfunding plat- form, but we offer supporting services to all the entre- preneurs that choose to run their campaigns with us. Crowdfunding has proven to be an excellent instrument for entrepreneurs to promote their products, get validation or pivot ideas in a rather early stage. We are not focusing on the quantity of the campaigns that we are running, but rather on their quality. Can you share an example of a successful project funded via your platform? Oilright Romania is one of the first impact businesses we supported through consolid8. Oilright collects used oil from households and industry and transforms it into scented candles working mainly with employees with disabilities. They received support in one of our acceleration programs and an initial investment of 100,000 € from the European Social Fund. In order to get additional funding and traction for their business, they developed a crowd- funding campaign that they ran on consolid8 in February and March 2021. They were successfully funded on consolid8 (111% of their goal). Apart from the money they made, they became more visible on the market and they secured new business partnerships with both corporates and also small businesses, creating new market opportunities Their collection network has also expanded, given the campaign reach outside of their initial bubble.
Most investors need clear impact metrics that the social enterprises should report on. The methodology should take into consideration that a “one-size-fits-all†is not suitable for the great variety of social enterprises and different impacts they are producing. Accelerators should build methodologies that can be replicated;
Closest Airports: Stuttgart 56min, Frankfurt Airport: 2h
Social entrepreneurs need acceleration services to become investment ready. Most social innovators in Europe need enhanced business skills to scale their business. Participants from all over Europe agreed that social entrepreneurs throughout all countries usually lack business skills as they are more focused on social impact. Investors will be more inclined to invest in impact start-ups if the teams would show strong business skills and drive; building local competence centres in social innovation that can support the up taking of impact driven initiatives into local businesses;
4
Mixed Funding Opportunities
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Local ecosystems should be supported in order to foster and generate new business ideas & collaborations. Ecosystem builders should focus on creating networks that could generate new partnerships and growth opportunities for changemakers.
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DEEP ECosystems Conference 2022 hosted in Ludwigsburg, Germany
Measure Impact
Match-funding supported through European/local public schemes can enhance the results of the granting opportunities and consolidate the sustainability and growth of the enterprises (eg: crowdfunding & grants). Local public authorities and national funding authorities should consider developing match-funding schemes to enhance the impact of their policies;
DEEP Dive The Future of Work
THE FUTURE OF WORK
Digital and non-digital transformations are re-defining how people work and innovate. The Future of Work DEEP Dive during the DEEP Ecosystems Conference, jointly led by EdTech software leader GetBoarded and the University of Zurich Center for Leadership in the Future of Work explored emerging fields of innovations shaping the Future of Work – across EdTech, HRTech and beyond. Fast-growing unicorns in the HR field are one indicator for the unparalleled potential of this space.
The world of work is changing rapidly. Digital- ization affects the nature of work, causing concern for how these changes will impact people. Artificial intelligence, and other new technologies are redefining relationships between humans and machines, and between humans them- selves. The workforce is becoming ever more diverse, mobile, and remote. Career trajectories are not linear, employees are demanding more flexibility. They are looking for more meaning, increasingly ad- hering to the motto of “working to live instead of living to work.†Mental health has become a central concern. According to Gartner, “The future of work describes changes in how work will get done over the next decade, influenced by technological, generational and social shifts.†Within this broad definition, a clearer tax- onomy of the fields of innovation in the future of work is yet to be defined. Two sectors are currently forming the basis of tech-induced transformation in the workplace: EdTech and HRTech. EdTech combines education & technology to bring together IT tools and practices to facilitate as well enhance learning. HRTech represents the umbrella term for tools used for automating and assisting human resources functions in organizations. As per the market statistics, of Market Research the Global EdTech & Smart Classroom Market size was estimated at USD 83.61 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 99.50 Billion in 2021, rising at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.34% to reach USD 241.58 billion by 2026. Many organizations are realizing that integrating new technologies is essential to train, reskill and upskill talents adapted to the new world of work. Digital learning across both the mainstream education and corporate worlds has been a major driver of revenue growth and investment for EdTech companies. For example, solutions such as Micro-Learning and Micro- Credit systems (for grading students) are already being experimented at universities to increase agility in the education process. Micro- learning market size is expected to grow from USD 1.5 billion in 2019 to USD 2.7 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 13.2% during the forecast period. The HRTech market, although not as big in absolute size as EdTech, is also showcasing very strong growth. Technological solut- ions are flourishing around all traditional HR functions across the employee life cycle, from candidate identification and assess- ment, to benefits systems, to exit interviews. The field is also moving beyond the focus on the individual employee life cycle to encompass solutions under- pinning new work