Europe is a continent wealthy in variety, from its multitude of languages and traditions to the numerous methods folks 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 should divide us, they’ve the ability to make us stronger, extra inventive, and extra related.
As we enter June, Satisfaction Month serves as each a celebration and a reminder. Whereas progress has been made within the combat for LGBTQ+ rights, the journey is way from over. Discrimination, inequality, and lack of illustration nonetheless influence tens of millions throughout the continent. Satisfaction isn’t just 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 an inventory of 10 impactful European startups and organisations which can 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 internet 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 guaranteeing 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 folks with disabilities whereas bettering the expertise for all customers.:
Past compliance, Wawsome views accessibility as an opportunity to broaden influence and construct model belief. Its AI-powered instruments, reminiscent of 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 corporations do the best 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 authentic, ad-free podcasts and a rising catalogue of audiobooks. At the moment out there in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and past, the app blends worldwide favourites with domestically curated content material, accessible through cellular or internet.
They’re strongly dedicated to inclusion and illustration, with a transparent effort to uplift LGBTQ+ voices. The platform hosts quite a few queer-focused podcasts, together with Sabor a queer, Nosotrxs, Maricoin, and Cazamariposas, offering a stage for numerous tales and lived experiences inside the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. By way 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: Primarily based 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 like or the place you’re going. Specialising in bespoke itineraries, they mix deep international experience with private service to craft journeys which can be each unique and welcoming. From basic practice journeys by way 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 grow 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 fashion.
Mattr.Social: Primarily based 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 looking for a extra accessible, sincere solution 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 totally 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.
Identity VC: Primarily based in Berlin and Zurich, Id 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 corporations from pre-seed to Sequence A throughout all sectors aligned with international megatrends. The workforce believes that variety 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, Id VC gives hands-on assist from a workforce of buyers 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+ international locations. Alongside funding, Id VC runs the League of Unicorns, a rising neighborhood house the place queer founders and buyers can join, collaborate, and entry alternatives, with no need a heat intro.
diversidays: Primarily based in Paris, Diversidays was based to deal with the dearth of variety in digital and tech professions throughout France and past. The organisation helps job seekers and entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, together with ladies, folks with disabilities, people from underprivileged neighbourhoods and rural areas, and people going through discrimination as a result of 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 folks and helped speed up 500 entrepreneurs throughout ten areas of France. By way of initiatives like DéClics Numériques and the Management Program, it gives 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 numerous digital financial system.
Compete Proud: Sports activities and queerness haven’t all the time gone hand in hand. For a lot of LGBTQ+ athletes, the enjoying area has lengthy been a spot of silence, concern, or invisibility. Compete Proud is right here to vary that. Primarily based 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 gives protected areas, shares empowering athlete tales, and delivers workshops, webinars and consultancy that sort out every part from popping out journeys to inclusive sponsorship and management growth.
The challenge 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 training 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 robust 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 satisfaction. Based in 2022, it’s already leaving an enduring mark on the worldwide sports activities neighborhood.
Collective: Primarily based in London, Collective is a brand new type of social platform constructed by and for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. In contrast to conventional relationship or social media apps, Collective is concentrated on fostering significant connections—whether or not romantic, platonic, inventive or skilled. It gives a protected, ad-free house for queer folks to seek out new mates, journey buddies, occasion companions, and extra. The app is constructed round pursuits relatively 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 provides precedence to trans, non-binary, and queer ladies, 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 every part from dialog and creativity to emotional assist and neighborhood constructing.
BE DIVERSE: Primarily based in Madrid, BE DIVERSE is a Variety & Inclusion consultancy providing strategic steerage and customised programmes that foster inclusive, equitable, and numerous work environments. Initially centered on LGBTQ+ inclusion, the agency has developed right into a trusted community of consultants with experience in areas reminiscent of inclusive management, cultural consciousness, unconscious bias, and trans inclusion. Their companies embrace D&I technique consulting, coverage growth aligned with native and EU rules, management coaching, cultural transformation initiatives, and employer branding to boost inside and exterior communication.
BE DIVERSE follows a structured, data-driven methodology constructed round inside 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: Primarily based in Sassari, Italy, Babaiola is the primary social journey platform devoted to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Obtainable as a cellular app, it helps customers uncover gay-friendly motels, 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 information 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 grow to be a welcoming house for numerous identities and experiences. It helps its mission by way of day by day podcasts, clear communication, and lively promotion of social sustainability.
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