The best places to start a business in Europe

Last month, we analyzed data from Q, NGP Capital’s AI platform, to find out which European country offers founders the best location for starting a business. We compared each market against three key criteria, including:

• access to seed funding, including angel and seed rounds, per capita;
• access to early VC and growth stage funding, including Series A and B rounds, per capita;
• and the comparative success of companies converting from seed stage to early VC stage funding rounds.

Our analysis covers all major European countries, plus Israel and Turkey, for reference. The results were highly informative, and raise some interesting questions for several European governments, as they attempt to grow their technology ecosystems:

• The best places to start business are Israel, United Kingdom and Ireland.

• Israel tops the charts for all 3 of our chosen criteria, with:
• $156 of seed funding available per capita, with an average of $36
• $1031 of Early VC funding per capita, with an average of $160
• 22.2% of Israeli seed stage companies converted to Series A, with average of 16.1%

• The UK comes second, with corresponding values at $136, $471 and 21.4%

• Ireland is in third position, with $148, $387 and 15.0% correspondingly

• Several larger markets including France and Germany show lower per capita funding at seed ($25 for France, $22 for Germany) and Early VC ($181 and $153) stages

• The European averages are brought down by large, underperforming markets, such as Italy, Spain and Turkey

Source: NGP Capital AI platform Q

Download the full report here.

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