Paris outstrips London as Europe’s venture capital hub

Paris has emerged as Europe’s main venture capital hub in the last decade, overtaking London, according to a report by Invest Europe and the European Investment Fund.

The Île-de-France region received €3.1bn in investments between 2007 and 2015, compared with the €2.8bn attracted by inner London. In third place was Berlin, which was highlighted as the fastest growing hub, with €1.7bn in investments.

Stockholm and upper Bavaria received €1.4bn each and other UK counties, such as Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, had €912m in venture capital investments. When combined, the six regions accounted for one-third of all investment activity over the period.

At the same time, cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants have managed to grab a quarter of the capital deployed, notes the report, which analysed data on almost 9,000 companies between 2007 and 2015.

European venture capital investments are reaching an all-time high, with the last decade alone seeing around €51bn of capital deployed to back innovative start-ups in the continent.

From 2007 to 2015, investors poured about €35bn into early and later-stage start-ups located in the 28 European Union countries, the study noted.

Since 2016, venture capital funds have invested a total of €57.3bn in companies in Europe, helping create businesses like music streaming service Spotify and Dutch payments processor Adyen.

Source: FN London

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