Europe’s tech sector tipped as dark horse rival to Silicon Valley
Europe might be best known for its economic malaise at present but in future it could be home to a technology cluster to rival Silicon Valley, according to a report published by Atomico.
The technology investment firm believes that the continent has three aces up its sleeve: namely an increasing number of tech hubs, growing interest in the sector among investors and the rise of so-called ‘deep technology’ where startups focus on the cutting edge of scientific and technological advances in fields such as AI, nanotechnology and robotics.
Drawing input from companies such as LinkedIn, the London Stock Exchange and Meetup as well as survey responses from 1,500 industry founders, investors and employees, Atomico paints a picture of sector that is firing on all cylinders with investment of $2.3bn and 1,000 newly formed startups over the past 22 months.
Over the past five years France has led the way 582 deep tech investments, followed by 480 in Germany and 332 in the Netherlands.
Whilst the gap is narrowing, Europe still has to close a five-fold differential in investment numbers with Silicon Valley but this could be aided by increasing appetite amongst US firms to establish a physical presence in Europe.
This has been evidenced by Alphabet and Facebook’s recent commitment to expand their London teams whilst investor enthusiasm was highlighted by Edinburgh-based Skyscanner’s £1.4bn sale to China’s Ctrip.