In 2021, the European technological ecosystem was in healthy health – breaking the VC financing brand of $ 100 billion for the first time. Two years later, however, this number had halved with the Technological report of the State of Europe Placement of annual financing for $ 2023 to $ 45 million.
The broader economic context cannot be ignored. 2023 again saw a difficult macro environment. However, it is important not to leave a wide perspective at the region’s scale to break up on the performance and characteristics of the market by market. The United Kingdom, for example, has experienced a strong year, With HSBC research This VC financing reached $ 22 billion, exceeding pre-pale levels, following an acceleration of H2 2023 financing.
Although the technological ecosystems of other European countries have not behaved as well in comparison – we should not take away and extrapolate too much from the total number of financing figures. The United Kingdom has more technological companies in scope compared to other European nations. This is a good thing, of course, but we can also expect more talents to leave these companies now mature looking for a new adventure at the start of the stadium.
Indeed, by looking through the continent, the same report on the state of European technology also found that Europe still exceeded the United States with regard to the number of technology founders that strike the market, Despite the entrance bar which is now much higher. This augurs well for the coming months, where we see key trends and opportunities shaping Europe’s technological ecosystem for the best. So let’s dig more deeply.
Paris is ready to capitalize on solid pools
Over the past years, France was associated with bureaucracy – the type of commercial climate which is off -putting for entrepreneurs. It would be bad in Tar France with the same brush today. Government’s smart support for start-ups has led to resilient funding at an early stage. THE Bpifrance The public investment bank has injected tens of billions into French start-ups to serve as a source of funding for an early stage. This is one of the main reasons why France has seen less drop in CR financing in 2023 than the other main European technological centers.
Funding is only a piece of the puzzle, however. The success of France can also be credited to the wider government measures to promote an environment for start-ups. This includes The Tibi programDesigned to direct more institutional money in the funds at an advanced stage, innovation tax credits, technological excellence centers funded by public-private partnerships and innovation groups to connect innovators in the same region
In the coming months, expect to see stronger competition in the pre-series and seeds for funding in France. Several recent increases have left regional funds with dry powder to deploy combined with a presence of super higher investors than the average. The billionaire Xavier Niel plans to invest 200 million Euros in the AI to push France to the foreground of the field, joining the growing interest of large family firms, pan-European investors and French venture capital companies to support the prosperous ecosystem.
In terms of Sweet Technology SPOT for French ecosystem, AI is the show. Local players Mistal ai,, by the pool And Ray Build fundamental models in addition to activity in AI tools and application. The presence of research laboratories on Google and Meta IA Local still reinforces the French case to be the main European center of AI. Fintech and climate technology are also devices of the ecosystem of French technology. Mistral is particularly exciting and deserves to be mentioned. Here is an early stage company that has capitalized on its EU roots and managed To conclude a partnership agreement with Microsoft Despite the very public association of Microsoft with Openai. An achievement of this scale is quite breathtaking.
Overall, France has done an excellent job in its efforts to provide incentives to genre start-ups that have been enormously successful in the United States but which have not been well reproduced in Europe historically. This puts the local ecosystem on a good basis for the future.
Germany is a precursor in the technology of the future division
Germany was the least efficient great economy in the world in 2023. However, despite this backdrop, there are reasons to feel optimistic about the prospects of the German technological sector this year. While France makes AI waves, rounding mega for funding for German AI players as Aleph Alpha,, Deepl And Howling In 2023, said the country had a serious ecosystem for border technology shaping the future of AI.
The German government has clearly indicated its ambitions to invest more in local and European VCs. Through his Future fund and supported by the state KFW capitalThe German state invests and engages billions to start-ups and venture capital funds that align with its strategic vision. Following this targeted financing direction, we expect to see Germany become one of the precursors’ ecosystems for renewable materials and the more advanced areas of green technology in the coming years.
However, the reality is that all start-ups that seek to benefit from major finance increases in 2024 in Germany will have to demonstrate a commitment to the domestic technology and the country’s public sector. This depends on the role of particularly active and influential influence of the German State in relation to the regional financing of VC. Although there are positive signs of more institutional money in Germany being reserved for growth capital, he is still lagging behind his contemporaries in per capita financing. Figures The German start -up associationFor example, reveal that if France has invested a total of € 107 per inhabitant in start-ups in 2023, Germany invested only € 85 per capita.
While the German company is reprimanded for a delicate economic period, the technological start-ups aligned on the vision of the public sector for the long-term technological leadership of Germany should benefit from the increases.
Arbitration opportunities present AI talent boon for EU technology
Some players in technological ecosystems in France and Germany undoubtedly make waves in IA space today. But it would be negligent to neglect where it all started – the United States
The release of Chatgpt Openai in November 2022 was a turning point. Quickly, companies and consumers came to see the potential transformer of generative AI and technology has dominated discourse since then. According to Last annual PDG annual PWC survey32% of CEOs have already adopted a generative AI in their company and 58% consider generating AI as a catalyst to improve the quality of their products and services.
The rapid rise in AI had obvious implications for the technological job market. The role of an AI engineer did not exist widely two years ago. This meant a quick rush to convert workers in the knowledge of adjacent fields such as Auto learning in AI.
In the United States, the Chatgpt Shockwave has led to a very important screening for the demand for AI talents compared to a relatively small talent basin. This has led to enormous wage increases, the AI tech tracks in the United States today generally demanding wages on or around the million dollars.
It was another story in the EU. The aforementioned chatgpt shock wave has been more distributed over time, so the wages of related technological workers on the continent have not experienced a massive jump and are more reasonable compared to the United States still today ‘ Hui. In addition, EU technological companies have a strong backbone of engineers from Europe from Europe in Europe. These talents can be converted over time to meet the needs of AI start-ups. This is even more attenuated by the requirements of simple visa than the EU boasts. For these reasons, EU technological ecosystems are well placed to compete with American technology in the new AI field.
In conclusion, clear models emphasize why Europe is currently exceeding the United States with regard to the new founders of technology. In French and German efforts, we see the essential role that government support plays to support start-ups of all stages thanks to macroeconomic slowdowns. And despite the basic level of historically smaller venture capital of Germany, government’s commitment to climate and deep technology successfully develops a leading ecosystem for these technologies. Looking on the horizon, the AI should dominate and be the place where growth opportunities are found for technological companies in the coming years. Thanks to strong technological ecosystems and only favorable labor conditions, European start-ups can emerge from the dash as future AI winners.