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Key Findings

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Investors

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Purpose

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Policy

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Appendix

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Trending Hubs & Communities

Strong and supportive

Founders picked the presence of a strong personal network and a supportive local tech community as two of the top three most important personal considerations for choosing where to start.

Europe continues to flourish and to experience growth rates in the number of cities hosting over 100 tech-related Meetup events. 2019 in particular registered an almost 50% increase year over year.

Source:
Note:
2019 annualised based on data to end of September 2019.

Europe's largest and most mature tech communities continue to see a slow yet steady increase in the level of participation in tech-related Meetup events. Level of participation outside the top 5 hubs is growing even faster year on year, especially in cities such as Hamburg, Istanbul or Zurich, to name a few.

Source:

Legend

  • London
  • Berlin
  • Paris
  • Amsterdam
  • Munich
Note:
2019 annualised based on RSVPs to end of September 2019.

European tech communities are also expanding beyond the largest hubs. The share of tech-related Meetup events outside the top 20 hubs has consistently increased over the years.

Source:

Legend

  • % in top 20 hubs
  • % outside top 20 hubs

In fact, we are seeing a trend of 'decentralisation' as the share of attendees in tech-related Meetup events decreases year on year.

Source:

Legend

  • London
  • Berlin
  • Paris
  • Stockholm
  • Amsterdam
Note:
2019 annualised based on data to September 2019.

This year alone, we've invested for the first time in Prague, Milan and Aarhus.

Europe is unique in its model of multiple technology hubs across the continent, which has meant that no single place has the depth and breadth of a Silicon Valley. But we are now seeing unprecedented levels of entrepreneurial activity across the region, not just in the traditional hubs of London, Paris and Stockholm. This year alone, we've invested for the first time in Prague, Milan and Aarhus. When these markets are taken together, they show a true diversity in sector and approach - from fintech to healthtech and enterprise automation. The fragmentation also means that talent is dispersed and companies need to be mindful of location as they scale.

Sonali de Rycker

Accel

Partner

As the number of options keeps growing every year, top tech hubs such as London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, and Copenhagen are losing their popularity amongst founders.

Top hubs where founders would start a company tomorrow, 2018 vs 2019

Source:

Legend

  • % of votes 2018
  • % of votes 2019
Note:
Founders were asked to allocate three votes in the survey. Percentages indicate the share of founders that cited each named city.

We need to build up stronger relationships between these local ecosystems so as to form a pan-European network and improve liquidity in the markets for both talent and capital.

Local ecosystems are still too isolated from each other. Whenever you visit a European capital, you can always spot interesting things on the ground: entrepreneurs with higher ambitions; angel investors with an improving track record; venture capital firms with more capital to deploy; and more technical talent willing to join the startup world. However, every single city in Europe ignores all the others —with the one notable exception of London. And I think that's the biggest challenge we need to tackle. We need to build up stronger relationships between these local ecosystems so as to form a pan-European network and improve liquidity on the markets for both talent and capital. Also, we're still waiting for the European tech world to inspire its own culture, one that would make it possible for people from different countries and backgrounds to work together. Distributed teams are all the rage now, including in Silicon Valley. But you can't work as a distributed team if that team is not cemented by a common culture. We need that pan-European tech culture if we want people from various European countries to work together and build successful tech companies.

Nicolas Colin

The Family

Co-Founder & Director

Bright future ahead for Central & Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern Europe have come to the limelight in the last 12 months. Not only because of the record level of capital invested in Romania and the rise of UiPath to a $1B+ company but also because of their leadership in areas such as diversity and technical talent pool. So the growth of tech communities across CEE countries is great news for Europe as a whole.

Europe continues to see geographic diversity amongst the Top 20 fastest-growing tech hubs by year-on-year growth to tech-related Meetup events. Iasi, a city in Romania where United State's tech giant Amazon set up office space, ranked number two as the fastest-growing community overall.

Source:
Note:
2019 annualised based on RSVPs to end of September 2019. Only hubs with at least 1,000 RSVPs in 2018 are included.

Central & Eastern European cities dominate the list of top ten fastest-growing hubs by growth of active members year-on-year.

Source:
Note:
2019 annualised based on active members to end of September 2019. Only cities with over 1,000 active members in 2018 are included.

Central & Eastern Europe also dominates the list of top ten countries by Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of active members since 2015. Albania, the leading country in this category, has seen a CAGR of 267%.

Source:
Note:
CAGR = Compound Annual Growth Rate. 2019 annualised based on active members to end of September 2019. Only countries with over 1,000 active members in 2018 are included.

A number of successful acquisitions of Belarusian startups started a boom in the Belarusian startup ecosystem.

In Belarus, a drastic difference between the average compensation in IT and in general in the country drives a lot of people to acquire an education and a job in IT. A number of successful acquisitions of Belarusian startups (maps.me acquired by Mail.Ru, MSQRD by Facebook, AIMATTER by Google, etc.) started a boom in the Belarusian startup ecosystem. It was further accelerated when the The Decree on Development of Digital Economy passed in December 2017 and greatly improved the tax and legal regime of the High Tech Park. It is now relatively easy for a startup to apply for the HTP regulation and make use of tax benefits and simpler legal regulation.

Yury Melnichek

Bulba Ventures

Co-Founder & Partner

28 cities have made the list of European cities surpassing 1,000 members of tech groups for the first time.

Source:
Note:
2019 annualised based on active members to end of September 2019.

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