Tag Archives: Google for Entrepreneurs

Teaming with TechHub to help the next generation of entrepreneurs in India succeed

Google began as a startup in a garage and we remain a startup at heart. We are strongly committed to supporting entrepreneurship all over the world, including India, and believe that with the right support, small ideas can grow into world-changing companies. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce our partnership between Google for Entrepreneurs (GFE) and TechHub, a global community for tech entrepreneurs that works with over 700 companies around the world to help them scale, including in Bangalore.

The Google for Entrepreneurs team partners with startup communities around the world to help them grow, implement new programs, and connect to other leading startup organizations around the world. With this new partnership, TechHub Bangalore is now part of a global network.

We already partner with TechHub in London, Madrid and Warsaw and now TechHub members in Riga, Bucharest and Bangalore will for the first time have access to programs and assistance from Google.  This includes programs such as mentorship from local Googlers as well as those which leverage our network of over 40 partners, working in more than 125 countries from Kenya, Korea, to Spain, including six Campus locations that we operate ourselves.  Such initiatives include Google for Entrepreneurs international demo days, where selected startups will be eligible to pitch to leading Silicon Valley investors; and GFE Exchange, a series of week-long, vertically-specific global immersion programs aimed at helping startups gain access into new markets and insights, hosted by our partners and Campuses.

We are thrilled to support TechHub’s work to help hundreds of tech companies to scale up their businesses. TechHub membership gives each entrepreneur access to every TechHub in the world and all the programmes and opportunities available there including flagship events like Startup Funeral, and the monthly TechHubTuesday Demo Night. Around a third of members base their teams full time in one of TechHub’s spaces, with the majority of members accessing the benefits of TechHub through its rich programme designed to help startups face the challenges of building and growing a global tech company.

Our partnership with them also deepens the work Google teams are doing with Indian startups including our existing partnership with NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups, the Google Developer Relations Launchpad Accelerator, and +GCP program.  It’s been amazing to watch the growth of Indian startup ecosystems in the past several years, with more than 4,200 startups, India today has the 3rd largest startup base in the world behind only to the US and United Kingdom. Indian entrepreneurs have created successful ecommerce businesses and are competing with global multinationals at home.  We continue to look for new ways to engage this vibrant tech ecosystem in India, and look forward to partnering with TechHub to extend our work with the startup community!

Posted by Genna McKeel, Partner Manager, Google for Entrepreneurs

Campus Warsaw: Central and Eastern Europe’s Digital Leap

Last week I was in Warsaw to launch Campus Warsaw, a modern space for entrepreneurship, in a town that is postively pulsing with start-up talent. I am thrilled to see how Poland and the broader Central Eastern European region is making a big digital leap and I’m happy that Google can help fuel this growth.

Campus Warsaw is a place for Poland’s and Central Eastern Europe’s entrepreneurs to gather, build companies, network, learn and share. The site provides everything necessary - from office and event space to training and mentoring programs and more - to help freshly-minted entrepreneurs thrive.


A year ago, Eric Schmidt discussed this project with Poland’s Prime Minister Tusk - as a way to strengthen Poland's and CEE region's innovation economy. Last week I was joined by political leaders and startup community leaders from Poland, thirteen European Member States and the United States, to celebrate the launch of this investment.

Campus Warsaw was opened under the Honorary Patronage of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland was joined by government officials and startup communities representatives from 15 countries at the inauguration ceremony. Everyone was excited to see how a strong focus on entrepreneurship can fuel economic growth in the CEE region.

Campus Warsaw is joining our similar investments in London, Tel Aviv, Madrid, and Seoul. Other Campus sites, like Campus London, which opened its doors just over three years ago, have been hugely successful, building a community of nearly 50,000 members. Startups there have created more than 1,800 new jobs, raising over US$110 million in funding.


Campus Warsaw is part of our Growth Engine effort for all of Europe -- Europe's entrepreneurship is growing and going global on digital -- strong entrepreneurship spirit (and a Single Digital Market) is what Europe needs the most to boost its economic growth and competitiveness.

Posted by Matt Brittin, President, Google EMEA, Business & Operations

Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub Network arrives in Ireland

When Google first started in Ireland, we opened an office with just five people. Today we have more than 5000 people in our Dublin office and as we have grown, so has Dublin’s tech community. The city is now home to some of the biggest global tech firms as well as some of the most promising startups in Europe. This community is creating jobs and opportunity with two thirds of all new jobs in the Irish economy being created by startups.

