Paris – 8 December 2015 – EnterNext, the Euronext subsidiary designed to promote and grow the market for small and medium-size entreprises (SMEs), today held its second pan-European EnterNext Tech Conference with the presence of Emmanuel Macron, French Minister for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs. This go-to event gathered many representatives of Europe’s tech ecosystem. The programme included a review of progress on the bold initiatives announced last year, aimed at ramping up innovative companies’ use of financial markets to secure the funds they need. EnterNext also gave participants a preview of Enter the Next Stage, its new digital platform for entrepreneurs and investors. Alongside the main event, an Investors Forum featured companies awarded the Tech 40 label.
Practical initiatives promoting tech companies
For the past two years, EnterNext has made growing the tech sector a top priority, launching initiatives to facilitate innovative European companies’ efforts to list on the stock market and raise their profile with investors. These are reflected in four key measures: a partnership with Morningstar to promote research and financial analysis; creation of the Tech40 label; TechShare ; and Tech Pitch Days . Existing initiatives were rounded out today by the launch of The TechCorner, a new digital information and communications platform dedicated to funding the tech sector on financial markets.
The TechCorner offers qualified content for investors and innovative companies, including indepth articles and news, interviews with company management to better understand their business models, sector analyses, and, finally, information on market indices and tech companies listed on Euronext. EnterNext plans to use the site to bring investors and companies together and improve communications between them.
EnterNext at the heart of financing innovative SMEs
2015 was an outstanding year for tech companies, with 27 listings on markets covered by EnterNext raising a total of €924 million. Secondary share and bond issues have also been very dynamic, raising nearly €900 million since the beginning of 2015.
Eric Forest, Chairman and CEO of EnterNext, a said: “We are proud of the progress made since our first EnterNext Tech Conference—an event we proceeded to roll out in main regions across France, in the Benelux region and in Portugal this year. In just 12 months, we have brought together over 2,000 people to discuss the role of the stock exchange and examine together how innovative companies can raise the capital they need. We have successfully deployed all of the initiatives we announced earlier, which have been very favourably received by our ecosystem.”
EnterNext thanks all of the dedicated partners that have contributed to the organization and success of its Tech Conference, in particular its platinum partners BNP Paribas-Portzamparc, Deloitte, KPMG and its gold partners Natixis, Omnes Capital and PWC.