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Incentives for scaling companies to stay headquartered in Europe, through stock-option reform, preferential tax treatment and public-procurement access, modelled on Nordic success.
Europe produces unicorns. Keeping them is the problem. The pattern repeats: a company is founded in Europe, scales on American capital, and by the time it lists, the headquarters, the listing and often the tax base have moved. Each relocation looks like a rational company decision. Together they are a structural drain.
A retention framework does not need to be defensive or protectionist. Stock-option reform so employees actually share the upside, preferential tax treatment for scaling companies, and access to public procurement are the levers the Nordics have already pulled with results.
The test of the Savings and Investments Union will not be a communique. It will be whether the next European unicorn generation can raise its growth rounds and list at home. That is exactly what this platform's lost-IPO counter is built to measure.
The data behind this insight
Policy recommendations from the S9+ coalition, the startup organisations of Europe's digital frontrunner (D9+) countries, driven by Danish Entrepreneurs.
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