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Startup Heatmap Report

In the latest Startup Heatmap Report, the EIT Digital Accelerator has been ranked 4th place among all Accelerator programmes in Europe. Startup Heatmap Europe is the benchmark report on the attractiveness of startup hubs in Europe. This year's issue is the most comprehensive study on the development of startup ecosystems and founder mobility in Europe to date. The analysis spans 100+ startup cities in Europe, dozens of data points on ecosystem dynamics as well as a survey of >1,500 founders.

Established in 2016, the report includes for the first time Accelerator programmes in the survey, asking founders and the tech community which of these they would recommend to an aspiring entrepreneur. In the overall European comparison, the EIT Digital Accelerator achieved 4th place with almost 9% of all votes. “We are very proud to be recognized as one of the Top Accelerator brands in Europe,” says Dolf Wittkämper, Head of EIT Digital Accelerator. “Our team works hard to support European deep technology scaleups to grow internationally, whether to give them access to new target customers or to open doors to investors. Our goal is to create European success stories.”

Thomas Kösters, founder and CEO of Startup Heatmap, can monitor an increasing internationality among the startups: “Europe’s ecosystem is still fragmented, but we see increased mobility among founders, moving to foreign places or building transnational ties. Accelerators play an important role in this, as they open up doors to their communities for outsiders and offer a streamlined path to internationalization.”

The main findings of The Startup Heatmap Report are:

  • Increased mobility with 30% more foreign-born founders since 2016
  • Fast Internationalization as 55% of European startups establish international locations within in their first year
  • Top Hubs are losing momentum as London and Berlin hit a 4-year low in popularity
  • Founders increasingly rely on transnational networks, with the most eminent spanning between London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, and Lisbon
  • Brexit divides European founders: Northern and Western countries lose faith, while CEE seems to gather around London

More information on Startup Heatmap and its report: http://www.startupheatmap.com

See full Accelerator ranking here: http://www.startupheatmap.com/shm2019-accelerator-rankings/

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