Small businesses and start-ups are the essential engine of Europe’s economy.
We work in building up a partner network to help accelerate growth by Europe’s SME's. Microsoft supports Europe’s SME's and start-ups to grow and succeed with cutting-edge technology, access to marketing expertise, financing streams and intellectual property licensing, and advocacy for a more dynamic policy framework for entrepreneurship.
Technology is playing a significant role in helping Europe’s SME's to remain competitive in challenging economic times and build the sustainable recovery. Smart technology helps to save money and save energy costs, identify new business models that will drive future growth and jobs, and acquire the skills needed for those new jobs.
Microsoft supports a European ‘eco-system’ of ICT partners, which account for 40% of total ICT employment and 57% of tax revenues derived from the ICT industry. This European ecosystem generates €120bn from solutions and services based on the Microsoft platform.
Together with our partners – small and large firms, academics and policy-makers – we work hard to promote policy and regulatory frameworks that enable a thriving and competitive European knowledge economy - including interoperable technology standards, intellectual property rights, freedom of expression, greater funding for higher education and research, and more and better targeted funding for innovation clusters.
We work to create programs such as Partnerships for Growth, European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA), and Bizspark in order to support several networks and small & medium enterprises. Visit the resources page to find out more about these programs and initiatives.
> Learn more about Microsoft in Europe.