Europe is a continent wealthy in range, from its multitude of languages and traditions to the numerous methods individuals specific who they’re. It’s this patchwork of identities, backgrounds, and views that fuels innovation, resilience, and cultural depth. Our variations don’t essentially need to divide us, they’ve the ability to make us stronger, extra inventive, and extra related.
As we enter June, Delight Month serves as each a celebration and a reminder. Whereas progress has been made within the battle for LGBTQ+ rights, the journey is way from over. Discrimination, inequality, and lack of illustration nonetheless impression thousands and thousands throughout the continent. Delight is not only about parades and visibility, it’s a name to motion, an opportunity to uplift voices which have lengthy been silenced, and to recommit to constructing a fairer, extra inclusive society.
In that spirit, we’ve put collectively a listing of 10 impactful European startups and organisations which might be working to make the world extra inclusive for LGBTQ+ communities. From social platforms and journey apps to enterprise capital and accessibility instruments, these ventures are putting neighborhood, visibility, and fairness on the coronary heart of what they do.
Wawsome: Whereas it’s not particularly centered on the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, this Amsterdam-based net accessibility platform is on a mission to assist companies construct inclusive on-line experiences. Whether or not it’s adjusting distinction, growing textual content dimension, enabling display reader compatibility, or making certain keyboard navigation, Wawsome makes it simpler for web sites to be extra accessible. With only a single line of code, websites can meet WCAG 2.1 and European Accessibility Act requirements, making them usable for individuals with disabilities whereas enhancing the expertise for all customers.:
Past compliance, Wawsome views accessibility as an opportunity to broaden impression and construct model belief. Its AI-powered instruments, akin to accessibility monitoring, reporting, and customisable widgets, are designed for e-commerce websites, small companies, and socially accountable organisations alike. With real-time changes and intuitive design, Wawsome helps firms do the correct factor whereas staying forward of authorized necessities, embracing inclusivity not simply as an obligation, however as a core worth.
Podimo: Based in Copenhagen in 2019, Podimo is a premium subscription platform providing unique, ad-free podcasts and a rising catalogue of audiobooks. At the moment obtainable in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and past, the app blends worldwide favourites with domestically curated content material, accessible through cell or net.
They’re strongly dedicated to inclusion and illustration, with a transparent effort to uplift LGBTQ+ voices. The platform hosts numerous queer-focused podcasts, together with Sabor a queer, Nosotrxs, Maricoin, and Cazamariposas, offering a stage for various tales and lived experiences inside the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. By means of its content material and collaborations, Podimo helps foster a extra inclusive audio ecosystem the place all listeners can really feel represented and heard.
OutOfOffice.com: Based mostly in Friedberg, Out Of Workplace is a full-service journey firm with a mission to make tailored holidays inclusive for all, no matter who you’re keen on or the place you’re going. Specialising in bespoke itineraries, they mix deep international experience with private service to craft journeys which might be each unique and welcoming. From traditional practice journeys by means of Italy to crusing journeys within the Maldives, every itinerary is curated with care, transparency, and suppleness.
Based in 2016 with the LGBTQ+ neighborhood in thoughts, Out Of Workplace has turn out to be a world chief in inclusive luxurious journey. Their workforce of LGBTQ+ journey specialists understands the distinctive wants of queer travellers and ensures each journey is seamless and affirming. Whether or not it’s a honeymoon, group journey, or cultural escape, Out Of Workplace helps travellers discover the world freely and with type.
Mattr.Social: Based mostly in London, Mattr.Social is a relationship app constructed for people who find themselves uninterested in superficial swiping and are in search of extra real, character-based connections. Designed to be inclusive from the beginning, the app is particularly welcoming to neurodivergent people and people searching for a extra accessible, sincere technique to meet others. It makes use of a personality-driven matching algorithm (not based mostly on reputation or look), limits matches to only 4 per day, and options instruments like temper monitoring, an “Honesty Field,” and psychological well being breaks to assist person wellbeing.
With verified profiles, safety-first design, and perks like reductions for date nights and wellness merchandise, Mattr is creating an area the place everybody can really feel seen, revered, and supported. Whether or not you’re neurodivergent, neurotypical, or just in search of one thing completely different, Mattr’s mission is to assist customers join as their true selves, with out judgment, stress, or performative metrics. Based in 2021, it’s quietly redefining what on-line relationship can really feel like.
Identification VC: Based mostly in Berlin and Zurich, Identification VC is a enterprise capital agency backing early-stage startups led by LGBTQ+ founders or C-level executives. With investments starting from €250K to €1.5 million, the fund helps firms from pre-seed to Collection A throughout all sectors aligned with international megatrends. The workforce believes that range is a key driver of innovation and long-term enterprise success, and is working to convey the LGBTQ+ neighborhood’s historical past of cultural transformation into wider startup ecosystems.
