1. Start
27,000+
people started a tech company in Europe in 2025, a record. Europe has had more new founders than the US every year for a decade.
Losing ground
Twenty years of losing ground
25% 10%
Early 2000sToday
26% 16%
20102024
29% 15%
2017Today
Sources at the bottom of this page.
The gap
Europe actually starts more companies than anyone. But then why do we keep losing?
Europe was never short of founders. The gap opens after day one: in money, in scale, and in who stays.
We don't lack builders. We lack a way to bring them together, create an environment that backs them early and supports them long term.
2. Fund
Share of all venture funding worldwide in 2025. Europe's figure covers the first half of the year.
3. Scale
One dot is ten unicorns
Unicorns: startups valued at $1 billion or more. Europe here is its three largest ecosystems combined (UK, Germany, France), against the US alone.
4. Stay
30%
of European startups at Series C and later move their headquarters out of Europe. Few ever come back.
5. Support
They leave because they get no support, financially or culturally.
−44%
seed deals in Europe in one year, early 2026. The money for first steps is drying up.
The pyramid
We are thinking short term by betting on the top of the pyramid
The big new money goes to companies that have already made it. The base, where the next generation starts, is getting thinner every year.
Champions and scaleups
€5 bn Scaleup Europe Fund: around €100 million per company, for Series B and later.
€20 bn for four AI gigafactories.
Growth-stage startups
Growth-stage funding had its strongest year since 2022. Early-stage funding has barely moved since 2018.
The new generation of builders
−44% seed deals in Europe in one year, early 2026.
−20% a year in funding rounds under $1 million since 2022.
You can't keep hoping that the top of a pyramid grows without feeding its base.
Clocks
Existing institutions will not solve this
Not because universities are bad or politicians are slow. It's about clocks. Institutions are built for certainty and consensus. This wave runs on speed.
A new degreeNetherlands, approval to first graduates
Approvals, about 1 year
First cohort studies, 3 years
First graduates
Frontier AI computedoubles about every 5 months
0
leading AI models came from universities on their own in 2024. Companies built 55.
11%
of the Draghi report's recommendations were fully delivered after one year.
1 of 27
EU countries had a working AI regulatory sandbox in 2025. The deadline has moved to 2027.
So we stop waiting for them. We build the place ourselves.
So it's on the builders.
The crazy ones in attic rooms. The engineers who prototype after midnight. The fixers, the tinkerers and the solvers who can't stop shipping their ideas.
Not one genius in one city, but builders in every European city, working in the open and pulling each other forward. Nobody is coming to do this for us. So we are doing it together.
Europe's entrepreneurial spirit won't be rebuilt from the top down. It grows bottom-up, from a new generation with a place to play, experiment, build and launch.
Europe. LFG.
Together
How we build, together
A place for the new generation to play, experiment, build and launch. Open to anyone who builds: start for free, prove it, then grow into a home.
1 · Play and experiment
Build Nights
Show up, build something in one evening, show it to the room. Free, and coming to more European cities.
See the next one2 · Get serious
Seasons
Remote build seasons of four to six weeks with builders from across Europe. Free. Ship something real, with a cohort that keeps you honest.
Get notified3 · Commit
Buildhouse
A physical home for builders with proven traction: a desk, hardware and AI credits, mentoring and a network to grow. First house in Amsterdam, opening 2027.
ApplyWe need your help
Want the next big ideas to stay in Europe? Open your factory floor, your data, your customers or your fund to the builders who will create them.
Accelerate Europe
Europe doesn't need another report. It needs builders.
Sources
Mario Draghi, The future of European competitiveness (2024). EPIC Draghi Observatory (2025). Atomico, State of European Tech 2024 and 2025. Crunchbase (2025 and 2026). CB Insights unicorn tracker (September 2026). European Commission, Scaleup Europe Fund and InvestAI (2025 and 2026). Stanford AI Index 2025 and 2026, with Epoch AI. IFR World Robotics 2025; Europe's 2010 share calculated from IFR figures. The Robot Report (2025). Synergy Research Group (2025). European Commission (2026). European Parliamentary Research Service (2026). PISM (2022). NVAO and CDHO.