Project Europe Research
Investment Thesis
Project Europe is a pre-seed program for young technical founders starting companies in Europe. It was launched in March 2025 by Harry Stebbings (20VC) together with Point Nine and Adjacent. The pitch is that great companies have always come out of Europe and the next generation needs capital, mentorship and media reach to prove it again. It describes itself as "investing in the next generation of technical builders with global ambitions" and is backed by a network of about 215 European founders, including founders of Shopify, Klarna, Mistral AI, Personio, Datadog, Unity and Weaviate.
Stage Focus
Idea stage onwards. The site says that if you think it is too early to apply, it isn't. Cohorts are rolling: founders can apply at any time and are onboarded immediately. No prior education or funding is required.
Check Size and Terms
A standard initial investment of EUR 200,000 for 6.66% equity. This is a fixed-terms, program-style offer rather than a negotiated check, so check size min and max are both EUR 200K.
Eligibility Criteria
- Founders aged 25 or younger
- Solving hard problems with technical solutions
- An idea, or tinkering around a thesis
- Company started from Europe
- No prior education or funding necessary
Lead Tendency
The program writes its own standard initial check, so it effectively sets the terms and leads the first round. Whether it leads later rounds is not stated, so lead tendency is recorded as unknown.
Format and Support
- 1-1 mentorship from the Project Europe partners
- Quarterly CoWorks where the cohort travels to a different European city and meets LPs and the wider network
- Regular ask-me-anything sessions with top founders, engineers and industry experts
- Media support and distribution across the 20VC platforms
- Access to the 215 European founder backers
Founders can build wherever suits them. There is no standard experience.
Portfolio Highlights
The site lists 25 portfolio companies across Europe, skewing to AI infrastructure, security, defense and deep tech:
- Antares Advanced Manufacturing (Hamburg), vertically integrated precision metal manufacturing
- ASAI Labs (Warsaw), computer vision auditing for FMCG operations
- Cerebionics (London / Oslo), brain-computer interfaces controlling robots
- Dataware (Belgrade), data software built on a new foundation
- Hacktron AI (London / SF), AI security teammate
- Haicker (Lausanne), AI pentester, marked acquired on the site
- Navictus (Lisbon), electric autonomous vessel for defense
- Zero Industries (Toulouse / Lisbon), localization for autonomous defense assets
- Vispo Systems (Lausanne), resilient navigation and comms under electronic warfare
- SkyEU (Milan), eVTOL drones for emergency medical logistics
- Philon (Athens / SF), robotic foundation models
- Others include Darcy, Dubsof, Effractor, Element, Emendra, Hoora, Lavoit, Resoloon, Shiplog, Suna Health, UkisAI, User Journeys, Vexor and Zellify
The site gives no round stage or investment date per company, so none is recorded.
Team
- Harry Stebbings: founder of Project Europe and 20VC
- Kieran Hill: listed on the Project Europe team
- Nico Wittenborn: Adjacent, listed on the team
- Ricardo Sequerra: Point Nine, listed on the team
- Iwona Biernat: listed on the team
- Kitty Mayo (CEO) and Jade Yarrow (co-founder / chief of staff): still shown on the site, but a Dealroom headline reports both stepping down; the article was blocked and could not be read, so timing is unverified
The site's partner list is founder-operators: Mati Staniszewski (ElevenLabs), Victor Riparbelli and Steffen Tjerrild (Synthesia), Joel Hellermark (Sana), Rina Onur Sirinoglu (Spyke Games), Pauline Glikman (Payflows), Fabian Kamberi (Slay), Max Linden (lemon.markets), Din Bisevac (Buena) and Ferdinand Dabitz (Ivy).
Decision Process
Not published. The application is an Airtable form and the structure is a standardized offer. Regulatory note from the footer: Project Europe Ltd is an Appointed Representative of The Fund Incubator Limited (FCA FRN 208716).
Founder Preferences
Young (25 or under), technical, European-based founders attacking hard problems, with global ambition. Portfolio founders are mostly early builders without prior funding.
Geographic Focus
Europe across the board: Hamburg, Warsaw, London, Belgrade, Tallinn, Dublin, Vienna, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Lisbon, Athens, Budapest, Milan, Madrid, Lausanne and Toulouse. Several companies also have a San Francisco presence.
Recent Activity and Fund Status
The program is actively onboarding rolling cohorts, and the website copyright is 2026. The first six teams landed in London in mid-2025. No fund size or AUM is published, so AUM is left empty.