About Starting New

Starting New did not begin as an institution. It began as a conversation.

The idea of Starting New emerged during an Ecosystem Accelerator organised by Ashoka and Hello Europe, which brought together leading ecosystem players working with newcomer entrepreneurs from across the continent.

Across the room were organisations working on the ground — building incubators, providing mentorship, facilitating access to finance, advocating locally. What became clear was not a lack of innovation. It was a lack of alignment.

Hello Europe: Transforming the Field of Migration Through Collaborative Frameworks

The iterative process involved over 130 key decision-makers from social innovation, government, policy, corporate, academia, media and social sectors — co-designing critical shifts to achieve system change.

Each country had promising initiatives. Each ecosystem had developed expertise. But at the European level, the conversation remained fragmented.

There was no structured coalition connecting field experience to EU reform. No collective voice translating implementation realities into policy design. No platform aligning philanthropy, capital markets, and entrepreneurship policy around the specific barriers faced by newcomer founders.

We make the know-how and experience of practitioners working on the business inclusion of newcomers across Europe easily available, and work to plug-in such know-how or solutions to better inform and influence the policy debate at European, national, regional and local levels.

Institutions such as governments, law-makers, law-enforcers and financial systems pull the strings of systemic change by establishing the rules of our societies and cohesion. By establishing these "rules of the game", institutions play an important role not only in shaping our interactions and our shared collective culture, but also in defining our ability to evolve, together, as a society.

A lot of the innovative social innovations happen on a local level, and are not able to scale out of their local or regional community. That is why it is essential for practitioners who work for the economic and business inclusion of newcomers in Europe to develop a strong collective voice.

Coalition building is needed now more than ever to defend the Europe we want to see tomorrow.

At a pivotal strategic moment, we asked ourselves: why now? Because the stakes are structural.

Europe is undergoing demographic decline and facing persistent labour shortages.

Political narratives around migration remain polarised.

The green and digital transitions require innovation, risk-taking, and new market actors.

Capital remains unevenly accessible, particularly for founders with non-traditional backgrounds.

Philanthropic and public funding landscapes are shifting toward scale, accountability, and systemic impact.

In this context, newcomer entrepreneurship is not just a social policy issue — it is an economic strategy.

Our aim is to share knowledge, support the transfer and adaptation of good policies and practices, and promote relevant policy changes.

Keeping track of policy issues affecting newcomers in developing their businesses.

Liaising with national organizations representing newcomer interests to build a strong front for advocacy.

Building the capacity of members to better connect with their local/regional/national ecosystems.

Developing systematic mechanisms to strengthen multi-level advocacy efforts.

Learning and capitalizing from the coalition members' experiences.

Identifying, assessing and promoting good policies and practices.

Creating a sustainable network for adapting and upscaling good policies and practices.

The European project has always been more than a political or economic arrangement. At its core, it is an idea: that shared prosperity, dignity, and opportunity can bind together diverse societies more powerfully than fear or fragmentation ever could. The economic inclusion of newcomers — and in particular newcomer entrepreneurs — is a defining test of Europe's capacity to renew itself.

Newcomer entrepreneurs are not beneficiaries of the European project; they are co-creators of it. By building businesses, generating employment, and anchoring economic activity in local communities, they strengthen Europe from the ground up.

The founding organizations, represented by their designated members, oversee governance discussions and set the coalition's strategic direction and priorities.