December 7, 2021

European Tech Is Booming But Founder Diversity Is Still Lagging

Europe is “solidifying its place as a global tech power”, according to Atomico’s annual State of European Tech 2021 report. However, research still shows women and minorities are not being given enough investment.

European tech is projected to cross the $100B milestones of capital invested in a single year, close to 3 times the level in 2020, reported Dealroom.

The total number of tech companies that have scaled to $1B+ in Europe has jumped from 223 last year to 321. Large rounds ($250M+) are now the norm in Europe — these grew 10x versus the previous year, now representing 40% of the total capital invested in the region.

European VCs are also outperforming their US counterparts. The Cambridge Associates index for European VC outperforms the US equivalent across 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20-year horizons. 

The report outlines how early-stage investment levels are now “on par” with US levels, with European unicorns on the up, faster growth than even before the pandemic, and growth which added $1 trillion of value in the first 8 months of 2021, reported Yahoo.

But Extend Ventures analysis of a sample of 4,684 tech companies headquartered in Europe that have raised more than $2M of total funding since 1st of January 2020.

But only 0.7% of the total capital raised to date has been submitted by Black women founders, 1.1% by Black men founders, 22.7% by white women founders.

Despite evidence showing that mixed and diverse teams perform better — they still only capture 9% of the capital raised in 2021. This is according to research by Dealroom. Although the ecosystem has matured as a whole, this is not the case everywhere.

Abbianca Makoni

Abbianca Makoni is a content executive and writer at POCIT! She has years of experience reporting on critical issues affecting diverse communities around the globe.

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