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EMEA

Continent / region · #6 region by EV

A public taster of the full EMEA ecosystem on Dealroom — request a demo for live deal flow, founder pedigrees, AI-talent maps, and the full cap table for every company below.

67,485 Pool of Funded Startups
New Startups
26,146 Annual Startups FoundedAll new ventures
7,787 Annual Startups FundedReceived investment
get funded 30%
57,706Startups
25,691 Pre-Seed Startups$100K–1M
19,234 Seed Startups$1–4M
Pre-Seed to Seed 23%
12,781 Series A Startups$4–15M
Seed to Series A 25%
8,019Breakouts
5,368 Series B Breakouts$15–40M
A to Series B 31%
2,651 Series C Breakouts$40–100M
B to Series C 34%
1,760Scaleups
1,166 Mega Scaleups$100–250M
reach Mega 1.7%
594 Mega+ Scaleups$250M+
reach Mega+ 0.88%
905Valuation Outcomes
843 Unicorns($1–10B valuation)
reach Unicorn 1.2%
59 Decacorns($10–100B valuation)
reach Decacorn 0.087%
3 Centicorns($100B–1T valuation)
reach Centicorn 0.004%
Pre-Seed
25.7K
Seed
19.2K
Series A
12.8K
Series B
5,368
Series C
2,651
Unicorn
843
Decacorn
59

* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.

01 VC investment

How much venture capital flows into EMEA

VC investment into EMEA-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.

02 Top hubs

Top 20 startup hubs in EMEA

EMEA’s leading ecosystems — switch between metro areas (HQ regions) and countries, and rank by VC funding, newly minted unicorns, all-time unicorn and thoroughbred counts, combined enterprise value or EV growth. VC funding, new unicorns and EV growth all follow the period slider (EV growth re-windows an annual 2015–2025 EV series) plus the round-size bands.

03 Outcomes over time

How EMEA compounds: unicorns and enterprise value

Cumulative unicorns & $1B+ exits, decacorns ($10B+), or combined ecosystem enterprise value — all VC-backed companies founded since 1990, the same lens as the hubs ranking — stacked by country or metro since 2015.

04 Share of the world

How much of the world is EMEA

Unicorns and decacorns minted in the last ten years, companies at $100M+ revenue, and VC raised in startup, breakout and scaleup rounds — each as a share of the global total. The by-year view shows the same shares per calendar year.

05 EV constellation

EMEA’s unicorns & thoroughbreds, sized by value

One bubble per company — area is current enterprise value, grouped by country or metro (HQ region). Counts unicorns & thoroughbreds only; ARM, Booking.com, Spotify and Revolut anchor the map. Switch Counting to “All VC-backed since 1990” to roll each cluster’s remaining VC-backed startups into the totals (ecosystem-EV lens).

06 Largest rounds

Largest funding rounds in EMEA

A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one round into EMEA-headquartered companies, filterable by round size and grouped by Dealroom sector.

Largest rounds in EMEA - 2026

Every $100M+ VC round into EMEA-headquartered companies in 2026, grouped by Dealroom sector.
- rounds · - raised
Live from Dealroom API Open full VC dashboard

07 Europe–US funnel

From startups to trillion-dollar companies

Founded since 1990 · company counts and shares of the $100K-funded population

Europe incl. UK & SwitzerlandUnited States

Capital raised

  1. Startups$100K+ raised

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 54,771100%
    United States: 79,432100%

  2. Breakouts$15M+ raised

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 7,30613.3%
    United States: 21,83827.5%

  3. Scaleups$100M+ raised

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 1,2332.3%
    United States: 5,1156.4%

Company value

  1. Unicorns$1B+ value

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 7331.3%
    United States: 2,4093.0%

  2. Decacorns$10B+ value

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 560.10%
    United States: 2770.35%

  3. Centicorns$100B+ value

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 40.007%
    United States: 290.037%

  4. Gigacorns$1T+ value

    Europe incl. UK and Switzerland: 00%
    United States: 70.009%
Dealroom · Aug 2026 · Original funnelDealroom

Funding groups overlap. Valuation is a separate measure. Bars compare counts within each stage.

