Mention startup hubs, and most people think of Silicon Valley. Think of startup hubs, and you might think of Y Combinator: the famous American accelerator, whose motto is “Make something people want,” has attracted budding entrepreneurs from all over the world who dream, like Steve Jobs of the famous Apple, of creating startup hubs. . “””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” “
Since 2005, Y Combinator has nurtured and funded 4,000 startups with a combined value of $600 billion, including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe.
Every region of the world has looked enviously at this model of entrepreneurial dynamism and has tried to imitate the West Coast rules. No one has succeeded in the same way.
Recommended
But what has emerged in Europe, at least, is a more widespread and diverse tech ecosystem, supported by a dispersed network of incubators and accelerators across the region. By 2021, some 98 cities in 28 countries in Europe have spawned a unicorn – a startup valued at at least $1 billion.
To map these startup hubs, the Financial Times – together with its research partner, Statista, and the Financial Times' sister magazine, Cited – have compiled a ranking of the best incubators and accelerators in Europe. The inaugural list was published today, covering 125 centers in 21 countries. The centers included range from branches of well-established universities, to corporate incubators, to entire business accelerators.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the UK – with London being Europe's venture capital hub – is home to the largest number of listed companies (24), followed by Germany (16) and Spain (15). But the research also identifies a growing number of promising centers in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.
The top three rankings are UnternehmerTUM in Germany, Hexa in France/Belgium, and SETsquared in the UK.
Each center was evaluated by its 2,600 alumni in six categories: mentoring and training development; infrastructure; legal aid; Business Development; networks; And financing. Independent experts, including angel investors, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and academics, have also added their ratings. Additional marks were awarded, according to the most successful startups that emerged from each centre.
UnternehmerTUM, affiliated with the Technical University of Munich, received particularly high marks among graduates in the field of communication. “UTUM has enhanced my entire journey and transformation into an entrepreneur,” one wrote. “UTUM is a machine for making unicorns.”
TUM, which calls itself an entrepreneurship university, boasts that its graduates have created 11 unicorns – known locally as Munichorns – including software company Celonis, flying car startup Lilium, and AI-based video content generator Synthesia.
Many of Europe's most promising startup hubs are linked to universities. But academic founders have often criticized universities for being overly protective of intellectual property and demanding too much of a stake in any spin-off, suppressing value for other investors.
European startups have also suffered from a lack of capital to enable promising companies to reach global scale.
Recommended
Nathan Benitch, general partner at VC group Air Street Capital, says European countries need to develop larger pools of growth capital to build promising businesses and encourage enlightened universities to be “long-term greedy, not short-term greedy” when it comes to To Spinbots.
“It's fair to say that in Europe, even today, we have one or the other, but rarely both,” says Benesch.
The second position, Hexa, describes itself as a startup studio, creating multiple companies in parallel and as a team. To this end, Hexa takes a 30 percent stake in startups – an extremely high percentage by the standards of most centres, although it covers all companies' costs in the first year.
Hexa, in particular, focuses on building enterprise software, fintech, and web3 companies. It has launched 40 companies with a combined value of more than $4.5 billion. “Hexa has provided us with invaluable advice regarding our SaaS products [software as a service] The industry, in addition to a strong network of angel investors that can be leveraged.”
The third centre, SETsquared, is an unusual collaborative incubator run by six British research universities: Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Since its launch in 2002, SETsquared has supported more than 5,000 entrepreneurs, enabling them to raise £4.4 billion in funding.
Recommended
One participant noted the benefit of multiple meetings with investors and industrial partners, which is critical to business success. “The team is really committed and supportive,” the graduate wrote.
These three very different approaches to building startups highlight the diversity of Europe's tech ecosystem. “There is probably nothing equivalent to Y Combinator in Europe,” Benić says. “But Y Combinator was founded in a different era. They offered a unique product at the time.
In other words, Europe no longer needs to try to emulate Y Combinator. It creates its own vibrant central model.
