Launched in March 2025, Project Europe aims to revamp Europe’s tech landscape, but its ambitious vision has fallen short of reality. The initiative’s initial announcement revealed a glaring “diversity blindspot,” with predominantly male sponsors and mentors. This reflects a systemic problem in European tech, where female-led startups receive only a fraction of VC funding. Adding to the concerns is an age restriction — applicants must be under 25.
Yet despite these criticisms, Project Europe has gained significant momentum. Within 24 hours of launch, the initiative attracted 600,000 site views and over 1,000 applications. More than 200 founders have expressed interest in investing, demonstrating strong support from the European tech community.
Tech Funding News spoke to Kitty Mayo, CEO of Project Europe, and industry experts, including Eleanor Kaye from the Newton Venture Program, Flavia Levi from Join Capital, Sam Nasrolahi from InMotion Ventures, Deepali Nangia from Speedinvest, Nora Bavey from Unconventional Ventures, and Bogdan Iordache from Underline Ventures, to understand the root of the problem.
Behind Project Europe: Stebbings’ €10M bet on young tech talent
At its core, Project Europe is a €10 million fund focused on developing the next generation of European tech innovators under 25. Led by British podcaster-turned-VC Harry Stebbings of 20VC, the project has attracted support from founders of leading European tech companies, including Klarna, Mistral, Delivery Hero, Wolt, Silo, FloHealth, and Canva.
Stebbings has described the initiative as “if the Thiel Fellowship and YC had a baby,” referencing Peter Thiel’s fellowship for young entrepreneurs and Y Combinator, the renowned Silicon Valley accelerator.
Deepali Nangia, Partner at Speedinvest, tells us: “What I love is that European founders are collaborating to give back to the ecosystem; Silicon Valley style. Europe as an ecosystem has evolved to a point where we have a critical mass of founders to do this. While the size of the fund is nothing spectacular, Europe is now growing up and giving back and it is one might call a beginning that one can build on. I also like the fact that someone decided to take the ownership to do this.
Nangia adds, “What I don’t love is the appalling lack of representation.”
Selected entrepreneurs receive a €200,000 initial investment for 6.66% equity in their startup. Beyond funding, Project Europe connects these founders with established European entrepreneurs as mentors. The fund plans to invest in 10 to 20 aspiring entrepreneurs annually, pairing each with a prominent European tech founder to help tackle complex technical challenges.
Kitty Mayo, formerly involved in Entrepreneur First, is the CEO of Project Europe. The fund is backed by three venture capital firms: 20VC, Berlin-based Point Nine, and New York-based Adjacent, as well as investments from over 150 established European founders.
Diversity challenges and representation gap
Since its launch, Project Europe has faced significant criticism, primarily regarding its approach to diversity, inclusion, and age restrictions.
The most pressing concern centres on gender diversity. The initiative has drawn criticism for its male-dominated roster of sponsors, mentors, and investors. Debbie Wosskow, co-chair of the UK’s Invest In Women Taskforce, highlighted that three fund sponsors, eight of nine mentors, and most investors are men. This mirrors broader issues in Europe’s tech ecosystem, where all-female teams received just 1% of VC funding in 2022, and women comprise only 15% of VC general partners.
Nora Bavey, General Partner at Unconventional Ventures, explains: “The backlash is warranted. When only 6% of the team is women, it reflects more than a gap, it reveals a missed opportunity to build something truly future-facing. Representation isn’t a detail to fix later; it’s foundational to credibility and long-term impact.”
Eleanor Kaye from the Newton Venture Program tells TFN: “It’s tough to see such an exciting, well-intentioned project launch with such poor representation. This could easily have been avoided if a touch more consideration and forethought had been applied.
Kaye continued: “There are incredible investors in the ecosystem who are women or people of colour. Why weren’t they asked to get involved? Why miss out on their talents and skills? It’s such a missed opportunity to do not only the right thing but the strategic thing. The diversity of our VCs really matters – it directly impacts the demographics of founders attracting funding. If we don’t address diversity at the VC level, it creates a vicious cycle..”
Addressing the community’s response, Kitty Mayo tells TFN: “I am really grateful to everyone who has drawn attention to it and consequently to the people who have reached out to support Project Europe. As a result of inbound interest and work from our team, we now have 21 female founders who have invested in Project Europe, and that number is growing.”
Critics have also questioned the initiative’s broader impact. Swedish founder Daniel Lapidus urged Project Europe to “challenge young entrepreneurs to look beyond just building flashy tech and instead define business models that are fair and win-win for people and the environment.” German founder Julia Holze advocated a stronger commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and greater leadership diversity.
The Leonardo DiCaprio metric: founders must be under 25 years old
Drawing parallels to Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating preferences, Project Europe requires founders to be under 25. This age limit mirrors Peter Thiel’s Fellowship, which targets entrepreneurs 22 and under. Stebbings defends this youth focus: “When we think about building the next generation of great European founders, we have to start with youth.”
