The world is entering a decade in which technology will determine whether societies can adapt to climate instability, fragile supply chains, demographic change, and rising geopolitical strain. This is no longer about apps, growth metrics, or who produces the most unicorns. It is about whether technology is built to serve people, strengthen systems, and endure under pressure. The next phase of innovation must be reliable, sustainable, and human-centered by design. That is why Tech for Good is no longer a moral preference but a competitive necessity. And it is precisely here that Europe matters. Europe is the region best equipped to build the technologies the world actually needs; but only if it can align its industrial depth, digital capacity, capital, and speed. Like a rail network facing a critical junction, Europe must now decide whether to switch tracks and accelerate or watch the future move past it.
Europe is in a race it didn’t realize it was running
This is no longer a contest for market share or unicorn counts. It is a race to build the technologies the world will depend on to navigate climate instability, resource scarcity, fragile supply chains, and demographic change. The real question is not whether Europe can regain competitiveness, but whether it can reclaim its greatest strength: building technology that serves people, society, and the planet. For too long, Europe’s tech gap has been framed as an economic story of capital and talent. In reality, Europe’s relevance lies in where technology must work for everyone. These challenges are not the sidelines of the tech race. They are the race.
And right now, Europe is running below its potential.
Tech for Good. Why this moment matters.
Rebuilding Europe’s technological strength is not only a European project, but also a global one. The pressures shaping the next decade, from climate instability and resource scarcity to supply-chain fragility and public trust, are not Silicon Valley problems. They are universal stressors. And this is precisely where Europe has an advantage. When the stakes are highest and technology must work for everyone, Europe is uniquely positioned to lead.
Europe’s strengths lie in domains where complexity, interdependence, and long-term thinking matter most. Climate mitigation, circular manufacturing, sustainable materials, public health systems, ethical AI, resilient grids, and human-centered design are not edge cases for Europe; they are its natural terrain. But leadership in these areas demands more than values or vision. It requires technology that can operate at scale, digital capacity that matches the complexity of the challenge, and the speed to deploy solutions before the window closes.
This is already happening. Paris-based Greenly is turning carbon accounting into operational action by helping companies manage Scope 3 emissions across complex supply chains. Its SaaS platform raised €52 million in Series B funding in 2024 alone. UK startup Xampla is replacing single-use plastics with biodegradable, plant-based materials at commercial scale; already raising $14 million to replace 10 billion plastic items within the next five years. These are not peripheral experiments or sustainability side projects. They are core business transformations built in Europe for global markets.
This is also where Europe’s deeper advantage comes into focus. Europe does not build extractive, addictive, or surveillance-driven technology. It builds technology meant to serve people and strengthen systems. When Europe is technologically strong, the world benefits from cleaner supply chains, safer AI, better data stewardship, and infrastructure designed to last. In a century where trust is becoming a defining currency, Europe’s instinct toward responsibility is a competitive edge.
Europe’s challenge isn’t brilliance. It’s coordination.
Alignment is what turns ideas into momentum. When markets, capital, regulation, and talent move in different directions, even the strongest innovations stall. Europe does not lack talent; it lacks the conditions to scale. Founders leave not by choice, but because deep capital, unified markets, speed, and regulatory clarity are easier to find elsewhere. Europe is a world-class nursery for innovation, but too often a poor home for growth.
This coordination gap matters even more now, as climate disruption, resource scarcity, demographic pressure, and infrastructure strain accelerate. Europe is uniquely positioned to respond, not because it starts ahead, but because its innovations are built for society at large. In the industries shaping the next century (climate, energy, manufacturing, materials, and circularity), Europe already functions as a global backbone, often without recognizing its own leverage.
ASML illustrates what alignment makes possible. The Dutch company sits at the center of the global semiconductor supply chain; nearly every advanced chip from Apple to Nvidia to Samsung relies on its lithography machines. ASML is not just a European success story; it is global infrastructure. Yet it remains an exception. Europe has the capacity to create many such firms but has not yet built the system that makes them routine.
The same pattern appears elsewhere. Verkor’s low-carbon battery gigafactory in Dunkirk shows how industrial scale and climate ambition can align when capital and partners move together. Verkor has secured over €1.3 billion in green financing backed by the European Investment Bank and major private investors, along with early commercial commitments from partners like Renault and Schneider Electric.
Or consider how Saint-Gobain Sekurit’s closed-loop glass systems demonstrate Europe’s leadership in circular manufacturing. The innovation cuts emissions, reduces energy use, and strengthens supply chain resilience, leading the industry during a time that increasingly depends on digital infrastructure still sourced from outside the region.
And of course, there’s Vestas. Before the world adopted wind power, Denmark built a blueprint for an entire renewable energy industry made up of technology across supply chains, manufacturing techniques, and global standards. Vestas didn’t just lead; it defined the field. Now, as climate tech expands into green hydrogen, storage, and grid innovation, Europe has another chance to accelerate its digital and financial foundations.
Taken together, these examples reveal Europe’s strength: industrial intelligence fused with technological progress and long-term thinking. What Europe has yet to match is the digital and financial scale needed to normalize success at speed. The capability already exists. But the coordination has yet to catch up.
Tech for Europe. How leadership becomes scale.
Business cannot wait for perfect alignment from Brussels; and that is a strength, not a weakness. Policy matters. The Single Market must deepen. Capital markets must mature. But founders cannot pause growth, industrial leaders cannot delay digital transformation, and investors will not wait indefinitely for clarity.
The most important momentum in Europe today is coming from companies that chose to move anyway. Siemens is cutting factory planning time through industrial digital twins. Mistral AI has reinserted Europe into the global AI race through speed, not permission. Stegra’s fossil-free steel project shows how industrial ambition can unlock capital at scale when the mission is clear. These advances are not the result of perfect policy conditions; they are the product of coordinated belief and action.
Europe does not need to mimic Silicon Valley’s break-things culture or China’s top-down acceleration. It needs its own model that is faster, cleaner, fairer, and rooted in industrial depth and societal trust. A model where Tech for Good is not separate from competitiveness, but the foundation of it. This is Tech for Europe: technology that scales Europe’s strengths while meeting the world’s needs.
The world needs this model, and Europe is best positioned to build it. But the next technology chapter must begin now. The right tracks need to be laid with urgency and scaled beyond experiments into systems that endure. The prize is not only renewed competitiveness, but technology that strengthens societies, enables adaptation, and serves people in a more volatile century. Once momentum builds, direction becomes destiny.
Marga Hoek Founder-CEO Business for Good, Global Thought Leader Sustainable Business, Capital and Technology, Award-Winning Author
Theresa McCartyLead Research and Strategic Analysis
