The exit markets in Europe are proving to be even more difficult than those in the US. There were only 34 high-tech IPOs in Europe last year, compared with 67 in the United States. Worse, the only viable exit for venture-backed startups comes in the form of sales to corporations an ocean away. And there were plenty of those last year: KVS, Jamba, Active Hotels, Alphamosaic, Kelkoo and Fill Factory were the biggest startup targets of U.S. buyers. Still, it makes exiting a tough proposition when the companies in the neighborhood aren't buying.

Loic Le Meur of Six Apart, Fred Destin of Atlas Venture and Gilles Boyer of Global Equities discussed these challenges at a panel at the Innovate Europe conference in Zaragoza this evening. I moderated in a pinch hitting effort for the absent Julie Meyer of Ariadne Capital.

There were no easy answers for improving the exit prospects in Europe. While Gilles explained the criteria for European companies aspiring to IPOs, venture capitalist Fred and entrepreneur Loic urged the audience members to aspire to build world-class companies in order to keep pace with the United States and Asia. Fred received applause for his closing comment, "Wake up and get with the program." —Joshua Jaffe from Innovate! Europe '05

Download an MP3 of the panel
Go to an interview with Joshua Jaffe
Go to The Innovate! Europe '05 Photoblog
Go to a live blog of the event