practices, to include employee well- being, motivation and engagement for example. In addition to these developments education and human resources, new tech-powered solutions point to the emergence of a bigger “New Work†space. These solutions are transforming the way individual work (for example: solutions aimed at enhancing personal prod- uctivity), the way teams are built and function (with new tools for communication and collaboration), and even underpin the creation of new types of organizations (such as blockchain based decentralized autonomous organizations). Some of these emerging solutions rely on existing technologies (software as a service or marketplace technologies used to create new ways of collaborating, etc.). Others depend on future tech- nological leapfrogs (includ- ing fully immersive collab- oration experiences in the metaverse). Emerging seg- ments include collaborative and communications, digital creation, smart offices, individual and team productivity, etc. Beyond technological ad- vances, however, there is a need to embrace a broader definition of innovation in the future of work, if we want to improve it for humans. While COVID-19 has raised the stakes of leading with empathy, human questions remain neglected in scholar- ships as well as in broader conversations on the future of work. As a result, the development of human- centered solutions lags behind. For example, while emotional intelligence has been identified as one of the top ten skills of the decade, only 10% of companies systematically assess it. Google lead the way in rigorously applying science- based human insights to improve employee happi- ness and experience with its People Innovation Lab. With job stress estimated to cost employers more than $300 billion annually in the US alone, and many digital transformation projects failing because of lack of employee engagement, there is an immense opportunity to further lever- age both tech-based and human-enabled solut- ions to build a more positive future of work for people.
• Investments in Europe in 2021 in HRtech grew 2.3x and 4.5x in EdTech compared to 2017 • HRtech and EdTech combined raised >$1bn in 2021 • Platforms for remote work or events like Hopin reached record valu- ations. Hopin's value skyrocketed to $7.75bn • While the investment sums went up, the number of deals went drastically down, which confirms an overall trend across sectors
 • 12 out of 15 HRtech unicorns are in the US, 2 are in Europe, 1 in Brazil
Human Resources, Remote Work and Education
on the Future of Work
New Work
HR
Corporate & Lifelong Learning
EdTech & Schools
-Flexible Work -Quality and feedback management -Plural organizational work systems (network organization) -Remote culture, community building and work facilitation/networking -Self-organization -Strategic workforce planning and predictive analytics
-Assessment of candidates and alternative recruiting tools -Benefits systems -Employee wellbeing and wellness (motivation, engagement, etc.) -Skills assessment, tracking and management -Transformational leadership development
-Coaching and accompanied learning -Consumerization and gamification of learning, also with easy access and simplified learning content for people with learning disabilities -Peer, collaborative and social learning including shaping learning cultures -Development of meta-competencies, 21st century skills, data literacy, and for the digital work environment -Individual and self-directed learning -Learning analytics and feedback -Learning experience design -Learning on the job
-Hybrid classrooms -Innovative andragogical concept (e.g. peer assessment) -Technology that fosters inclusion and community building -Technology that helps students to get started with AI
Wellbeing at the Workplace
-Health / Stress monitoring -Mental health coaching / preventive care -Work safety
Examples of Trends in the Future of Work
Global shocks and clashes highlighting inequality and tension have made it evident that the decade ahead will be one fraught with human challenges. That COVID-19 has raised the stakes of leading with empathy is evident both in academic research and in surveys conducted by major corporates, but human questions remain neglected in scholarships as well as in broader conversations on the future of work. The societal costs of continuously ignoring the human side of work are high. Job stress is estimated to cost employers more than $300 billion annually in the US alone. Yet the business case for embracing human aspects in the future of work is increasingly compelling. Research suggests that businesses that respond to human needs and provide emotionally appealing and purpose-driven workplaces will thrive and succeed, generating higher prod- uctivity and leading in innovation. Job websites suggest the existence of a caring work environment is becoming an important factor for attracting talents. But overall, the development of solutions lags behind. For example, while emotional intelligence has been identified as one of the top ten skills of the decade, only 10% of companies system- atically assess it. Google and its People Innovation Lab, whose objective is to improve employee happi- ness and experience, is pioneering the application of some of these insights in the world of work, but very few companies have the re- sources to reproduce Google’s investment. As a result, various actors in Zurich have begun to coalesce around the idea of building an “HR Valley†– an innovation ecosystem focus- ed on the human aspects of the future of work. The vision is that by 2030, the HR Valley is the epicenter of innovation about people, setting the pace and direction of change in leadership and people practice. This Valley would be a global meeting space where executives, scientists and government represent- atives co-create radically new, evidence- based solutions to prepare the next generation of future-ready leaders. A place where academics, start-up entre- preneurs and estab- lished corporates work side-by-side to innovate, rethink, and push the boundaries of leadership, HR and people practices, and flock from afar to learn from renowned experts. In other words, the go-to place to learn about people innovation and convene with other entre- and intra- preneurs. 