Source & definitions

The funding groups overlap; valuations are a separate outcome. Snapshot shares are not lifetime conversion probabilities.

The original analysis counts companies founded since 1990, excluding closed companies, by current headquarters, excluding companies tagged mature or outside tech. Europe includes the UK and Switzerland. Funding thresholds use total capital raised; valuation thresholds use the latest valuation, including public market capitalisation.

The four European centicorns in that snapshot are Revolut, Booking.com, ARM and Spotify. Spotify uses its approximately $105B market capitalisation in August 2026 rather than the platform valuation mark. These are dated counts, not live market values. Apple and Microsoft predate the founding cutoff.

08 Conversion & cohorts

Unicorn formation across three generations

Europe and the US at the same company age · same definitions as the funnel

Europe incl. UK & SwitzerlandUnited States
By year 5
0.07% Europe0.34% US
Europe / US21%
By year 5
0.16% Europe0.46% US
Europe / US35%
By year 5
0.33% Europe1.39% US
Europe / US24%

Europe accelerates. The gap with the US does not narrow steadily.

All companies since 1990 · 20 Sept 2026Europe 1.3%US 2.9%

Current $1B+ companies per 100 funded companies. Includes valuation estimates; not lifetime conversion. Lines stop at the last fully observed age.

Data & methodology

The same population rules as the August funnel: current headquarters in Europe (including the UK and Switzerland) or the US; founded since 1990; exclude closed companies, Mature growth stage 412 and Outside Tech tag 1102801. Acquired and listed companies remain eligible. The numerator counts companies with a latest valuation of at least $1B; the separate denominator counts companies with at least $100K in recorded total funding. A company can meet the valuation threshold without recorded funding, so this is a ratio to the funded population, not the percentage of funded companies that ever became unicorns.

The refreshed all-cohort check is Europe: 671 / 53,573 = 1.25%; United States: 2,333 / 80,110 = 2.91%. Europe still rounds to 1.3%. The August funnel above remains its dated snapshot (1.3% / 3.0%); September counts have not been rescaled to match it.

Three separate five-year founding generations: 2005–09, 2010–14 and 2015–19. Each has at least five complete calendar years of follow-up. Within each generation, the funded denominator stays fixed. At age N, the numerator counts today's $1B+ companies whose recorded first unicorn year was no later than N calendar years after founding. If that date is missing or invalid, use the first dated valuation of at least $1B, including estimated valuations. A first recorded valuation can be later than the actual first crossing.

All 1,842 current $1B+ companies in these generations have a usable date. The lines end at years 16, 11, 6 respectively: every founding year has reached that age by the end of 2025. The dotted line marks age five. We do not extend younger generations through unobserved years.

This reconstructs the timing of the current $1B+ population. Closed companies and companies now valued below $1B are absent; current headquarters can differ from headquarters at founding. It is not a historical lifetime conversion study or an explanation of what caused the regional gap.

By year five: $1B+ count / funded denominator
FoundedEuropeUSDates from valuation history, all ages: Europe / US
2005–20093 / 4,347 (0.07%)29 / 8,626 (0.34%)21 (1 estimated) / 40 (4 estimated)
2010–201418 / 11,125 (0.16%)85 / 18,531 (0.46%)22 (4 estimated) / 39 (7 estimated)
2015–201963 / 18,837 (0.33%)327 / 23,513 (1.39%)19 (4 estimated) / 69 (23 estimated)

Estimated dates included by age five: 2005–2009, Europe 0 / US 0; 2010–2014, Europe 0 / US 0; 2015–2019, Europe 2 / US 16.

