Top 5 European cities for startups in 2024

The city of Palo Alto, California, is a global leader in technology development. Also known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, it’s home to nearly a thousand famous companies and innumerable startups.

The venture capital firm Local Globe introduced the concept of New Palo Alto five years ago.

According to data and intelligence provider Dealroom, it’s a supercluster of multiple cities sitting close to each other, including London, Paris, and Amsterdam, among others. New Palo Alto ranks third in the world by unicorn count and accounts for nearly half of Europe’s total startup enterprise value.

With this in mind, let’s examine the Top 5 European cities for startups in 2024, according to the Global Startup Ecosystem Index by StartupBlink.

1. London (3rd globally)

London’s top industry is Software and Data, sitting in third spot globally. It’s also the third-best ecosystem in fintech, social and leisure, and energy and environment. When it comes to the Online Banking sub-industry, London retains the top position.

However, the UK as a whole is showing signs of decline as a startup nation. Only four UK cities made it to the Top 100 in 2024, compared to six in 2022.

The capital is also the only one to rank in the Top 50 globally. Its total score of 144.38 is nearly 15 times bigger than that of Cambridge (9.78) which sits in second place.

Top startups: Revolut, Wise, Shazam, Sifted, TradingView

2. Paris (10th globally)

In 2024, Paris lost its 9th spot to Tel Aviv. With a total score of 60.79, it remains the strongest in the e-commerce, retail, and fintech industries, where it ranks 7th globally.

Paris also ranks 9th in the world for social and leisure, software and data, and marketing and sales. It's in the Top 25 in all industries except transportation.

While the capital city is the 1st in the EU, London still has a considerable lead with over two times the score.

Top startups: Mistral AI, Doctolib, Black Market, Manomano, Qonto

3. Berlin (13th globally)

Berlin lost its position in the Top 10 in 2021. Now, it has a total score of 49.92 and still ranks 7th globally in the energy and environment industry. Berlin also ranks in the Top 25 for 10 of the 11 industries.

The capital city’s score is just 2.3 times larger than Munich’s, implying that the German startup ecosystem is less dependent on a single location. This has to do with the country’s federal structure. On the flip side, it’s harder to create a strong startup hub similar to London or Paris.

Top startups: N26, Delivery Hero, Rocket Internet, Statista, BioNTech

4. Stockholm (26th globally)

With a total score of 31.93, Stockholm has dropped from 19th in 2023 to 26th this year. The score gap with Berlin is also significant.

Last year, Stockholm was still ranked 9th globally in fintech. This year, the city dropped to rank just 20th.

However, it’s still in the Top 10 globally in the energy and environment industry.

Nationwide, the gap between Stockholm and Gothenburg has been narrowing in recent years.

Top startups: Klarna, Spotify, Soundcloud, Skype, Northvolt

5. Amsterdam (28th globally)

Amsterdam has lost one spot worldwide compared to last year. It has a total score of 29.67 and ranks 14th globally in fintech.

The capital city is in the Top 25 in three industries. However, last year it was four.

In addition to fintech, among those we find hardware and IoT (17th) and e-commerce and retail (23rd).

Top startups: Adyen, Booking.com, Hotmart, Mollie, Picnic

Final thoughts

While home to dozens of unicorns and startups known worldwide, European cities have yet to conquer the world. Only London and Paris rank in the Top 10, and there are just 26 of them in the Top 100.

Even though the UK remains the leading startup country in Europe and second in the world, its global position has worsened in recent years. The same can be said for Sweden and Germany, while France and the Netherlands seem to be more stable or even on the rise.