Beyond the Screen: Where to Meet Europe’s Creative Tech Founders

New Renaissance Notes: a monthly newsletter where we share insights about the intersection of culture, creativity and technology. We include our updates from New Renaissance Ventures - Europe’s first venture fund dedicated to the Creative and Cultural Industries.

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🎙️ Severin Zugmayer joined the conversation with Victoria Fäh, Maarten Walraven, Gareth Deakin on MUSIC x to discuss two different approaches to investing in the creative industries. Listen to the full episode and learn more here.

Summer is in full swing, and in this July edition of our newsletter, we’d like to share a curated guide to Europe’s creative tech hubs.

By now, we all know that the best networking doesn’t happen only on conference stages and it certainly doesn’t happen exclusively online. More often, it happens in person: at curated side events, community gatherings, and the physical spaces where founders, creators, and innovators come together.

If you’re a founder building at the intersection of technology, creativity, and culture, Europe offers a growing network of hubs where creative technologists, artists, entrepreneurs, and researchers can exchange ideas, collaborate, and build meaningful relationships in the real world.

Whether you’re looking for a co-working space, an innovation lab, an incubator, or simply a community of like-minded people, we highlighted some of the most inspiring physical hubs across Europe where creativity and technology intersect.

You may already know or even have visited some of these places. If so, we encourage you to take another look at their event calendars or accelerator programs.

🇬🇧 London:

• Somerset House Studios: Positioned right in the centre of London, it is an experimental space linked to digital art and immersive media, perfect for meeting artists and creative technologists. There are many exciting opportunities and residencies you can explore here.

• Here East: Located on the former Olympic Park campus, this multi-award-winning space is built for creators operating at scale, featuring AI startups, gaming, and robotics.

• Second Home & The Trampery: Second Home is a workspace and cultural venue that hosts programming tailored for designers, writers, and early-stage founders. The Trampery is highly recommended if you are in fashion or the maker space.

  

🇩🇪 Berlin:

• Factory Berlin: Described as Europe’s closest equivalent to an ‘innovation clubhouse,’ Factory Berlin challenges the norm by bringing together startups, investors, and artists. They run dedicated programs offering space for artists, alongside equity-based scaling programs for tech entrepreneurs.

• MotionLab Berlin: This is Germany’s premier makerspace and ecosystem for “hardtech,” art, and creative engineering. Keep an eye out for their community events like BreakfastinMotion, designed specifically for founders and creatives to connect and share ideas.

• Silent Green & Holon: Great alternative venues for experimental art, AI events, and circular economy design.

🇮🇹 Milan & 🇦🇹 Vienna:

• BASE Milano: One of Europe’s most exciting hybrid spaces. It functions as a project house, recording studio, and residency program, making it a magnet for designers, AI creatives, and cultural organizations.

  

• MEET Digital Culture Center: Also in Milan, this is the premier Italian organization supporting digital culture and creative technology.

• Creative Cluster Vienna: If you find yourself in Vienna, this hub serves as a dedicated incubator for art, culture, and community, heavily frequented by designers and creative SMEs.

🚀 Paris, Helsinki, Amsterdam & Barcelona:

• Station F (Paris): The ultimate place to build from idea to scale. It houses over 1,000 startups and boasts a rapidly growing community of AI creators.

• Maria 01 & Aalto Startup Center (Helsinki): Maria 01 is the leading startup campus in the Nordics with a strong creative AI presence. Check out Maria 01 Northern Light Accelerator, first program to combine market access with founder wellbeing. Aalto Startup Center is ideal if your focus is at the intersection of design and deep tech.

  

• Amsterdam (AI AM, B. Amsterdam & A Lab): Amsterdam is writing its next chapter in innovation with AI AM, a brand new 1,000m² collaborative ecosystem designed to bridge human creativity and AI. Located in the INIT building (formerly home to the Netherlands’ leading newspapers), it offers flexible workspaces, a fully equipped podcast and video studio, and regular industry meetups for developers and startups. You can also check out B. Amsterdam (celebrated for its founder community and free padel) and A Lab, a hotspot for music and media.

  

• Pier01 (Barcelona): A 11,000 m2 hub housed in a refurbished 1890 port warehouse, packed with tech startups, incubators, and investors.

Bonus Spaces to Watch:

• Corda Arena (Belgium): Grand Opening this November, this state-of-the-art, modular event venue is built specifically to host events of any scale.

• Lab of Tomorrow (Belgium): an initiative by Tomorrowland, is the destination where visionaries shape the future of entertainment tech.

Building outside the major capitals? You are far from isolated.

The European Creative Hubs Network connects hundreds of facilities across the continent, offering prototyping labs, mentorship programs, fellowships, and international exchanges. Take a look at spaces like Spinderihallerne (Denmark), UPTEC (Porto), and FabLab (Lisboa) if you are traveling nearby.

Which hub are you visiting next or hosting a Fall side event at?

Let us know in the comments!

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