Based in 2023, Identification VC presents hands-on assist from a workforce of traders who perceive the distinctive challenges LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs face. They’ve additionally launched the primary pan-European research on LGBTQ+ startup founders, gathering insights from over 500 founders throughout 20+ nations. Alongside funding, Identification VC runs the League of Unicorns, a rising neighborhood house the place queer founders and traders can join, collaborate, and entry alternatives, without having a heat intro.
diversidays: Based mostly in Paris, Diversidays was based to deal with the shortage of range in digital and tech professions throughout France and past. The organisation helps job seekers and entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, together with girls, individuals with disabilities, people from underprivileged neighbourhoods and rural areas, and people dealing with discrimination resulting from age, origin, or sexual orientation. Its mission is to make the tech world extra accessible and inclusive, utilizing digital instruments as a springboard for profession progress and social mobility.
Since 2017, Diversidays has supported over 13,000 individuals and helped speed up 500 entrepreneurs throughout ten areas of France. By means of initiatives like DéClics Numériques and the Management Program, it presents coaching, mentoring, visibility, and connections to a broader community of alternatives. The organisation additionally works carefully with public establishments and personal companions to create instruments that promote illustration and share success tales, contributing to a extra open and various digital financial system.
Compete Proud: Sports activities and queerness haven’t at all times gone hand in hand. For a lot of LGBTQ+ athletes, the taking part in discipline has lengthy been a spot of silence, worry, or invisibility. Compete Proud is right here to alter that. Based mostly in Madrid and based by Spanish Olympian Javier Raya, the platform is a daring voice for Variety, Fairness and Inclusion (DEI) in sports activities—supporting athletes at each stage, from grassroots competitions to the Olympic Video games. Backed by the IOC Younger Leaders programme, Compete Proud presents protected areas, shares empowering athlete tales, and delivers workshops, webinars and consultancy that deal with the whole lot from popping out journeys to inclusive sponsorship and management improvement.
The venture is led by a workforce that deeply understands what it means to be out, seen and proud in sport: Olympic Gold Medalist Matthew Mitcham focuses on schooling and variety; Nikki Symmons, a former worldwide hockey participant and early LGBTQ+ advocate in Eire, leads athlete engagement; and Gema Hassen-Bey, a Paralympic fencing pioneer, brings a strong voice on inclusion and accessibility. Collectively, they make Compete Proud greater than a platform—it’s a motion to make sport safer, extra seen, and actually inclusive for everybody who competes with pleasure. Based in 2022, it’s already leaving a long-lasting mark on the worldwide sports activities neighborhood.
Collective: Based mostly in London, Collective is a brand new sort of social platform constructed by and for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Not like conventional relationship or social media apps, Collective is concentrated on fostering significant connections—whether or not romantic, platonic, inventive or skilled. It presents a protected, ad-free house for queer individuals to seek out new pals, journey buddies, occasion companions, and extra. The app is constructed round pursuits fairly than likes or followers, encouraging offline meetups and real-world interactions in a more healthy, much less performative on-line house.
Based in 2023 by queer technologist Callum, Collective is a direct response to the rising loneliness and fragmentation inside the LGBTQ+ neighborhood—an issue exacerbated by mainstream platforms and the decline of bodily queer areas. Collective offers precedence to trans, non-binary, and queer girls, providing an area the place all identities are uplifted. With an emphasis on belonging, authenticity, and solidarity, the app is positioning itself as a queer super-app—a digital neighbourhood bar for the whole lot from dialog and creativity to emotional assist and neighborhood constructing.
BE DIVERSE: Based mostly in Madrid, BE DIVERSE is a Variety & Inclusion consultancy providing strategic steering and customised programmes that foster inclusive, equitable, and various work environments. Initially centered on LGBTQ+ inclusion, the agency has developed right into a trusted community of consultants with experience in areas akin to inclusive management, cultural consciousness, unconscious bias, and trans inclusion. Their companies embrace D&I technique consulting, coverage improvement aligned with native and EU laws, management coaching, cultural transformation initiatives, and employer branding to boost inner and exterior communication.
BE DIVERSE follows a structured, data-driven methodology constructed round inner diagnostics, tailor-made technique design, and KPI-based implementation. With over 10 years of experience, 40+ purchasers, and a 95% satisfaction price, their work has earned them partnerships with main international manufacturers like IBM, Netflix, and UNICC. Based in 2021, BE DIVERSE continues to drive significant organisational change throughout Spain and Europe.
Babaiola: Based mostly in Sassari, Italy, Babaiola is the primary social journey platform devoted to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Out there as a cell app, it helps customers uncover gay-friendly inns, golf equipment, and occasions whereas connecting with over 35,000 registered members. With greater than 20,000 listed lodging and over 1,000 LGBTQ+ occasions, customers can work together in actual time, discover journey companions, and discover curated metropolis profiles created from day by day knowledge aggregation throughout over 200 LGBTQ+ web sites.
Constructed on values of inclusivity, respect, security, and accountable innovation, Babaiola was based in 2017 to foster and turn out to be a welcoming house for various identities and experiences. It helps its mission by means of day by day podcasts, clear communication, and energetic promotion of social sustainability.
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