Unicorns per 100 funded companies, by years since founding. A dash is unobserved.
Generation / regionFunded012345678910111213141516
2005–2009 · Europe4,3470.00%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.07%0.16%0.23%0.32%0.44%0.53%0.78%1.01%1.17%1.56%1.75%1.96%
2005–2009 · United States8,6260.01%0.02%0.02%0.05%0.16%0.34%0.50%0.65%0.92%1.09%1.33%1.68%2.13%2.48%2.79%2.98%3.18%
2010–2014 · Europe11,1250.00%0.00%0.02%0.06%0.08%0.16%0.23%0.39%0.54%0.67%0.84%1.00%—————
2010–2014 · United States18,5310.02%0.04%0.08%0.15%0.29%0.46%0.68%1.12%1.62%1.99%2.34%2.61%—————
2015–2019 · Europe18,8370.03%0.03%0.06%0.14%0.25%0.33%0.47%——————————
2015–2019 · United States23,5130.03%0.07%0.24%0.60%0.98%1.39%1.82%——————————

09 Future capital demand

If Europe closed the gap

Same 54,771 funded companies · illustrative counts

50%

Breakouts$15M+ raised

11,182+3,876
August 7,306US share 15,058

Scaleups$100M+ raised

2,380+1,147
August 1,233US share 3,527

Unicorns$1B+ value

1,197+464
August 733US share 1,661

Illustrative snapshot, not a 5- or 10-year forecast. Groups overlap. + counts are additional companies.

Dealroom · Aug 2026 · Original funnelDealroom

From companies to capital demand

5–10 years
CompaniesToday’s private companies
ProgressionChance & timing of funding
Capital per roundAdditional money raised
Capital demandTo be estimated
How the model would work
  1. Freeze the current eligible universe. Give each active private company one starting state, based on funding raised, age and time since its last round. Exclude closed companies, listed companies and subsidiaries from future private funding demand; track existing late-stage companies separately. Keep startups founded in future years in a separate extension.
  2. Estimate transitions from historical company cohorts, including repeat rounds, skipped stages, closures, acquisitions, listings and time spent in a stage. A young company’s probability of progressing differs from one that has remained at the same stage for years.
  3. Estimate additional primary equity per financing event by sector, stage and cohort. Use means for aggregate capital totals, alongside medians and uncertainty ranges for large-round sensitivity. Do not subtract unrelated stage averages or treat valuation as funding. Keep debt, grants, secondary sales and fund commitments separate.
  4. Project expected company counts through each year and multiply financing events by their expected additional capital. Include follow-on capital for companies already at scale. Interpolate European and matched US transition rates and capital amounts independently, with explicit timing assumptions.
  5. Report cumulative five- and ten-year demand, annual pace and demand by starting cohort and funding stage. Back-test on earlier snapshots and show ranges for attrition, progression, funding amounts and timing.

Expected capital demand = sum, across years and financing events, of expected number of events × additional primary equity per event.

Funding demand includes capital from all investor origins. A European funding shortfall requires a separate estimate of available capital supply. Pension allocations are one possible source of that supply, and fund commitments reach companies over several years.

10 Academia

EMEA’s academic flywheel

Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to EMEA.

University ranking By alumni-founded unicorns & companies
# University City Unicorns Companies
1 🇬🇧University of Cambridge Cambridge 140 6,297
2 🇮🇱Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv 130 3,943
3 🇮🇱Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Haifa 120 2,323
4 🇫🇷INSEAD Fontainebleau 95 5,677
5 🇬🇧University of Oxford Oxford 95 5,371
6 🇬🇧Imperial College London London 76 3,472
7 🇮🇱Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem 60 1,889
8 🇫🇷École Polytechnique Palaiseau 60 1,571
Unlock the full university ranking for EMEA on Dealroom

11 Super clusters

Europe’s unicorns and thoroughbreds sit in five zones

Forty countries, five zones. New Palo Alto — Glasgow and Edinburgh down through Oxford, Cambridge and London to Paris, Amsterdam and Aachen — holds 42% of Europe's 1,000+ unicorns and thoroughbreds, each counted once. DACH holds 20%, with the Alpine cluster overlapping it at 11%; the Nordics 13%, Central and Eastern Europe 4%, and the Porto–Lisbon–Madrid–Barcelona corridor 3%. Each zone is drawn around its own hubs, so every count is what its shape contains. The zones are the Lakestar × Dealroom Deep Tech report's; the count is the page's. Click a zone to zoom in; New Palo Alto opens its hub map. Read the New Palo Alto guide.

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