Scaling startups in the European market
From cybersecurity and aerospace to generative 3D, startup leaders are scaling ambitious companies from European soil and taking on global markets. In this conversation at the StrictlyVC event in Athens, we talked to three founders about what it takes to go from idea to impact while navigating the continent's unique challenges — and why building in Europe is no longer a constraint, but a competitive edge.
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CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
France is betting Eutelsat can become Europe's answer to Starlink — but experts aren't convinced
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In 2020, analysts at Morgan Stanley said that they see Starlink growing to $80.9 billion in their "base case valuation" for the firm. Luke Kehoe, industry analyst at network monitoring firm Ookla, said France's investment in Eutelsat shows the country "is now treating Eutelsat less like a commercial telco and more like a dual-use critical-infrastructure provider" and a "strategic asset" in the European Union's push for technological sovereignty. However, building a European competitor to Starlink will be no mean feat. Communications industry experts tell CNBC that, while Eutelsat could boost Europe's efforts to create a sovereign satellite internet provider, challenging its U.S. rival Starlink would require a significant increase in investments in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Eutelsat's OneWeb arm operates a total of 650 LEO satellites, which is less than a tenth of Starlink's 7,600-strong global satellite constellation. "To offer greater capacity and coverage, [Eutelsat] needs to increase the number of satellites in space, a task made more difficult due to the fact that many of OneWeb's satellites are nearing the end of their lifespan and will need to be first replaced before growing the constellation's size," Joe Gardiner, research analyst at market research firm CCS Insight, told CNBC via email. Ookla's Kehoe echoed this view. "Eutelsat's chances of achieving parity with Starlink in the mass-market satellite broadband segment within the next five years remain limited, given SpaceX's unmatched global scale in LEO infrastructure," he said. "Even with the latest injection of capital from the French state, Eutelsat continues to lag behind Starlink in several key areas, including capital, manufacturing throughput, launch access, spectrum and user terminals." 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Berneke was replaced as CEO in May by Jean-Francois-Fallacher, a former executive of French telecoms giant Orange. Meanwhile, even though Eutelsat has been ramping up investments in LEO satellite with its OneWeb unit, experts say its technical architectures and orbital designs are ultimately different from Starlink's. "The OneWeb constellation currently uses a bent-pipe architecture, which is not as capable as Starlink satellites; therefore, OneWeb will also need to invest in second-generation satellites," he added. The French firm's use cases also differ to Starlink's. Eutelsat operates a constellation of geostationary orbit (GEO) as well as LEO satellites. GEO satellites orbit the earth at a much higher altitude than their LEO equivalents and can typically cover more land with fewer satellites. "Eutelsat's higher altitude satellites are leveraged for specialized use cases, such as polar coverage for companies and research facilities in remote regions like Greenland and Alaska," said Joe Vaccaro, vice president and general manager at Cisco's ThousandEyes network intelligence unit. Looking ahead, Eutelsat said it plans to "build upon its operation improvements" with a "differentiated go-to-market model" and "strong European anchoring." It also noted that the U.K. government could also increase its investment in Eutelsat "in due course."
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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
EU plans to add carbon credits to new climate goal, document shows
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