Venture funding in Europe is on track for a flat year, but this doesn’t reflect the strong growth of AI startups in the region.
According to Balderton Capital and Dealroom, AI startups attracted 25% of Europe’s VC funding—around $13.7 billion—this year, up from 15% four years ago. This growth has led to new unicorns, including Poolside and Wayve.
James Wise, general partner at Balderton Capital, highlights an important point: “Early-stage AI companies with breakthrough technology in Europe can raise hundreds of millions, even billions of euros—just like in the U.S.”
This challenges the common perception that Europe lags behind. In fact, European AI companies have doubled in value in just four years, now worth $508 billion. AI now makes up nearly 15% of Europe’s tech sector, up from 12% three years ago.
While funding is available to AI startups, it may not always come from Europe. U.S. companies are also tapping into Europe’s talent pool.
“We’re still somewhat dependent on the U.S. market, but Europe has a thriving AI ecosystem,” Wise told TechCrunch.
This may not be surprising to those familiar with AI stars like Mistral AI and Photoroom, as well as newcomers like Dottxt. However, Dealroom’s data reveals an unexpected trend: AI companies in Europe employed 349,000 people this year, a 168% increase since 2020.
The Evolving Role of AI: From Small Startups to Industry-Wide Transformation
This might seem surprising, given that many AI teams are relatively small. However, for Wise, it aligns with the thesis in his recent book, “Start-up Century: Why We’re All Becoming Entrepreneurs — And How to Make It Work for Everyone.” Wise explains, “You’ll see a rise in hundreds of small, highly productive companies, rather than one large, moderately productive company.”
There’s also a snowball effect. AI companies are boosting productivity across industries.
“Our CTO survey found that 93% of the companies we work with said generative AI tools have significantly changed their workflows in the past year,” Wise shared. Some companies reported their engineering teams are now twice as productive. Others have seen improvements in various functions, leading to an average 20% reduction in operating costs.
Given this, Wise believes AI adoption will only continue to rise. But will this benefit Europe’s AI sector? Possibly. However, Wise and his colleagues now argue that “there’s no longer an AI sector.” This could make similar data less relevant in the future.
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