Why does Paris rank above London? – The Global Tech Ecosystem Index
Paris is a bigger tech ecosystem than London. “If you torture the data, it will tell anything you want to hear” says @drnovac
— Hussein Kanji (@hkanji) May 25, 2025
When we released the Global Tech Ecosystem Index at the end of May, we knew there were going to be a few surprises, and more than a few questions.
One big ‘shock’ was Paris placing higher than London.
If London’s tech ecosystem is 2x the size of Paris, why did Paris rank above London in Dealroom’s Global Tech Ecosystem Index?
The short answer is: recent momentum, academia, R&D footprint.
But let’s dive into the data.
The Global Tech Ecosystem Index has three main lenses through which to analyse and classify tech ecosystems. The metrics analysed included things like VC investment, enterprise value, growth, unicorns, university entrepreneurial output and patents.
The three lenses were designed to give a more nuanced and 3-dimensional take on which ecosystems are thriving. The categories are:
Global Champions (Scale Lens): The worldʼs largest and most successful startup ecosystems, identified by VC investment, enterprise value, ecosystem momentum, unicorns, university linkages and patents.
Density Leaders (Per Capita Lens): The worldʼs densest startup ecosystems, identified by VC investment, enterprise value, unicorns, university linkages and patents. These cities have high output relative to their size.
Rising Stars (Growth Lens): The fastest-growing, emerging tech ecosystems by emphasising growth in enterprise value and unicorns, adjusted for local GDP per capita and cost of living.
Here is the exact methodology:
Paris triumphed over London in Global Champions – also called the ‘scale lens’. The ranking incorporates a variety of metrics aiming to surface the biggest and most complete tech ecosystems in the world, that are positioned to lead in innovation and entrepreneurship into the next decades. The parameters were designed to highlight large and growing ecosystems as one of the leading indicators. Here’s how London and Paris compared on the metrics of the Global Champions analysis:
All 288 cities included in the Index are then given percentile ranks, which convert to points, and are aggregated together to produce a ranking.
This percentile ranking of each metric rewards ecosystems that are most complete, performing well in many or all metrics.
Overperforming on a single metric therefore won’t catapult an ecosystem up the list.
In recent years, London’s VC funding, while still higher than Paris’s, has been flat or even slightly falling. Paris on the other has had strong growth. It is building momentum, and catching up.
Interrogate the underlying data
On the brand new Dealroom.co dashboard you can see every underlying data point to the Index, and do custom comparisons of any combination of ecosystems at your leisure, in one live interactive dashboard.
Here is how London and Paris performed on some of the other metrics:
This metric measures the worldʼs densest startup ecosystems. It looks at VC investment, enterprise value, unicorns, university linkages and patents in comparison to a city’s size.
Rising Stars was designed to identify the fastest-growing, emerging tech ecosystems by emphasising growth in enterprise value and unicorns. Everything measured was adjusted for local GDP per capita and cost of living.
London outperforms Paris when it comes to venture capital.
Academia was one of the metrics where Paris outperformed London on almost every aspect.
Dive into the raw data underlying our index and craft your own comparisons.