If you’re building a startup in Europe, here’s the hard truth:
You don’t have a proper exit market.
In 2006, the London Stock Exchange raised $51.2B through IPOs.
By 2025 YTD, that number is down to just $248M (Bloomberg). Deal count has collapsed from 339 IPOs in 2005 to almost none today.
For founders, this matters because:
- No exits = no recycling of capital into new startups.
- No IPO path = limited funding options beyond M&A or selling to U.S. buyers.
- No liquidity = valuations get capped and growth stalls.
Right now, Europe is killing its own startup ecosystem by leaving founders with no way out.
The Real Problem: Fragmentation
Europe’s startup talent is world-class. The capital is here too. But the markets are broken.
Instead of one deep pool of liquidity, we have dozens of small, fragmented exchanges—London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Zurich. Each with its own rules. Each too small to attract real institutional flows.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has Nasdaq and NYSE. China has Shanghai and Hong Kong. Founders there can scale locally and IPO with global visibility.
Here, we end up selling to U.S. tech giants instead of creating them.
Security Tokens: A Founder-Friendly Exit Path
This is where security tokens can change the game. Think of them as digital shares—programmable, tradable, and globally accessible.
For startups, that means:
- A Cheaper IPO Alternative – Tokenized listings can reduce the insane cost and time of a traditional IPO.
- Liquidity Without Wall Street – Secondary markets for your tokenized equity let investors in and out along the way, not just at the end.
- Global Investors From Day 1 – Security tokens can be traded across borders instantly, opening your cap table to international capital.
- Exit Optionality – Instead of “IPO or bust,” you could tap rolling liquidity events or structured exits that fit your growth stage.
Imagine a Pan-European Startup Exchange
Now, imagine if instead of 10+ siloed exchanges, startups could list their security tokens on one pan-European digital market:
- Unified rules across EU.
- Liquidity aggregated instead of split.
- Settlement in tokenized euros or stablecoins, real-time and 24/7.
This isn’t just about exits—it’s about building a startup economy where capital circulates efficiently. Founders get better valuations. Early investors recycle gains into the next generation. And Europe keeps its talent at home instead of losing it to New York or Silicon Valley.
What Founders Should Push For
If you’re a founder, this isn’t abstract policy—it’s your future:
- Support EU-wide standards for tokenized securities.
- Ask accelerators, VCs, and policymakers why we don’t have a unified digital market yet.
- Explore tokenized fundraising now (convertible notes, equity tokens, etc.) to stay ahead of the curve.
Because if we don’t fix this, the pattern repeats: European startups build here, but exit elsewhere.
Bottom line for founders:
Security tokens offer a way to break out of Europe’s broken IPO system. A pan-European digital exchange could finally give startups a path to scale, exit, and reinvest locally. If you want to build in Europe and stay in Europe, this is the fight worth having.
