Big tech firms urged to do more to support European start-ups

Technology entrepreneurs have handed Apple the “wooden spoon” in a ranking of how well the American big tech businesses provide the support they need to succeed.
A study by Founders Forum, a tech-focused services organisation set up by lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, has reviewed the impact that Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia have had on European start-ups, from providing support through to investment and acquisitions.
It awarded Apple the bottom spot as an “outside player in the European start-up ecosystem”, with Google and Microsoft leading. It called for all the big tech businesses to take more responsibility for supporting tech start-ups, a sentiment echoed by all the founders surveyed for the study.
“Last place to me is the wooden spoon. Nobody should want the wooden spoon in this award and to my mind that has gone to Apple,” Hoberman, 55, said. “We get almost no entrepreneurs saying they are doing an important job for them, except they buy companies very early to absorb them.”
Hoberman said he saw merit in conducting the study as it showcased the initiatives that were working, while encouraging the “laggards to learn”. He said: “Governments and founders should demand those at the bottom of the table do more.”
Google and Microsoft were judged by Founders Forum to be the leaders, with supportive initiatives for start-ups, active venture capital arms and an appetite for acquisitions. Google and Meta are partners of Founders Forum.
Nvidia and Meta received praise for the volume of investments they have made in tech companies, while Amazon was singled out for the amount of direct support it provides to start-ups.
A survey of 133 founders asking specifically about tech support and other initiatives credited Apple as the fourth most supportive, with Meta last. Amazon and its cloud services division, AWS, was judged the best. One in three founders surveyed used advertising credits, service credits or marketing support offered by Amazon and one in four from Google or Microsoft. However, 43 per cent of the founders were unaware of big tech initiatives designed to support them, while fewer than 10 per cent had experienced them first-hand.
Apple was approached for comment. It was announced this week as a sponsor of Black Tech Fest, a large event for tech entrepreneurs to be held in north London next week.
Hoberman urged start-ups to look for what support was available from big tech. “There is really interesting stuff for start-ups; tools to help you write your business plan and coding co-pilots. If we want to be a country of entrepreneurs, the tools these guys are often giving away are going to help many more people be more entrepreneurial and to think globally.”
Daniel Ek, the co-founder and chief executive of Spotify, the streaming music service, has backed the Founders Forum study and is more critical of the behaviour of the American groups. “Big tech firms don’t mind if you’re small because you’re not competition for them. My main concern is what happens once you’re no longer a start-up, but a fast grower and a potential competitor.
“In China, Alibaba and Tencent are investing in potential competitors to create partnership opportunities. In Europe, big tech should be spending more time and effort on helping companies scale, including at the grassroots level.”
He added that Europe should build its own versions of America’s big six. “If you look at who’s leading AI at the big tech companies, you’ll see Europeans at the helm. Many of the greatest thinkers and innovators come from Europe. We have to be mindful of not losing them.”
Hoberman said governments and regulators could flex their muscles more as part of negotiations with the big tech companies over alleged market abuses, requiring them to do more to back Europe’s emerging tech companies. “Having a more firm negotiation would be great,” he said.
The role of the big six American tech companies in Britain’s tech scene has been spotlighted this year, with increased focus on investment in data centres and a series of significant venture capital deals, including the £837 million raised by Wayve, the Cambridge-based AI-driven autonomous vehicle tech company, a round in which Microsoft and Nvidia participated. CapitalG, Google’s growth fund, led a £340 million investment into Monzo, the digital bank, in March.
“We talk about corporate venture capital but we can’t rely on the FTSE 100 in this sector very much, so we are dependent on these big tech players. They are stepping up to the plate,” he said.
He said on balance, American big tech companies were a friend to UK tech start-ups. “A rising tide lifts all boats; that is still true,” he said, arguing that without big tech acquiring European companies the venture capital funding that helped them to grow would reduce. “Most entrepreneurs would say ‘More M&A please, not less’. M&A [mergers and aquisitions] where the talented employees stay in the UK is a very good thing.”
Eighty European technology companies have been acquired by the big tech companies since 2010. Apple has acquired the most (23), followed by Meta on 20 and Google on 19. The most recent was Google’s acquisition of Cameyo, a virtual desktop software company, which completed in June, Founders Forum said.