 THE HR VALLEY: A PEOPLE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM Incubated by the University of Zurich’s Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, with the support of The Adecco Group as a founding member and the Boston Consulting Group as a strategic partner, the HR Valley is a mission-driven innovation ecosystem who- se core purpose is to elevate humans in the Future of Work. It aims to generate breakthrough inno- vations, creating both discontinuity and new sources of value. Six fields of innovation have been outlined to map possible areas of value creation in the HR Valley ecosystem Future of leadership: refers to changes in the way leadership is developed, exercised and perceived in the Future of Work. Applications include leadership training, digital leadership, affective leadership, mentoring, change management, de- cision making, performance management, etc.
 Future of individual work experience: refers to the ways the individual ex- perience of an employee in the world of work is changing. Applications include career planning, training (upskilling, re- skilling), personal product- ivity, well-being, mental health, etc.
 Future of teams: refers to changes in the way teams are built and teamwork is performed in the Future of Work. Applications include collaboration (human- human, human-machine, in-person/remote/hybrid), communication, diversity and inclusion, etc.
 Future of organizations: refers to the development of people-centered orga- nizations in the Future of Work. Applications include emotionally ntelligent organizations, decentralized autonomous organizations, etc.
 Future of the workplace and working time: refers to the new ways of designing and using the space in which people work, and the time during which they work. Applications include office space design, office use, virtual offices, work schedule, etc.
 Future of work entry and exit: refers to changes in the way people enter and exit work. Applications include talent identification, talent assessment, gigs, returnships, apprenticeships, internships, etc.
The University of Zurich Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, is incubating the HR Valley – an innovation ecosystem which aims to shape a human-centered Future of Work.
A PEOPLE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM GROWING FROM ZURICH
THE HR VALLEY
by Perrine Lhuillier Head of Partnerships and Communications, UZH at University of Zürich
Examples of Future of Work Innovation
2018: Folks at Axonify, an eLearning vendor, have worked with Walmart to design a microlearning platform that would increase employees’ knowledge and retention regarding safety practices and be engaging enough for workers. It included a lot of gamification and infographics, which lets the workers know their individual progress as well as progress to their peers for some friendly competition.
by Shivam Dhawan Founder & CEO at 
GetBoarded Technologies
2019: AlertDriving announced the launch of a micro-learning platform that encompasses a range of personal driver learning modules. Their learning library has been upgraded to include 4,300 more lessons and the platform has been refreshed to include 52 more languages! In the CEO Gerry Martin’s own words - “The increased flexibility of micro-learning translates into a more effective, engaging and enjoyable user experience, since it reduces the cognitive load on today’s busy and time-sensitive learnersâ€
Alt+F was supported by the DEEPSEA program - our 6-week Acceleration program for ecosystem projects
Hacking HR Tech
The concept of New Work centers on the new and emerging ways of working in today’s day and age. The fact that the world of today and tomorrow needs resources for upskilling constantly, many businesses are shifting towards providing new and innovative ways to explore creativity and personal development with the help of technology. As the case with Axonify, IBM or AlertDriving shared above, we can already see the shifts in work culture and adaptation of new and transformed business models. Businesses and organizations that are shifting their approach towards new work are building environments which are going to be more productive and autonomous while still being a part of the bigger network.
Altfuture Summit brings talents and corporates together to re-invent the Future of Work
Future of Work Case Studies
With a hackathon for students to experiment with HR technology and a summit for the whole ecosystem, DEEPSEA Alumnus Altfuture is trying to shift the paradigms of the traditional HR industry and open it up for new ideas and technologies.
