Number of investments in startups in Europe 2017-2022

The European startup scene heated up in recent years, reaching approximately 8,400 recorded investments in different cities across the continent. London, Paris, Berlin and Stockholm were particularly popular places for startup investment rounds. A startup is usually defined as a starting (group of) entrepreneur(s), but there are many different definitions of this term. For this specific ranking, the source mentions that it included startups that are less than ten years old. Exceptions were companies which did not mention their founding year, or which were officially listed as a startup despite passing the ten-year mark.

How many startups are there in Europe?

No numbers exist that cover the precise size of the European startup market. This might have to do with the mentioned difficulties surrounding the definition of what a startup exactly is, and that this potentially varies per European country. There are, however, certain indicators which might help. One could look at whether local entrepreneurs were involved in the early phases of a startup (i.e. after generating the first income from sales of products or services). This so-called TEA rate or early-stage entrepreneurial activity varied significantly in Europe in 2022, reaching approximately 13 percent of the total population in the United Kingdom and approximately nine percent of Germany’s population.