SV Founders Report (3/5): A dive into Europe’s diverse startup ecosystem
By Siddharth Choksi, Marketing Analyst at Samaipata Ventures. We analysed roughly 200 founders across Europe who exited for, or raised rounds above $50M in the past decade, not for their financial success, but the technological disruption they caused. We analysed over 15 different variables, here are some of our key findings.
With an ever-expanding population of nearly 750 million, Europe is home to more than 50 sovereign states, each with their own culture, history, and traditions. Moreover, the continent converses in several dozen different languages and dialects, and is home to nearly 100 different ethnic groups!
These incredible levels of diversity are beautifully reflected in its startup ecosystem; in fact, some of Europe’s most disruptive tech scenes like Berlin, London, and Barcelona are some of the most culturally diverse metropoles in the world!
Interestingly, in this year’s edition of Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report and Ranking, 6 European cities were ranked in the top 20 (London, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, and Amsterdam), which is just 1 less than the US. 💪 🇪🇺
Rapid advances in technology has made it increasingly easier to start a venture; in today’s times all one really needs is a decent wi-fi connection! Depending on the business model, location may very well be a redundant variable; tech startups are no longer bound to the ‘Valley’.
In the last few years, entrepreneurship has truly become a global phenomenon, and Europe is by no means an exception; so many cities have become major startup launchpads with breakthrough technological advances emerging on a regular basis. Numerous traditionally offline industries have been digitalised to cope with the rapidly changing norms.
Diversity is an integral part of the global startup community. In fact, a little more than 1 in 4 European founders and roughly 1 in every 3 unicorn founders grew up in a culturally diverse household.
Numerous studies have shown us that having an ethnically diverse team, actually has an improving effect on your startup’s financial performance. Think about it, by putting together a diverse team, you put yourself in the position to explore each others highly different minds, which can lead to far more fruitful outcomes. This can be an especially crucial factor for startups, as innovation and flexibility are two of the most important pillars newly founded ventures have for survival, both of which can truly be enforced by diversity in the workforce. 💪
This post is part of a series comprising of 5 articles, in which we will be discussing and presenting our most astonishing findings after thorough research on nearly 200 founders.
- SV Founders Report (1/5): How Big is the Gender Gap in the Startup World?
- SV Founders Report (2/5): How Educated are European Startup Founders?
- SV Founders Report (3/5): A dive into Europe’s diverse startup ecosystem
- SV Founders Report (4/5): What Successful Founders did before Making it.
- SV Founders Report (5/5): A Look into a Startup’s Timeline.
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