The name of your event; ‘Altfuture’, What is it? We wanted to start a dialogue, in which different players, from education, corporate and ecosystem building could come together and discuss how emerging technologies and trends are impacting the future of work. How would the future look like from their perspective? And then bring their ideas to a grind by the others while constructively questioning and reimaging the future. What did you identify as the future? Well, looking at the latest trends and emerging technologies around, we strongly got a sense that the future is towards de- centralization as DAOs get more popular and tested by communities. The tech- nology of future appears to be seamlessly integrated with AI being an invisible and integral part of it. From process perspective, central governances will be more and more replaced or transitioned to community governed models at work. And finally, ‘Human Re- sources’ as a function would transform more into ‘Com- munity Stewards’. Exciting? And, how do you envision the future in this event? In 2020, we branded the event as ‘Alt Future’ summit. It had an internship, an ALT+F Hackathon, in which participants from more than 15 different nationalities, came together online to develop projects and tools in the field of HR, Education and Social Impact. For the 2021 edition, we ran the model again, more like an education journey that aims to come up with tech projects in the people development field. For 2022, we are planning to include an “Ideathonâ€, a Hackathon and an Intern- ship, with successful pro- jects to get a chance to pilot in our sponsors companies. Then we review the results and invite speakers to discuss the topics on our agenda in the final summit day. What is Getboarded? How or why did it all come to be? GetBoarded was created to be a solution for the challenges that students and early professionals face at the start of their career. Our mission statement is to take you from point A to point B in your career.
2019: IBM Corporation announced the introduction of IBM Micro Learning, which is a hands-on experience, aimed at helping IT developers and professionals quickly gain experience on a specific topic. The new IBM Cloud labs present exercises in bite-sized format, which has found to be very engaging for developers and is quickly catching on with most employees.
What is the optimistic vision of a movement towards a better Future of Work that innovation actors can get behind and start reinforcing their messages? Currently, a lot of ideas from New Work to digital HR solutions to Lifelong learning, Edtech and wellbing at work are attached to the Future of Work concept. However, a positive vision is lacking that focuses on the improvement of work and innovation centered around humans. Stakeholders need to formulate their promise on how this stream of innovation will make the world a better place before it can succeed.
Analyzing social media mentions, we see which hubs are most connected with Future of Work trends. Barcelona is taking the lead ahead of London with 135mn people reached.
Europe's Hubs for Future of Work
Around 70% of corporates see the benefits of digital Future of Work solutions but have not implemented any. The reasons ranging from lack of experience with digital solutions of their staff to ethical concerns and cultural barriers. Implementing new processes based on benefits of digital solutions takes effort and time. It is important to concentrate on the needs and concerns of the employees in general as well as in particular the HR teams. Targeted upskilling programs and focused group workshops to develop tailor-made processes are an opportunity to consider.
Where does innovation in the Future of Work come from? We see technological advancements driving the possibilities, but transformative social effects like the COVID-19 pandemic allowed ideas to be turned into action. It is often also process innovations and social dynamics that are re-defined by innovative actors. Just imagine the setup of a new supply chain management strategy like the "just in time" delivery in the 1970ies. The way we work in the future will be defined by technological, social and process innovations.
Trend Analysis of Topics within the Future of Work by Mention on the News
Vision for an Optimistic Future of Work
Institutions to Govern the Future of Work
Widen the Scope
While we see a huge uptake of investments in the HRtech and EdTech markets, that allow for the digitization of large parts of the economy, there is not yet a broad strategy for human centered innovation. Topics like wellbeing at work, decentralized organizations, diversity and inclusion are still waiting to see an uptake in investor interest. It is paramount to substantiate the current developments with strong institutions that are able to broaden the acceptance of Future of Work solutions, help to align actors working on different fields and match opportunities with solutions.
To measure the magnitude of the trend around “Future of Workâ€, we analyze the number of mentions in startup media as well as social media. The overall category ‘Future of Work’ sees several peaks: April through July 2020 at the start of the pandemic, driven by a strong increase of attention to the topic of “remote work†and EdTech April 2021, one year into the pandemic a stronger peak in EdTech and declined interest in remote work June 2021 a final peak in attention for remote work Overall low activity on the HRtech mentions seemingly unaffected by the pandemic
Include the Human Factor
DEEP Ecosystems
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