Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Rule, Britannia
Venture capital | Europe | Technology
October 25, 2021 – We studied the top 1,000 European tech start-ups founded after 2000 in 33 countries. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France were the most hospitable locales. But other factors played a role, including network effects, scale, product design, and technology. See our article for more on what’s been working, and what’s to come.
To read the article, see “Winning formula: How Europe’s top tech start-ups get it right,” August 18, 2021.
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Visual form
Europe choropleth map with ranked bar list.
Layout / body structure
The chart pairs a shaded map of Europe across the top with a ranked list of the top 12 countries below. Reader first scans the map to see where start-up density is darkest and then moves down to the horizontal bars to read the exact country counts and shares.
What is being compared
The chart compares the countries of origin of the top European start-ups and scale-ups. It contrasts both the geographic density across Europe and the ranked contribution of individual countries to the top 1,000 start-ups and scale-ups.
Measurement system
The map uses a color scale from low to high density, while the lower list uses counts and percentage shares. The top entries are labeled with both the number of start-ups and each country’s share of the top 1,000 total.
Visible structure inside the graphic
On the map, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France are among the darkest countries, with other Western and Northern European countries in mid-tone blues and some regions marked as no data. Below, the bar list ranks the United Kingdom first at 319, Germany second at 149, and France third at 143, followed by Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Italy, and an Other bucket.
Main takeaway from the visual
European start-up and scale-up formation is heavily concentrated in a few countries, especially the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. The visual makes that concentration obvious by darkening those countries on the map and then showing that they account for nearly two-thirds of the top 1,000 companies in the ranked list.
Key standout values or extremes
The United Kingdom leads with 319 companies, or 32 percent of the top 1,000, followed by Germany at 149 and 15 percent and France at 143 and 14 percent. Sweden and Switzerland both contribute 64 and 56 respectively at 6 percent each, while the Other bucket totals 87 and 9 percent.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.