We have always been committed to supporting the startup community in Dublin to help the next generation of companies succeed. So we are especially pleased that today the Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub Network announced a partnership with Dogpatch Labs, one of Ireland’s leading startup organisations. The announcement was made by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton T.D at an event at Dogpatch Labs today.

The partnership will provide co-working space along with new resources including funding, training and mentorship opportunities. Members will also get access to Google programs and products throughout the network including:
  • Mentorship from Dublin Googlers (in 2014, over 200 Googlers mentored Irish startups)
  • Eligibility for Google product offers relevant to startups; and
  • The Google for Entrepreneurs Global Passport, where entrepreneurs from each hub can work for free at spaces designated at any other hub in the network including London, San Francisco and Tel Aviv  
With Dogpatch Labs and our Google for Entrepreneurs program, we hope Dublin’s world-class startup community will grow that much faster, building transformative products and companies that will take the world by storm. We can’t wait to see what new ideas come out

Posted by Paddy Flynn, Startup engagement at Google Ireland

Happy 3rd Birthday, Campus London!

When we opened Campus London in 2012, right in the heart of Tech City, we wanted to offer founders and startups a support network, education, mentoring and more. And most of all, we wanted to provide a physical space so that the startup community could gather, work together and grow.

So we’re delighted that in just three short years, 41,000 people have joined our community, from old hands to first timers, investors to founders, designers to developers and doers. As the London startup scene accelerates in pace, so does the community; in 2014 alone, startups within the Campus London network created over 1,200 jobs and raised over £41 million in capital, doubling the growth from 2013 and demonstrating strong ecosystem health.
Campus London’s meeting spaces have had a clear impact too. For example, Give Me Tap, a recent Y Combinator graduate, was conceived in the Campus Cafe because founder Edwin was trying to drink enough water to hone his stomach into a rippling six-pack. Coffee Labs, a connection platform built around coffee, aims to help others have the same kind of serendipitous encounters that its founders were having inside Campus. And Code Club has now outgrown the Campus cafe and become a nationwide network that’s inspiring thousands of kids to create through code.

The Campus Community is increasingly diverse and inclusive - in London it now includes 29% women - that’s a 9% increase in just one year. There’s more to be done but, with Women @ Campus providing networking and inspirational talks, and 110 graduates of baby-friendly startup school Campus for Mums, we hope to inspire even more women to become entrepreneurs.
Our education programmes, including mentoring from Google staff, are a key part of the Campus offering. In 2014, we provided over 1,100 hours of mentoring; enabling our startups to get one-to-one advice on anything from marketing to software development, and training on Google products like Analytics.

Campus London is part of a growing global network of startup communities. Campus Tel Aviv launched in 2012, and in coming months, we’re launching four more, with Campus Seoul opening in a few weeks and Madrid, Sao Paulo and Warsaw coming later this year.

The opportunities for startups in our network are not limited to Campus buildings. As part of our wider Google for Entrepreneurs network, founders and entrepreneurs are able to tap into a broad range of programs and networks. Our Campus Exchange program brings together six startups from around the world for an intensive week of mentoring and networking.

As we launch new Campus sites, we want to connect the dots and empower founders in these locations to inspire each other and grow - locally, and globally.

Here’s to year four!

Posted by Sarah Drinkwater, Head of Campus London

Bringing a fresh digital vision from “New Europe” to Brussels

While Old Europe ponders its approach to the digital future, New Europe is rushing ahead to embrace the web as a motor for growth and prosperity. This past autumn, together with Financial Times, International Visegrad Fund and Res Publica, we announced the New Europe 100 list of innovators from Central and Eastern Europe.This past week, many of these entrepreneurs came to Brussels to present their ideas to the European Parliament


The event featured real-life success stories :
The European Parliament New Europe 100 event
  • Kamila Sidor, CEO, Geek Girl Carrots from Poland who runs a successful social innovation movement to encourage more women into ICT careers.
  • Michaela Jacova, Investment Manager, Neulogy VC from Slovakia, who supports aspiring talented entrepreneurs by awarding grants and matching with VC investors.
  • Paul-Andre Baran, Director, Biblionet from Romania, who helps provides free access to computers and the internet through public libraries.
  • Marcin Beme, CEO, Audioteka.pl from Poland, who founded a successful mobile platform offering digital audiobooks in Poland, Czech Republic, Hunagry , Spain, FInland, Sweden, Russia, Germany, France and Romania.
  • Gergana Passy, Digital Champion of Bulgaria, who advocates for a free access to the internet, e-skills and digital transformation across the society.
MEP Boni and Google's Vint Cerf
MEP Michal Boni, former minister for digitization in Poland, hosted the debate, which featured a keynote address from Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist. Policymakers from around New Europe attended, including MEP Janusz Lewandowski, former Polish EU Commissioner; MEP Antanas Guoga from Lithuania, and Prof. Ziga Turk of University of Ljubljana and Former Minister for Growth in Slovenia.

