- A working session of European Commissioners, investors, founders, academics and Capital Markets Professionals to unveil the methodology for identifying the companies capable of closing Europe’s competitiveness gap with the US and China
- Senior leaders from the European Commission, EIC, EIB, EIF and EBRD will join executives and experts from Nasdaq, Google DeepMind, Siemens, Novartis, Harvard and ABP to agree the next steps for accelerating Europe’s future champions.
Bled, Slovenia, August 24, 2026 – The Future 500 Forum will convene in Bled on August 31 to execute specific practical steps in addressing one of Europe's most pressing economic problems: how to identify, finance, and accelerate the companies capable of scaling into global champions. BOSQAR INVEST is supporting this year's edition as General Sponsor.
Taking place alongside the Bled Strategic Forum, Future 500 will unveil the results of its first national selection program, Future 100 Slovenia. The selection started with more than 203.000 Slovenian companies. Following the initial screening, 603 met the OECD high-growth company criterion, and were assessed across seven dimensions and 19 indicators to identify 100 businesses with the potential to become future European champions. This provides the Future 500 with the opportunity to test the selection methodology it ultimately intends to deploy across Europe.
The timing is critical. Europe is beginning to respond to the competitiveness challenge set out by Mario Draghi, with substantial new scale-up capital being mobilized, including up to EUR 80 billion through the European Investment Bank’s ETCI 2.0 (European Tech Champions Initiative) and its associated investment alliance.
Europe continues to trail the US in turning innovation into companies of global scale, while weaker productivity growth, trade imbalances, and intensifying competition from the US and China put further pressure on its economic model.
The Future 500's argument is that raising more capital is only half the answer: Europe now needs to get much better at identifying its potential winners and ensuring that capital reaches them.
Stjepan Orešković, founder of the Future 500 Initiative, comments: “Europe is beginning to mobilize the capital it needs, but €80 billion will not make Europe more competitive simply because it is available.
“We need to identify our future champions earlier and make sure capital, markets and expertise are concentrated behind the companies capable of competing globally. The question is no longer simply whether Europe has the money; it is whether we can get it to the right companies, at the right moment and the right volume.”
From identifying issues in Brussels to execution in Bled
The Bled Forum represents a significant progression from Future 500's Champions of Growth gathering in Brussels in March, where Senior European policymakers, investors, and business leaders examined why Europe remains adept at creating innovative businesses but struggles to scale enough of them into global leaders. A working session will now convene to confirm next steps.
The working session will include the participation of Kerstin Jorna, Director-General, DG GROW, European Commission; Anže Logar, Minister of the Economy, Labour and Sport, Slovenia; Michiel Scheffer, President of the Board, European Innovation Council (EIC), Jörn Fleck, Senior Director, Europe Center, Atlantic Council, Marko Primorac, Vice-President of EIB and Stjepan Orešković Founder, Future 500; Founder & Majority Shareholder, BOSQAR INVEST, as well as the President of Supervisory Board, IEDC. Other senior representatives from Harvard University, Novartis, Siemens, ABP, Nasdaq Stock Exchange, Google DeepMind, the EBRD, the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be present.
The methodology utilized to identify the Future 100 Slovenia is newly developed and combines financial performance with measures including growth trajectory, internationalization, innovation, and intellectual property. A Wild Card mechanism adds expert judgement to the quantitative analysis, designed to identify breakthrough companies whose potential might be missed by conventional financial screening.
This is intended to provide the blueprint for a broader Future 500 Index across Europe, creating a systematic mechanism for finding promising businesses earlier and connecting them with the capital, talent, markets and industrial partners needed to scale.
Not just a talking shop…
The Future 500 ambition goes beyond producing another shortlist. The Future 500 ultimately wants to help create the conditions for Europe's first trillion-euro company, ensuring that promising European businesses no longer need to look to the US capital markets to achieve global scale.
The challenge Future 500 will put to Bled is simple: Europe may finally be mobilizing the capital to compete. Now it must identify the companies capable of winning and ensure funding reaches them.
For more information about the event and the Future 500 platform, visit www.future500forum.com.