He added: “We need more super companies to raise the bar and can act as an inspiration. Said Ek: “I get really frustrated when I see European entrepreneurs giving up on their ambition…by selling very early in the process to big, non European companies.” But even more importantly, don’t sell early.” And then we have to nourish it”.Įlsewhere in Ek’s opening statement, he offered some advice to fledgling European startups: “Don’t sell. The ingredients are here, we just have to put it together. So put your money where your mouth is, as they say. He added: “It’s hypocritical to promote and encourage entrepreneurship and not invest in it personally. So put your money where your mouth is, as they say.”Įk says he’ll do this by funding “so called moonshots, focusing on the deep technology necessary to make a significant positive dent, and work with scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and governments to do so”. “It’s hypocritical to promote and encourage entrepreneurship and not invest in it personally. The theme of today’s Slush Music interview with Ek was, How Can Europe Produce More Supercompanies?Įk used his opening monologue to argue: “Europe needs more super companies, for the ecosystem to develop and thrive, but more importantly, if we’re going to have any chance to tackle the infinitely complex problems that our society is dealing with at the moment.”Īcknowledging that one of the biggest barriers to growth for startups is capital, he subsequently announced a personal commitment of €1 billion over the next decade to invest in European technology companies working on everything from machine learning to biotechnology, material sciences and energy. Ek’s going to personally devote €1 billion over the next decade to fund tech “moonshots” in Europe…

Today, Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek faced down some tough questions on the future of his business during an interview at the Nordic-centered Slush Music event. That said, Spotify’s subscription revenue growth across the first half of 2020 ( +€120m) failed to match that seen in the prior year period ( +€182m).

That 14m growth was actually faster than the equivalent increase seen at Spotify in the first six months of 2019, when the platform added 12m subscribers globally (from 96m subs to 108m). In the first six months of 2020, SPOT’s global streaming subscriber count grew by 14m people (from 124m up to 138m).

Daniel ek