As Mario Draghi argued in his widely cited report, Europe faces an €800bn annual innovation gap and deploys eight times less capital into innovation than the United States. But for Ludolf von Schöning, founder of the Renaissance Summit, that diagnosis only scratches the surface.
As he points out, Europe is not short of capital or talent, but what it is short of is coordination and commercialisation.
“There is a lot of talent, and we're brilliant in research, but we really fail at the commercialisation of that research. And I specifically saw that in Cambridge, where people love to talk about the papers and the knowledge they produce, but in the end, it’s only as valuable as the customers who end up paying for that, the solution that you're building,” he tells me.
Europe’s coordination is the premise behind his upcoming Renaissance Summit, an invitation-only gathering attempting something Europe has historically struggled to do: align capital, founders and policymakers into actual execution.
He plans to gather some 90 family offices, VCs, founders, and policy shapers to come together over three days to explore new tech frontiers and shape Europe's role in a de-globalising world. The ‘Chatham House’ event (interspersed with down-time activities) is on June 11-13 (right after SuperReturn Berlin), and will be held at the Rittergut Remeringhausen, a 16th-century family-owned estate.
Previous Renaissance speakers have included: Michiel Scheffer, President of the European Innovation Council), Patrick Schneider-Sirkowsky, Partner at NATO Innovation Fund, and Nicolas Brusson, Co-Founder & CEO of BlaBlaCar.
It’s widely agreed that Europe can produce world-class research, deep industrial expertise, and has vast pools of private wealth to draw on. Yet these assets remain fragmented, often moving too slowly.
He views the Renaissance Summit as an attempt to fix that, not with a one-off event, but with a series of rolling meetings and what he calls ‘Impact Circles’ which build a mechanism for alignment, especially between Europe’s family offices, venture investors, founders and policymakers.
Von Schöning invokes not just Silicon Valley, but also Renaissance Florence.
“Going back to the 15th-century Florence, you had families like the Medicis, technically a family banking business, [which ] funded the arts. But they were [also] FinTech innovators. They created the first Pan-European bank, and then used that wealth to fund emerging scientists, artists and merchants who ended up exploring the rest of the world.”
He says this was a turning point that let Europe go from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and created the first form of venture capitalism: “We can learn a lot from that, and redesign and create an institution for the 21st Century… to identify solutions to some of the systemic challenges that Europe is facing.”
He’s right that Europe’s first great leap forward came when capital backed innovation at scale across disciplines.
But the continent has become highly effective at producing policy frameworks and strategic reports, and far less effective at executing against them.
“We want to engage more with the European Union, and we had the President of the European Innovation Council as a speaker, and they're all very supportive. But I was in Silicon Valley a month ago, and… It moves so fast. When I talk to the people in Brussels. They're like, ‘Okay, great. I'm meeting this person in six weeks, and I will let them know about what you're doing.’ It's very frustrating.”
As a result, the Summit will zero in on subjects such as economic and geopolitical resilience, defence, energy, industrial transformation, and the commercialisation of scientific research.
Another notable element is the emphasis on family offices and family businesses: “Family businesses… can be flexible and permanent with capital,” says Von Schöning.
Unlike traditional venture funds, this capital can take a longer view and back opportunities that may not fit the classic high-growth, high-exit model. That flexibility could prove crucial in sectors like energy and industry, where timelines are longer.
Ultimately, the ambition is to go beyond a single gathering and evolve into a recurring alliance: a stakeholder network that meets regularly, both in deep, retreat-style settings and on global stages like Davos.
“We’re building a stakeholder model… an alliance… committed to Europe’s next Renaissance,” he says.
Pathfounders will be an official partner of the Renaissance Summit.
The Renaissance Summit is offering 10 members of the Pathfounders community the opportunity to get a ticket at early bird pricing. Simply apply to join the event by using the voucher PATHFOUNDERS26.
