Startup Ecosystem Outlook 2026: a decade of growth, maturity and the challenge of scale

Europe Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA) has released the ESNA Startup Ecosystem Outlook 2026, the first intelligence report of the ESNA Data Platform. Launched today, the report highlights the growing maturity of Europe’s startup ecosystem and the challenge of turning more startups into globally scaled companies.

Lisbon, 1 October 2026 — Drawing on ten years of comparable data, the ESNA Startup Ecosystem Outlook 2026 provides a long-term view how Europe’s startup economy has evolved. The report brings together information on company creation, growth, employment, valuation and venture capital across the European Union and major global startup ecosystems. It establishes a common evidence base for understanding Europe’s current position and how its startup economy has changed over time.

The report shows an ecosystem that has grown and matured over the past decade. Europe has developed a substantial startup base, while scaled companies account for a growing share of ecosystem revenue, employment and valuation. Yet the report also identifies a clear structural challenge: Europe needs to enable more of its startups to reach scale.

The gap with the United States emerges less in startup creation than further along the growth journey. While the EU has a substantial ecosystem base, comparatively fewer European companies progress into centaurs and unicorns. Importantly, the report also finds that European companies can perform strongly once they reach scale.

Key findings from the report include:

·       A growing and maturing ecosystem: EU ecosystem employment doubled from around 0.8 million in 2015 to approximately 1.6 million in 2025, with employment growth increasingly concentrated among companies that have reached scale.

·       Scaling remains a key challenge: between 2015 and 2025, scaled companies represented an average of around 1.1% of the EU ecosystem, compared with 3.9% in the US, pointing to progression to scale as a central structural bottleneck.

·       European companies can perform strongly once they scale: in 2025, average revenue among EU centaurs and unicorns was higher than among their US counterparts.

·       Europe remains a major venture capital market: the EU was the world’s second-largest VC market in 2025, although investment remained around one-sixth of US levels, with the funding gap particularly concentrated in the largest rounds.

Arthur Jordão, ESNA’s Executive Director, highlighted: “This Intel Report marks another important milestone in ESNA’s mission. Europe has developed a large and increasingly mature startup base: EU ecosystem companies generated an estimated EUR 141 bn in revenue, employed around 1,6 m people and reached a combined valuation of approximately EUR 1 tn in 2025. Yet Europe still converts too few startups into centaurs and unicorns. The gap with the United States emerges less in firm creation than in the journey from startup to global scale. The evidence also shows that European firms can perform strongly once they scale. The opportunity is therefore to widen the pipeline: deepen late-stage capital markets, mobilise institutional investment, strengthen cross-border syndication and help more ambitious companies grow across Europe and compete globally.”