European ScaleUp Monitor 2020

The European ScaleUp Monitor 2020 is a report, in collaboration with international partners, that studies the scaleup landscape in Europe. It offers a platform that centralises European knowledge around opportunities, challenges, best-practices and other salient elements of the process of scaling-up and the emergence of scaleups in various countries as well as regional ecosystems. Starting with this publication, more in-depth reports will follow in the coming months.

The European ScaleUp Monitor 2020 shows that:

80% of scaleups concentrate in the Top 10 Scaleup Countries in Europe and 44% in the Top 20 Scaleup Cities;
The UK is the country with the highest amount of scaleups and boasts 5 cities in the Top 20 list, namely London (#1) – with 46% of the entire country’s scaleups, Cambridge (#12), Edinburgh (#16), Manchester (#17) and Oxford (#19).
Smaller countries count too. Sweden is the #4 country in the amount of scaleups and Stockholm the #3 city; the Netherlands is country #7 and Amsterdam city #8.
Germany has the highest proportion (25%) of young scaleups (<5 years old) and Italy, the oldest (40%) (>25 years old)
The most prominent verticals that scaleups operate in are Industrials (especially in France, #2), SaaS (Ireland and Belgium), and Manufacturing (Italy). Contrary to older scaleups that operate in more traditional sectors, young scaleups (<5 ys old) are driving growth also in the most upcoming industries, such as Mobile, AI & Machine Learning, CleanTech, and Life Sciences.
Venture capital represents 35% of all the funds invested in scaleups and tends to invest more in SaaS, Mobile, AI & Machine Learning, FinTech and Big Data. London, Paris and Dublin are the cities with the scaleups with the highest total capital raised.
40% of scaleups have at least one international office located outside of their European headquarters.

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“Data and insights about scaleups are crucial. Scaleups provide tomorrow’s income, create new jobs and, most importantly, contribute by introducing innovative products and services to solving global challenges.” – Prof.dr. Justin Jansen

Research insights

European scaleups, also known has fast-growing companies, play a vital role in the economic landscape of Europe, contributing to economic growth, job creation and innovation. On top of that, scaleups increase the resilience of a regional economy and appear to be particularly suited to address effectively pressing societal issues. Fostering their success can thus not but be addressed within a European context. However, while single European countries have got articulated policies to sustain their scaleup ecosystems, the European landscape lacks coordination. As a consequence, we are missing out on several opportunities.

With the idea of strengthening the European scaleup ecosystems and increasing its internal coordination, at Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship we launched the European ScaleUp Monitor. Below you can download the first edition of our journal in cooperation with academic experts and ecosystem coordinators from ifm Mannheim, Unknown Group, University of Pisa, Impact Factory, and weGrow. By joining forces, we want to bring this issue high on the agenda and create a platform to share and multiply knowledge about European scaleups.

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‘’Together we have the knowledge and the resources to make the Old Continent the newest’’says Martin Luxemburg, Director of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. The European ScaleUp Monitor brings this issue high on the agenda and to create a platform where European best-practices can be shared and multiplied.

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More scaleup research

At the research team of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship we focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, paying particular attention to startups and scaleups. We do this in our open publication and in cooperation with national and international authorities in the Netherlands and abroad to uncover the secrets of fast-growing companies and help other innovative firms replicate their experience. Starting with this publication, in the coming months, we intend to make even more resources available to foster scaleup growth at the European level. In this way, we want to maximise the impact of the knowledge European universities have around this topic.

Read below for an overview of our research projects.

Get in touch with our research team

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ScaleUp Dashboard

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Find out more here