7 Best Places for Startups in Europe

If you are starting your own business, you must be interested to know which are the best places for startups in Europe! Great, you’ve come to the right page!

There are many misunderstandings about what a startup really is. Some of the explanations say that they are young companies in the beginning of their developing. Others would associate them with either mobile apps or huge tech companies. According to Adora Cheung, co-founder and CEO of Homejoy, a startup is “a state of mind”. She explains that it is a gathering of a group of people in one company who are ready to take many risks in order to create something new and achieve the biggest possible success. Others define it as a young, small company that just began to develop and it is initially financed and operated by a handful of founders or one individual. They offer a product or service that is not currently being offered elsewhere in the market, which makes them innovators and therefore startups.

While two previous opinions take the position that startups are newly created businesses, there are some thoughts that they could also be companies that are, for instance, five years old. One of the examples is Uber. Even though it is a company that is 8 years old which gained many customers and reached a high level of success and money, it could still be considered as a startup. Some of the experts explain that the key attribute is its ability to grow, and in addition, Uber is still progressing.

The other point that we need to clarify is whether startups are just tech related companies. Even though not every startup is tech related, most of them are and mainly because of three simple reasons. Firstly, technology and the internet make ideas more salable; secondly, there are fewer barriers while entering into business and lastly, there are more opportunities in its promoting. If you check 20 Best Cities for Startups in the World, you would see that most of those places are some kind of tech heavens.

In order to find the best places for startups in Europe, we used Startup Genome, which offers many valuable information on this topic. The site calculates the best places for developing a startup on every continent, based on factors such as market attraction, funding, global connectedness, and corporate involvement, just to name few. In our list, we made a ranking according based on the percentage of market reach, as one of the most important factors in building a startup. For reference’s sake, the global average of market reach is 23%. Moreover, for each place we also mentioned their early-stage funding growth index (global average is 5 ) and global connection rate (global average is 6.1), as information that could come in handy. Let’s start with our list of best places for startups in Europe!

7. Moscow

Market reach: 19%

One of the interesting facts about startups in Moscow is that they have the lowest acceptance rate of visas for foreign candidates in the world! However, their early-stage funding growth index is 4.2 and global connections rate 8.8. Russian startups usually focus on gathering talents on the local level or neighboring countries, mainly because of the language.

6. Barcelona

Market reach: 24%

If you search for a perfect combination of money and talents, then you should definitely consider Barcelona as the top place for a startup. It has the fifth highest percentage of startup founders over 30. Moreover, its early-stage funding growth index is 4.7, whereas global connection rate is a little bit above the average with 6.4.

5. Frankfurt

Market reach: 29%

From 2000, Frankfurt, the next one on the list of best places for startups in Europe has been developing tremendously in the startup field. Its early-stage funding growth index is 8.2, while the global connection is estimated to be under average with 5.8.

4. Lisbon

Market reach: 34%

If you are a woman in a startup company, Lisbon will be one of the best places to develop your idea! It is the leading city which emphasizes the impact of woman founders in startups. Early-stage funding growth index is 5.3, and it has the highest reach of global connection in whole Europe with 10.1. All this makes it one of the best places for startups in Europe!

3. Helsinki

Market reach: 43%

Early-stage funding growth index for Helsinki that ranks 3rd on our list of best places for startups in Europe is 4.5, whereas the reach of global connections is very high, as in Lisbon, with 9.6. It is famous for one of the greatest startup events named Slush. Moreover, Helsinki developed a strong ecosystem startups in correlation with investors and public funding.

2. Estonia

Market reach:  47%

Contrary to Moscow, Estonian startups have the world’s highest success rate of obtaining a visa for foreign candidates. That’s why their global connections reach up to 8.6. On the other hand, the early-stage funding growth index is 4.5, which is a little bit under the average.

 1. Malta

Market reach: 71%

The primary reason why Malta is one of the best places for startups in Europe, besides its high market reach, is that it has the easiest regulations and policies. Also, the size of the country makes it a better ground for connections among startups. Therefore, its early-stage funding growth index and global connection rate are 8.2, which are among the highest ones.