Future 500 Index - Future 500 Initiative

FUTURE 500 INITIATIVE

The Future 500 Index

Making Europe’s scale-up potential visible

THE CHALLENGE

Strong inputs. Weak scale-up outcomes.

Europe has strong innovation inputs – but consistently weak scale-up outcomes. The challenge is not ideational. It is structural: a matter of execution, conditions, and the infrastructure that enables companies to grow at scale across European markets.

Until now, Europe lacked a shared, evidence-based reference point for identifying scale-up potential in a systematic and comparable way. The Future 500 Index is built to fill that gap.

<10%

of European start-ups become scale-ups
Source: European Commission, OECD, EIB

<20%

of global unicorns are European, despite comparable innovation inputs
Source: European Commission, OECD, EIB

THE INDEX

A data-driven framework – not a league table

The Future 500 Index identifies promising European scale-ups through signals that indicate structural capacity to scale across markets, sectors, and stages. It provides a transparent and repeatable way to compare scale-up potential – explicitly designed to go beyond simplistic rankings.

Measurable Growth Signals

Concrete, verifiable indicators of a company’s structural capacity to scale – across markets, sectors, and stages. Not hype, not popularity.

Long-Term Competitiveness Factors

Assessment of the durable conditions that enable sustained scaling: talent density, capital access, market reach, and governance quality.

Alignment with European Goals

Anchored in Europe’s economic, digital, and sustainability objectives — including the Capital Markets Union, EU industrial strategy, and strategic autonomy frameworks.

STRATEGIC USE CASES

Built to support decision-makers

Smarter Capital Allocation

Give investors a transparent, evidence-based reference point for identifying scale-up potential — moving beyond gut feel and network bias.

Policy Instrument Alignment

Help policymakers calibrate support mechanisms to the actual structural needs of high-growth companies at different stages

Evidence-Based Dialogue

Enable founders, investors, and public institutions to engage around shared data — building a common language for Europe’s scale-up challenge.

RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

Partner institutions

University of Oxford

United Kingdom

University of Oxford

United Kingdom

ESMT Berlin

Germany

University of Zagreb

Croatia

BILDAI Institute

Slovenia

Blue Ribbon Partners

Germany

IEDC – Bled School of Management

Slovenia

LEAD

POLICY ALI

European Comission

EIB / EIF

OECD

Capital Markets Union

EU Industrial Strategy

Strategic Autonomy Frameworks

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

Europe faces convergent pressures

Industrial transformation, deep-tech commercialisation, the green and digital transition, and strategic autonomy goals are converging simultaneously. Each demands a new generation of scaled European companies capable of competing globally.

The Index serves entrepreneurs, investors, institutions, and policymakers who need a shared, credible, and repeatable framework – not anecdote, not ranking noise.

“Europe previously lacked a shared, evidence-based reference point for identifying scale-up potential in a systematic and comparable way. The Future 500 Index is that reference point.”