Europe Creates More Founders Than the US, AI Premiums in Europe, and How VCs Fail at Value-Add
Top-5 unconventional insights from the Atomico's 2025 State of European Tech report
Hi guys, it’s Denis from R136 Ventures!
I’ve been digging through Atomico’s latest State of European Tech report — in case you missed it, here are a few interesting takes you should have on your radar.
1. Europe produces more new founders than the US
Funny enough, more new founders are starting companies in Europe than in the US:
In 2018 there were fewer than 15K per year, and
In 2025 – more than 25K per year.
Notably, there hasn’t been a single year where the US produced more founders. Are you surprised?
2. Asia is the #1 region for launching new global startups
More founders does not necessarily mean that the most startups are being created in Europe. The Atomico report shows the share of startups by region, and it is actually Asia that leads in this category. It refers to “global startups,” whatever that might mean.
In short:
Over the last 9 years since 2016 the share of the US and Europe is falling slightly.
Asia’s share is growing strongly, and it is now the #1 region by the share of global startups launched.
The share of other countries is dropping very significantly.
3. VCs deliver value, but not exactly as founders expect
This is gold. In its reports, Atomico regularly asks what value investors provide to startups. They also ask investors what they think their help consists of besides money.
Top 3 segments from investors point of view:
Help with raising the next round.
Introductions to potential customers.
Global expansion / entering other markets.
Next, let’s look at segments where founders give a higher rating than investors — these can be considered segments where investors perform better than their own expectations. Top 3:
Marketing and product-led growth (the biggest gap, by far) 🟢
Everything else is more or less even, but we can highlight:
Investor brand 🟢
Help with global expansion 🟢
And where do investors think they are doing great, while founders don’t actually notice it? Top 3 by gap in the other direction:
Help with hiring for senior positions 🔴
Help with the exit / sale of the startup 🔴
Effectiveness as a board member 🔴
Yeeees, quite a list.
Indeed, most investors boast about helping to hire great people and assisting as board members. But the fact that investors are unable to help with sale of the startup at the sufficient level is even more terrible! 😱
4. What are the premiums for AI startups in Europe?
We now have a comparative basis. Carta calculated this for the US market, Atomico is doing this for Europe. It’s interesting to compare.
Europe (2025, compared with the US numbers below with the traffic lights):
Seed: ~+20% 🔴
Series A: ~+20% 🟡
Series B: ~+50% ⚪️
Series C: ~+1600% 🟢
Series D+: ~+100% 🔴
The US (2024):
Seed: +39%
Series A: +24%
Series B: +41%
Series C: +35%
Series D+: +201%
Overall, the situation is comparable; however, it’s clear that European AI startups are still a cohort “younger” than their American competitors, because in the US, the premium at Series В+ is at its maximum. It seems startups there have raised at least one more round on average.
However, it seems that it is relatively more accretive for founders to raise Series B and especially Series C in Europe these days.
5. The concentration of venture capital in the US is about 2 times higher than in Europe
The report also included data on funds fundraising. It shows, for example, that in the US, ~40% of money is invested in the top-10 funds, while in Europe the share of top-10 funds is ~20%. Exactly 2 times lower.
Partly, this is because the share of government investors in the market is quite high. Atomico notes that in 2025, the government share in the European venture market was ~38%. The average share is around 20-25% on the graph, but 2023 also peaked with 35%. This doesn’t just apply to fund commitments from the EIF and similar entities, but also investments in startups; nevertheless, it’s clear there is an effect. The EIF, by mandate, does not choose the same funds and diversifies.
This influence is visible in the third graph, which shows the capital structure of European funds versus American ones.
In European funds:
~40-45% are private investors who invest long-term.
~30-35% are government institutions.
~20-25% are family offices.
In the US:
~85% are private investors.
~10% are family offices.
~5% are government institutions.
So, the government share is about 8x higher in Europe.
👉 Link to the full version of the 2025 State of European Tech Report by Atomico: https://www.stateofeuropeantech.com/
Enjoy!