We may be biased, but with the unpredictable economic climate right now, we think it’s a great time to look toward Europe. Tech companies will find this diverse continent of more than 700 million consumers a welcome next step for their expansion. Europe’s more than 30 markets stand out because:
With all this in mind and more, as we approach the second half of 2025, we re-make our case for launching your tech product or service into Europe.
As the demand for Europe increases, this creates fresh opportunities for tech companies, as businesses look to repatriate software and hardware services to Europe, modernize infrastructure and make new trade partnerships.
Europe is home to the world’s largest free trade zone. The EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) allow for the free movement of goods across 30 countries. Europe and its established trade agreements and focus on multilateralism, makes for a predictable and reliable partner.
Amid geopolitical uncertainties, the EU is actively seeking to strengthen ties with reliable economic partners, while the UK actively pursues trade agreements to deepen relationships with members of the Commonwealth, including Canada and India.
Since 2017, CETA (Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) has eliminated tariffs on almost all goods traded between Canada and the EU. The EU has also been actively pursuing bilateral trade agreements with various countries in Asia, like the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
Since Brexit, the UK also has pursued bilateral trade agreements including the 2023 Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam, Peru, Malaysia, Brunei and Australia.
By setting up a European base, you can still access these trading partners, no matter what’s happening across the pond.
Software knows no borders, so SaaS is immune to tariffs, right? In a recent piece, G2 responded to this best:
“Behind every SaaS product is a deeply interconnected system of cloud infrastructure, semiconductors, globally distributed teams and region-specific pricing. Software may be digital — but its foundation is very much physical.”
While the long-term is unknown, there are some things SaaS companies need to be considering in the short term.
From the pandemic to the war in Ukraine to that container ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal, this decade has been reminding us how global our supply chains actually are. There’s a continued demand for digital modernization especially in logistics and trade. Since the start of this year, we’ve seen a particular uptick in European interest among our clients in the logistics space. From trade compliance to autotech, from freight management to supply chain solutions, there’s a demand for cross-border visualization and optimization.
There is a push for SaaS providers to reconsider where their data sits. Enterprises are worried that any data being hosted or transported in U.S. clouds gives the host the right to read, while SaaS companies are facing increased hosting costs with U.S. data centers relying on almost exclusively imported hardware. As G2 put it, buyers are prioritizing SaaS vendors with multi-region hosting, pricing flexibility, and operational resilience. Ireland is particularly appealing as a European base for SaaS companies, as you gain access to the mainland and UK SaaS companies must remain transparent about where they host and put redundancy mechanisms in place.
This all means that European data centers, already straining under increasing AI adoption, are eager buyers for any cooling technology, backup generators and security upgrades, to name a few. European companies are also feeling more pressure to shift on-prem workloads to cloud computing platforms instead of investing heavily in on-site servers or physical storage units. European SaaS adoption will only grow in the second half of 2025.
With all of these changes, there’s a huge motivation for European organizations and governments to update their infrastructure and their cybersecurity — especially with a need to comply with the EU Cyber Resilience Act and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), both recently in effect. And it’s not just software, hardware and goods, there’s an expectation of more localized services and support within these key regions.
There’s also, of course, a global demand to leverage tooling that predicts and mitigates any disruptions.
Europe remains filled with opportunities to expand your tech business — often with less competition.
Europe's strategic location and well-developed infrastructure can serve as a hub for accessing emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East, offering a broader international footprint. Plus, of course, all the opportunities Europe has to offer itself.
Ongoing trade tensions and the potential for increased tariffs can create uncertainty for businesses heavily reliant on the U.S. market. Diversifying into Europe offers a way to dilute the risk of over-dependence on a single trade partner.
While the U.S. remains a significant market, tech companies might face increased challenges selling into that world leader.
Of course, the U.S. market is bearing the brunt of this uncertainty.
American companies that produce materials and products abroad, especially in China, are also finding Europe more attractive for new sales channels with lower import costs. If you are looking to sell consumer electronics in Europe, partner with a regional sales agency like ours to help you not only identify the right brick-and-mortar and online channels, but to help manage fulfillment and stock.
In addition, American SaaS companies are increasingly seeking European data residency due to growing concerns about GDPR compliance, data sovereignty and customer trust, particularly in B2B sectors. These companies are also responding to pressure from European customers who want to ensure their data remains within the EU.
The current global climate, coupled with the specific advantages offered by the European market, makes Europe an increasingly attractive and strategic expansion destination for Canadian and Asian companies. The established trade frameworks, large consumer base, skilled workforce and geopolitical stability position Europe as a compelling alternative or complementary market to the United States.
Still, you want to reduce risk especially in these uncertain economic times. Here comes our added argument in favor of flexibility.
When you’re testing out your product-market fit in a new country, you don’t want to go through the expensive rigamarole and commitment of setting up a business entity and lengthy hiring processes before you’ve even proven the market. By partnering with the right outsourcing agency, you get to market faster with experienced locals. And with a single contract, you can quickly scale up or down and across Europe based on your market response.
All this uncertainty will certainly impact IT spending. You need trusted sales partners (like us!) that can understand prospects’ needs and properly position your product or service within a local context.
