The amount of money flowing into European start-ups looks set to surpass $100bn this year, up from last year’s $41bn, according to reporting from Forbes.
The story, which came out this week, quoted VC firm Atomico and its State of European Tech 2021 report, which said that this year’s numbers had ‘helped smash last year’s records’.
Forbes wrote: “While the number of $100m funding rounds also more than doubled to 153, many of the startup founders surveyed for the report say that it was harder to raise capital than last year. Around $60 billion of the total invested with European startups this year was via these mega-deals, while the capital flowing to early stage startups only grew slightly.”
The full report was not immediately available, but its executive summary can be found online.
Writing online, the authors said: “Europe is firmly positioned as a global tech player in 2021, with a record $100bn of capital invested, 98 new unicorns, and the strongest ever startup pipeline, now on par with the US. European tech is creating value at its fastest pace, adding $1trn in just eight months. While geographical differences in maturity level remain, talent mobility and distributed success is powering newer hubs.”
No particular sector, said Atomico, stands out.
It wrote: “European tech has become a breeding ground for companies across all sectors. From frontier tech to crypto and enterprise SaaS, European founders can build successful companies from Europe. A new generation of entrepreneurs is putting social and climate impact at the core of their mission. The ecosystem is aware of the need to improve diversity and inclusion, but has much left to do to make that happen.”
Its conclusions were stark: “Investing in Europe,” Atomico said, “is more attractive and dynamic than ever.”
There were some interesting developments in the last year. Forbes wrote: “The pandemic also unsurprisingly seems to have driven a radical shift in attitudes from founders towards remote work. Around 50% of the founders say relocating staff and being in a tech hub like London and Berlin with proximity to investors was less important than last year.”
Given that London and Berlin both have housing crises, with the latter originating from its reputation as a tech centre, that’s probably a good thing.
