London takes the lead from Berlin as the most popular destination among European tech founders, the new 2023 Startup Heatmap Europe report reveals.
When asking founders about their favorite startup hubs, London, Berlin, and Barcelona are remaining top 3 for the recent 5 years. However, in 2023 London gained back the lead after Berlin was number one last year. London and Berlin have ever since led the ranking with both having 34% of founders choosing them as a favorite destination. This is a sizeable margin ahead of Barcelona and Amsterdam (both 17%). Paris and Lisbon follow with 12% and Munich (10%) is ahead of Tallinn (9.4%).
The complete list of top 10 most popular startup hubs 2023 is found inside the report
Find the report for public download at https://pub.marq.com/SHM_2023/
The study reveals further insights about the hyper-mobility of startups in Europe:
- 31% of founders in Europe come from abroad
- 61% of startup teams have relocated to participate in accelerator programs
- 74% of startups have a presence in more than 1 country
For regional policy-makers the study showcases three distinct strategies to ensure economic prosperity for their cities. For each strategy the best performing cities are ranked.
Thomas Kösters, CEO of DEEP Ecosystems, the company behind the Startup Heatmap Report, summarizes the findings:
“Europe is attractive for startups. But success is not spread evenly and to remain successful we need strategies to collaborate in an open and inter-connected ecosystem in which big and small hubs stand to benefit.â€
Several previously laggard areas, characterized by a weak innovation system, limited access to markets, and a concentration of traditional industries that may be declining or facing challenges in the global economy, are continuing to catch up thanks to developing startup ecosystems – Key strategies to focus on are identified as attracting digital nomads and international entrepreneurs, the creation of co-working spaces also outside of metropolitan centers, leveraging EU research funding, activate local seed investors and encourage a culture open to failure and diversity.
The Startup Heatmap Europe is published annually since 2016 by the Ecosystem Acceleration Company DEEP Ecosystems.
It is Europe’s most comprehensive study on the development of startup ecosystems and founder mobility in Europe. It analyzes more than 100 cities in Europe based on a survey among European founders and dozens of data points on ecosystem dynamics, like investments, community meetups and accelerators.
The Startup Heatmap Europe Survey is one of the longest running surveys on founder sentiments answering questions like which is the most popular startup hub, how does the US and Europe compare in founder opinions and how bright or dim do founders see the future in their local startup hubs. The ranking 2023 is based on 1,346 votes of founders that represent all regions of Europe.
The Startup Heatmap Europe report is accompanied by a data platform as well as a 100 pages report to download.
Find more information on the data and courses for ecosystem builders on http://www.startupheatmap.com