Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
Intro
Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is a key global region, home to many of the world’s leading startup hubs such as London, Paris and Tel-Aviv to name a few.
Through a macro-lens, VC investment has been slowing globally from the highs of 2021 however there’s been a bit less of a shock in EMEA as in North America and the rest of Asia. For example, EMEA VC investment fell only by 19% instead of 34% in North America and 38% in Asia.
Venture capital investment into EMEA startups reached $112 billion in 2022, down 21% from 2021.
The share of global VC invested into EMEA based startups is at its highest it has ever been.
In 2022, startups in the EMEA region raised over $100B or 23% total global VC investment, a proportion that has been on the rise since 2018.
By stage
Annual trend
Early Stage funding into the EMEA region has seen consistent growth over the decade with more significant increases in investment observed within the past five years, with total amount of investment doubling between 2017 and 2022, rising from $17.9B to $38.2B.
Explore these directly on the Dealroom platform here for further insights.
Late Stage funding rounds into EMEA have followed the same growth trends as seen in Early Stage however, with a greater degree of growth observed between 2020 and 2021, where the region recorded record levels of investment, rising from $33.9B to $99.2B.
Explore these directly on the Dealroom platform here for further insights.
Quarterly trend
When looking into Early Stage EMEA investment trends on a quarterly basis, we see a consistent growth trend in total investment via early-stage rounds, with peaks observed in the first quarters of 2022 before experiencing a cool-down period in the second half of the year.
When looking into Late Stage EMEA investment trends on a quarterly basis, we note a similar overall sustained growth patterns over the past few years, as seen for Early Stage investment , however with a longer sustained period of record investment between 2021 Q2 and 2022 Q2 before a similar cooldown period after that latter quarter.
By country
The leading countries within the EMEA region in terms of VC funding are the UK, Germany and Israel thanks to being home to a key global ecosystems such as London, Berlin and Tel Aviv. However, in terms of percentage growth for Venture Capital investment, the fastest-rising countries over the past couple of years are Croatia, Kenya, and Romania.
The table below displays VC investment into each of the EMEA country ecosystem, sorted by default by fastest percentage growth over the past 12 months.
Double-click on any of the column headers to sort by the leaders in the EMEA region.
By city
London by far is the ecosystem leader in terms of VC investment in the region, with their startups raising more than the closest three ecosystems combined in 2022 (Paris, Berlin and Tel-Aviv) however interesting to note that the Lille, Cork,and Lisbon ecosystems showcase the fastest growth in VC investment in the region.
Double-click on any of the column headers to sort by the leading ecosystems in the EMEA region.
By industry
Looking at the allocation of venture capital by industry within the EMEA region, we observe that EMEA over indexes in Payments, Financial Management Solutions, Banking, and Energy Storage startups when compared to the global trends.
In the chart below, we have highlighted selected sub industries where the EMEA region receives a higher proportion of investment compared to the global average.
Middle East, North Africa
The Middle East has seen a remarkable rise in venture capital activity, especially over the past five years. While Israel has traditionally attracted most of the region's investment, the rest of the MENA region is quickly catching up.
Direct flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv are now common, meaning the region is slowly becoming more integrated.
The Sub-Saharan Africa region is still at an earlier stage in terms of development however is one of the fastest-growing regions globally in terms of venture capital activity.
New Palo Alto
New Palo Alto (NPA) is a science and tech supercluster and the epicentre of EMEA tech. It is to EMEA what Bay Area is to North America. New Palo Alto (NPA) is a supercluster of leading European ecosystems and research hubs that sit in close proximity to each other.
The primary three tech hubs include London, Paris and Amsterdam through New Palo Alto also includes nearby local ecosystems such as Bristol, Oxford, Brussels and Rotterdam to name a few.
EMEA is more skewed towards early-stage relative to North America. As a result, startup investment has already caught up with the Bay Area at the seed stage, now accounting for 11% of the global seed stage funding.
New Palo Alto has surpassed Bay Area at the seed stage.
Find out more about this region in this NPA Dealroom guide here.
Related content
Taxonomy: Learn how Dealroom defines its entities, taxonomy, filters and more, click here
Report: Startups & Venture Capital in EMEA – Q3 2022.
Report: Dealroom Startup Ecosystem Benchmarking Report 2022
Dealroom Data: Explore 170k+ verified startups and scaleups headquartered in EMEA