Mayo elaborates: “Having a target age range, we are able to deliver the support specifically required by that group — people in their early careers who are still forging their networks, etc. Project Europe will be rocket fuel for them. The earlier in someone’s career you meet them, the bigger the opportunity to impact the trajectory of their life, so we have a huge opportunity to transform the outcomes of young people from a wide array of backgrounds.”
Sam Nasrolahi, Principal at InMotion Ventures, notes: “The age limit of 25 does little to serve European entrepreneurship. It leans on an outdated (and ironically American) myth that the best founders are college dropouts or recent graduates coding in their parents’ basements. If Project Europe’s goal is to drive innovation, why are they excluding older, and likely more experienced founders? Many of whom are better positioned to build globally competitive companies with the potential to truly reshape the narrative around European entrepreneurship”
Bavey adds: “Age restrictions are limiting. Innovation doesn’t come with an expiration date, and entrepreneurship isn’t exclusive to a certain life stage. If we’re serious about inclusion, we need to embrace founders from all backgrounds and ages – not create new artificial barriers.”
Bogdan Iordache, General Partner at Underline Ventures, offers another perspective: “Yes, narrowing the customer segment you are addressing helps you build a much better service for that customer segment. Is age restriction a relevant criterion for building a better service? This is because younger, less experienced founders need support that is different from that of more experienced entrepreneurs. Providing better support also increases the investments’ chances of success overall. As a counter-example, and I am obviously exaggerating here, it would have been wrong if the restriction were based on zodiac signs.”
Some community members question this age limit, arguing that entrepreneurial ability isn’t age-dependent and that the criterion excludes valuable, experienced founders. Kaye commented: “We think talent and ambition can be found at any age. It shouldn’t be a barrier, just like your race, gender, education status, or socioeconomic background shouldn’t limit your ability to succeed. Whenever we introduce barriers like this, we reduce the talent pool. It’s that simple.
Nangia agrees, “I personally don’t find age restrictions as a big issue here. It might be slightly undifferentiated from other accelerators (not sure of format and style) and 100K for c. 7% equity seems a bit onerous to me. Someone will subsequently have to fix these cap tables.”
However, if the project is going to stick with having a younger cohort, it’s important to ensure that it attracts a super broad community of talent. That means working hard to remove other barriers – such as socioeconomic status – when it comes to accessing funding. That would be a really important step forward and something we’d welcome. They’ve been clear that applicants can have any educational background, which is a great step.”
Is there diversity in Europe’s future?
The Project Europe controversy spotlights deep-rooted diversity challenges in Europe’s tech ecosystem. These challenges include the underrepresentation of women and minority groups, as well as the lack of diversity among VC general partners. The statistics paint a stark picture: only 2% of VC funding was allocated to all-female teams in 2022, just 0.25% of VC funding went to Black founders in the UK between 2009 and 2019, 15% of VC general partners in Europe are women, 75% of UK founders come from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, and 84% of founders in Europe self-identify as white, while only 0.9% are from other backgrounds Black.
Flavia Levi, a Deeptech VC at Join Capital, tells TFN: “There’s no shortage of early-stage innovation in Europe. Founders here are building deep, defensible tech at an impressive rate. But scaling those companies into global leaders requires more than just strong ideas; it takes serious follow-on capital. The gap isn’t in early-stage funding, it’s in growth-stage—and that’s exactly where Europe needs to double down if we want to create enduring tech powerhouses rather than just a high volume of highly promising startups. The focus should be on turning Europe’s deep tech edge into lasting market leadership.”
Nangia outlines, “Project Europe is a 10mm fund, so a drop in the ocean; there are many women (and men) building and investing in strong female founders. We still need more women as GPs and women on ICs. Having said that the market has shifted significantly for the positive in the last 10 years (since I have been doing this) and I am very optimistic this trend will continue. At Speedinvest, we have both men and women ensuring that we track and invest in the strongest female founders in Europe and monitor our stats through a very transparent dashboard.”
Kaye concludes: “It’s a really tricky time for DEI. Some people, mainly in the US, are taking delight in its demise. Others are seeing this moment as a chance to really bang the drum for Europe to lead from the front and set a global example. Whilst Project Europe’s diversity misstep isn’t helpful, it’s a strong reminder that these things will (and should) get called out. And it seems like the message is getting through and our voices have been heard. The new Project Europe CEO has said she’s confident the project will “evolve and grow” to address the gender representation imbalance. Let’s hope we see the proof in the pudding.”
When asked how Project Europe would respond to its criticism, Mayo emphasises: “It’s time for us to get to work – the proof will be in the pudding. From Monday, the majority of my time will be spent seeking out, investing in and supporting great founders of the future, and I will be making a concerted effort to ensure we are spending time with networks with a wide diversity of founders. Over the years, I’ve dedicated significant time to identifying, enabling, and advising female founders at the earliest stages of their careers. I’ve built and continue to cultivate a powerful group of exceptional early-career female founders who I actively support and champion, and love working with. This work will continue.”
The debate surrounding Project Europe raises a fundamental question for Europe’s tech future: how can we build a competitive, innovative ecosystem while ensuring diverse participation and responsible impact? The answer to this question may determine whether initiatives like Project Europe ultimately strengthen or undermine Europe’s technological advancement.
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