All listened to the entrepreneurs offering important lessons on technology­-driven innovation. Apart from sharing personal passion for ICT-driven innovation, the New Europe called on the politicians to create a positive environment for innovation. Their proposed ingredients include accepting business failures, attracting more women in ICT careers, increasing access to the Internet across the society, and simplifying rules for trading across the borders. Together, these measures represent a positive recipe for creating a true European digital single market.

Posted by Sylwia Giepmans-Stepien Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Analyst, Brussels

Helping Europe’s youth find work

All across Europe, far too many young people struggle to find a job and starting their careers. That is why we are joining a coalition of businesses and governments called the Alliance for Youth, which will support European youth to gain new skills and work experience.

At an event today in Lisbon attended by European Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso and Portuguese Prime Minister Passos Coelho, we committed to a range of initiatives to increase access to digital skills training and education in science, technology, engineering and maths. We're also extending our support for entrepreneurs in Europe.



At Google, we’ve taken on nearly 3500 new employees in Europe over the last three years - net growth of 60% since 2011. Of those 3500, nearly 650 are newly-minted graduates of European universities. They work in a wide range of technical and non-technical roles based in our offices across Europe. More jobs are available. We still have entry level positions open in engineering, advertising support, and product management.

Another priority is helping university students develop professional skills via internships. This summer alone, we’ll play host to more than 600 technical and non-technical interns in Europe. We have strong partnerships with universities and organizations.

Across Europe, we are working with partners to help meet some of the specific challenges facing young people. In Spain, where youth unemployment has reached an alarming 57%, we launched Activate, a platform to train the young generation in digital skills. Through a suite of offline and massive open online courses (MOOCs) on digital marketing, data analytics, cloud computing, e-commerce, we hope to reach more than 100,000 Europeans by early next year.

Our RISE (Roots in Science & Engineering) and CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) programs target younger high students. These programs nurture coding skills, use robotics to teach engineering and maths and help teachers with STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education tools. Through our partnerships with education organizations, we’ll reach 500,000 students and teachers in 20 European countries, up from 100,000 in 2013.

Finally, Google continues to supports entrepreneurship in Europe. We plan to reach thousands of entrepreneurs through Google for Entrepreneurs, including Startup Weekend, Startup Grind or publicly available online learning resources tailored to early-stage entrepreneurs. We also support a growing number of startup hubs and co-working spaces: in London (Campus London), Berlin (The Factory) and Paris (Numa), and a recently announced Campus in Warsaw.

We're delighted to contribute to the new Alliance for Youth. All of us need to support young Europeans to develop the skills and experience allowing them to find meaningful careers in the 21st century economy.

Posted by Matt Brittan, President, Business and Operations, Northern and Central Europe

Campus for entrepreneurs opens in Warsaw

Campus is coming to Warsaw! Across Poland and Central Eastern Europe, innovators and entrepreneurs are building exciting new businesses, making the Polish capital a natural choice to launch our next Campus. We currently operate Campuses in London and Tel Aviv.



Campuses are Google's spaces for entrepreneurs to learn, connect, and build companies that will change the world. In them, entrepreneurs get unparalleled access to mentorship and training from their local startup community, experienced entrepreneurs, and Google teams. Campus Warsaw will join the Google for Entrepreneurs network.

Our Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for today's inauguration. “Google started as a startup in garage, so supporting startups is part of our DNA," Eric said. "Our hope is that Campus Warsaw will supercharge tech entrepreneurs, strengthen the startup ecosystem and encourage even more innovation in Poland.”

The new Campus represents only part of our ongoing investment throughout the region. In Krakow, we have opened the Google for Entrepreneurs Krakow program. Along with Warsaw University, we have launched the Digital Economy Lab, with the goal of spreading knowledge about the crucial role digital technology plays in powering the economy and about what policies are required to generate maximum digital acceleration. Along with the Visegrad Fund, ResPublica and the Financial Times, we have started New Europe Challengers campaign to identify the next generation of innovators.

We’ll have more news about the details of Campus Warsaw soon, and look forward to filling it with startups in 2015!

Posted by Eze Vidra, Head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe