European tech scaleups report 2017

2017
EUROPEAN
SCALEUPS REPORT
OMAR MOHOUT

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Foreword
Highlights 2017
European (Venture) Capital
Methodology
About the author
About Sirris
Data sources
Disclaimer
TABLE OF CONTENTS

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2017 was another great year for the European scaleup ecosystem.
While the number of investment was similar to 2016, investment
amount went 18% higher.
2017 was the year of ICOs – a new way for promising technology and
business models to get funded. It came with a number of challenges -
such as scams- but one country framed the ICO opportunity:
Switzerland.
With this report we want to provide a comprehensive review of
investment in startups and high-growth technology companies across
31 countries in Europe. Our aim is to provide data-driven guidance,
insights and inspiration to stakeholders in the European scaleup
ecosystem.
Sincerely,
Omar Mohout
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT FOREWORD
PARTNERS

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This report is part of a series of funding
reports that are published on a quarterly
basis. A yearly report will also summarize
quarterly findings. Other reports complement
the series, focusing on geographical markets
and vertical industries such as the FinTech
and Artificial Intelligence report.
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT ABOUT
This report is a snapshot in time, aimed at
analysing funding data, major trends within
the industry and the regions.
Only deals of at least $1M / € 750K are
considered for this report.
If you would like to provide your input for the
report, signal an omission of data or have any
other feedback, we would love to hear it. Just
pop an email to omar.mohout@sirris.be
ABOUT THIS REPORT

HIGHLIGHTS 2017
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• € 20.8B across 1,855 deals in 31 countries;
• UK is once again leading in funding in 2017;
• The city with the highest number of deals is London, followed by
Paris and Stockholm;
• Bpifrance is the most active EU venture fund in Europe;
• Marketplaces is the most popular business model used by
European scaleups. The Subscription model is second;
• FinTech is the most funded vertical both in capital raised and in
number of deals;
• 37 European technology companies went IPO raising € 2.1B;
• 24 European technology companies went ICO raising € 863M;
• In average European scaleups have 56 employees;
• Belgium has the highest number of B2B oriented scaleups;
• Spain is the only country that has funded more B2C than B2B
companies; Sweden is 50/50
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

EUROPEAN
VENTURE CAPITAL
2017 EUROPEAN VENTURE CAPITAL
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€ 6.409
€ 4.433
€ 2.231
€ 2.231
€ 1.483
€ 732
€ 698
€ 456
€ 425
€ 335
UK
Germany
Switzerland
France
Sweden
Spain
Belgium
Netherlands
Finland
Ireland
2017
2016
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT EUROPEAN VENTURE CAPITAL
AMOUNT RAISED PER COUNTRY 2017*
*In millions
Switzerland is the rising star of
2017, promoting from a Tier 2 to
a Tier 1 country thanks to ICOs.
UK, despite the Brexit, is once
again the strongest performer in
Europe. The UK had at least 10
deals of more than € 100M each –
all of them based in London.
After a poor 2016, Germany is
back to solid second position in
Europe.

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CENTAURS: COMPANIES RAISING +100M EURO
Snow Software
Klarna
SWEDEN
Avaloq
Bancor (ICO)
Tezos (ICO)
Roivant Sciences
SWITZERLAND
Here
Kreditech
Delivery Hero (IPO)
Auto1 Group
Frontier Car Group
GERMANY
Improbable
Alfa Financial (IPO)
Farfetch
Hyperoptic
Prodigy Finance
Neyber
ACORN OakNorth
Deliveroo
TransferWise
UK
Note that
France is
missing!
SPAIN
Tricentis
AUSTRIA
X-Fab (IPO)
BELGIUM
Letgo

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€ 266
€ 150
€ 98
€ 77
€ 70
€ 63
€ 54
€ 51
€ 35
€ 33
€ 32
€ 27
€ 16
€ 2
Switzerland
Sweden
UK
Finland
Ireland
Belgium
Germany
EU average
Norway
France
Austria
Netherlands
Spain
Italy
2017
2016
FUNDING PER CAPITA (COUNTRY POPULATION)
*In millions
Compared to the US where the
average is above € 230 funding
per capita, Europe is way behind
with € 51.
Switzerland is the only country
that is doing better than the USA
and comes even close to Israel.

10
407
364
256
214
85
79
71
67
65
52
UK
France
Germany
Sweden
Spain
Netherlands
Switzerland
Finland
Belgium
Denmark
2017
2016
While the UK and France both have
a similar performance as 2016,
Denmark (+18%), Sweden (+16%)
and Germany (13%) grew
significantly. Sweden, doing already
great in 2016 is once again punching
above its weight.
On the other side of the spectrum:
Italy and Ireland made the biggest
drop in number of investments.
New countries that managed to
fund scaleups in 2017 are Armenia,
Cyprus, Lichtenstein and Lithuania.
DEALS PER COUNTRY 2017

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€ 579
€ 271 € 299
€ 173
€ 355
€ 173
€ 303
€ 418
€ 176
€ 286
€ 471
€ 264€ 275
€ 214
€ 274
€ 234
€ 853
€ 926
€ 642
€ 342
€ 579 € 569
€ 1.091
€ 264
Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
2016
2017
THE BREXIT DIDN’T SLOW DOWN UK FUNDING IN 2017*
*In millions

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€ 5.123
€ 2.247
€ 1.941
€ 1.149
€ 1.097
€ 960
€ 724
€ 670
€ 543
€ 496
FinTech
HealthTech
FoodTech
Automotive
eCommerce
Gaming
MadTech
Semiconductors
Software development
HRTech
2017
2016
The top 10 industries count for 72%
of all capital raised.
FinTech is still hot and the funding
champion of both 2016 and 2017.
Automotive made the biggest jump
with a 638% increase, an indication
of the rise of connected cars and
autonomous vehicles.
Funding flowing to FoodTech also
increased significantly thanks to
Delivery Hero (IPO) and Deliveroo.
AMOUNT RAISED PER INDUSTRY 2017*
*In millions

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315
191
99
78
75
70
60
59
58
57
FinTech
HealthTech
MadTech
PropTech
eCommerce
HRTech
Travel
Gaming
Utilities
EdTech
2017
2016
The top 3 didn’t change Y2Y with
FinTech, HealthTech and MadTech
(Marketing, Advertisement and
Sales) still dominating.
Gaming and Utilities entered the
top 10 while MediaTech and
Manufacturing dropped out of the
top 10 in 2017.
It’s a surprising fact that given all
the innovation in manufacturing –
’Industry 4.0’ and ‘Smart
Manufacturing’ – less funding
went to scaleups in that industry.
DEALS PER INDUSTRY 2017

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BREAKDOWN OF FINTECH
1. UK (34%)
2. Germany (15%)
3. Sweden (12%)
4. France (11%)
5. Switzerland (7%)
6. Belgium (4%)
7. Spain (3%)
8. Denmark (3%)
9. Netherlands (3%)
10.Italy, Ireland (2%)
FinTech
26%
Lending
20%
WealthTech
19%
Payments
15%
InsurTech 12%
RegTech; 6%
Donation; 1%

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BREAKDOWN OF HEALTHTECH
1. France (25%)
2. UK (15%)
3. Germany (13%)
4. Sweden (9%)
5. Switzerland (8%)
6. Belgium (5%)
7. Spain (5%)
8. Finland (5%)
9. Netherlands (4%)
10.Ireland (4%)
CareTech
36%
HealthTech
25%
MedTech
23%
Lifescience
13%
FemTech 2%
RegTech; 1%

1. FinTech
2. Gaming
3. Business Intelligence
4. Utilities
5. LegalTech
6. HealthTech
7. FoodTech
8. Business Services
9. Supply Chain
10.Security
1. MadTech
2. eCommerce
3. Travel
4. MediaTech
5. Retail
6. Software development
7. Telecom
8. Semiconductors
9. Virtual Reality
10.Manufacturing
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SHAKERS AND MOVERS (BASED ON # OF DEALS)
GAINERS LOSERS
FinTech, despite being already a
strong performer in 2016, growths
with 25% in number of investment
in 2017.
On the other hand, Gaming, that
wasn’t in the top 10 during 2016 is
in position 8 in 2017. Not surprising
given that there have been 10
Gaming IPOs in 2017, compared to
only 2 in 2016. 9 out of the 10
gaming IPOs are in the Nordics.
On the losers side, the market for
online marketing solutions
dramatically shrunk with 29%. Yet,
it’s still a significant segment with a
#3 position in the industry.

1. Sweden (36%)
2. Finland (18%)
3. Germany (14%)
4. Belgium (11%)
5. France (7%)
6. UK (7%)
7. Netherlands (4%)
8. Poland (3%)
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EMERGING CATEGORY: INDUSTRY 4.0
Industry 4.0 or Smart Factory is a
umbrella for technology innovation
applied to manufacturing and
factoring. It includes robotics,
internet of things,
virtual/augmented reality and
artificial intelligence.
Industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial
revolution and crucial for Europe.
Yet, the data shows very little is
happening in that category despite
the strategic importance of the
domain.
Note the poor performance of
Germany, France and the UK.
1. Hydroline
2. Konux
3. Bioservo Technologies
4. XMReality
5. Acosense
6. Elmodis
7. Senseye
8. FocalSpec
9. Specim
10.The Curious AI Company
COUNTRIES BIGGEST DEALS

1. Belgium (19%)
2. France (19%)
3. UK (16%)
4. Germany (16%)
5. Spain (9%)
6. Ireland (6%)
7. Netherlands (6%)
8. Estonia (3%)
9. Denmark (3%)
10.Sweden (3%)
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EMERGING CATEGORY: SMART CITIES
The Smart Cities category raised
close to € 600M in 2017. it includes
mobility, autonomous vehicles,
supply chain, utilities, urban farming
and waste management scaleups.
Take a look at Lilium, Sea Bubbles,
Starship Technologies, EasyMile and
Sentiance. One doesn’t need to go
all the way to Silicon Valley to spot
radical and disruptive innovation.
1. Here
2. Lilium
3. Starship Technologies
4. Less
5. EasyMile
6. OnePark
7. Connexin
8. POD Point
9. Sea Bubbles
10.Sentiance

1. France (19%)
2. Sweden (19%)
3. UK (16%)
4. Germany (16%)
5. Norway (9%)
6. Spain (6%)
7. Belgium (6%)
8. Switzerland (3%)
9. Finland (3%)
10.Netherlands (3%)
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EMERGING CATEGORY: SMART BUILDINGS
The Smart Buildings and Smart
Home category has a broad number
of scaleups but only counts for €
68M in 2017. it includes security,
property tech (PropTech), and
CareTech scaleups.
Internet of Things is the most used
technology in this space.
It’s also a category that is using
crowd funding to raise funding.
Nello (intercom) and Minut (home
security) for instance used
Kickstarter.
1. Huddly
2. JonDeTech
3. Opti Automation
4. Zolar
5. Glue Home
6. BuddyGuard
7. Fresh Energy
8. Monodraught
9. Cocoon
10.Visualfy

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EMERGING CATEGORY: CLEANTECH
CleanTech had 33 deals in 2017,
worth almost € 200M in funding. It
seems small but these are only
digital driven scaleups.
The majority of these scaleups are
active in energy related solutions.
Take a look at Paris based Kayrros. It
predicts oil and gas consumption,
production, and storage; improving
investment decisions. It got funded
by Index Ventures, Lord Browne of
Madingley and Marcel van Poecke.
1. 4New
2. Sol Voltaics
3. Orbital Systems
4. Kiwigrid
5. I-Ten
6. Kayrros
7. Ideol
8. Klappir Green Solutions
9. SolarNow
10.BHS
BIGGEST DEALS

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EMERGING CATEGORY: NEWSPACE / SPACE 2.0
NewSpace is associated with rocket companies funded by billionaires such as SpaceX
(Elon Musk), Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos), Virgin Galactic (Richard Branson), Vulcan
Aerospace (Paul Allen) and StarChip (Yuri Milner).
But it’s much more than that, it includes:
• Rocket developers and space transporters
• Satellite developers
• Connectivity providers
• Earth observation, image processing, climate change and other GeoTech activities
• Organizers of space travel, tourism and training
• Mining and exploitation of asteroids and planets
• Applying space to a range of services such as space funerals…
1. Arralis
2. Mynaric
3. ICEYE
4. GomSpace
5. PLD Space
6. Isotropic Systems
7. Aerial & Maritime
8. Cohu Experience
9. Mynaric
10.Hiber
BIGGEST DEALS

1. RFRSH (Denmark)
2. Scout Gaming Group (Norway)
3. Dojo Madness (Germany)
4. Znipe (Sweden)
5. PandaScore (France)
6. Alt Tab Productions (France)
7. Fsport (Sweden)
8. Esportal (Sweden)
9. Challengermode (Sweden)
10.Esen Esports (Sweden)
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EMERGING INDUSTRY: ESPORTS
eSports is a competition using video
games. eSports is an organized,
multiplayer video game competition
and events focusing on professional
players.
It’s one of the fastest growing
activities in the gaming industry
attracting investments from the likes
of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Naturally, eSports is setting root in
the gaming region of Europe: the
Nordics.
BIGGEST DEALS

1. Natural Cycles (Sweden)
2. Elvie (UK)
3. LifeSense Group (Netherlands)
4. Chicisimo (Spain)
5. Bwom (Spain)
6. Spiff (Norway)
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EMERGING INDUSTRY: FEMTECH
FemTech, or female technology, is a
new sector dedicated to women
health. It’s generally a subset of
HealthTech and includes fertility
solutions, period-tracking apps,
pregnancy and nursing care,
women's wellness etc.
FemTech can also be found in other
industries. For instance, Oslo based
Spiff is a FinTech scaleup
empowering women to financial
independence. Spiff investor is
Allbright, a female focused investor
BIGGEST DEALS

40%60%
B2C B2B
42%58%
B2C B2B
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B2B & B2C COMPARISON
NUMBER
OF DEALS
AMOUNT
RAISED
Contrary to Silicon Valley, where 2 out
of 3 startups are consumer oriented,
European scaleups are predominantly
B2B (60%). Belgium has the highest
number of B2B scaleups as a
percentage of investments (85%).
2017 investments are even more B2B
oriented than in 2016. Only Spain is
dominant B2C oriented and Sweden
has a 50/50 distribution.

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85% 83%
75%
68% 67%
61% 60% 59%
56% 56% 55%
50% 49%
15% 17%
25%
32% 33%
39% 40% 41%
44% 44% 45%
50% 51%
Belgium Ireland Switzerland Austria Denmark France Finland UK Netherlands Italy Germany Sweden Spain
B2B
B2C
B2B & B2C NUMBER OF DEALS PER COUNTRY
Top 13 countries

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79
76
74
69
63
61
51
42
41
41
38
37
34
31
Netherlands
Spain
Germany
UK
Portugal
Sweden
Denmark
Italy
Belgium
Switzerland
Austria
Finland
Ireland
France
The Netherlands has the highest
number of employees in average.
From this list, one could conclude
that the Netherlands, Spain,
Germany, UK and Portugal have
the most flexible working
conditions or lowest labour cost.
It’s not surprising that France,
with its rigid labour market is the
last in the list.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES PER COMPANY 2017

27
8.249 8.537 8.747
5.826
8.417 8.691
5.796
8.152
10.238
8.043
6.469
6.815
9.515
9.970
10.730
7.849
10.567 10.433
7.145
9.683
12.762
10.164
8.003
8.383
2016
2017
JOB CREATION OF 2016 FUNDED SCALEUPS, 1 YEAR LATER
*In millions
12 months after receiving
funding, 21,224 jobs being
created by European scaleups. An
increase in jobs by 23%

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1
14.923
5.475
8.887
6.190
9.513
7.874 7.701
3.986
8.999 8.818
9.821
10.432
NUMBER OF JOBS AT MOMENT OF FUNDING 2017
*In millions
The total number of jobs
represented by European scaleups
that raised funding in 2017 is
102,619

1. Spotify (+706)
2. Deliveroo (+701)
3. Cabify (+582)
4. Farfetch (+384)
5. Trivago (+304)
6. Soundcloud (+269)
7. Unity Technologies (+264)
8. Microcred (+225)
9. Tradeshift (+196)
10.Flixbus (+186)
1. Blablacar (-119)
2. Jobandtalent (-104)
3. Movinga (-94)
4. Move24 (-78)
5. Yubl (-75)
6. Fyndiq (-67)
7. Tapp Commerce (-60)
8. Twino (-54)
9. Widespace (-48)
10.Blippar (-44)
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SHAKERS AND MOVERS BASED ON JOB CREATION 2016-17
GAINERS LOSERS
On the gainers side, it’s striking how
SoundCloud was increasing its
headcount up until July 2017
despite being already under
financial pressure and lack of a
sustainable business model.
On the losers side, French Blablacar
shredded 22% of its workforce in
the last year. Tapp Commerce went
bankrupt and Yubl is been acquired
explaining their drop in workforce.
Berlin based Movinga had a total
management and organisation
overhaul last year. Their competitor
from the same city, Move24, lost
37% of their workforce.

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TOP 5 SCALEUPS DOUBLING IN SIZE FROM 2016 TO 2017
+94 JOBS, 303% +100 JOBS, 167% +126 JOBS, 140%+101 JOBS, 155% +134 JOBS, 111%
#01 #02 #03 #04 #05

1. Teads (FR) by Altice (NL) for € 285M
2. Zenly (FR) by Snap (US) for $200M in cash + stock awards
3. Payleven (GE) by SumUp (UK)
4. Clavis Insight (IRL) by Ascential (UK) for €100M
5. Cobi (GE) by Bosch (DE)
6. Soundtrap (SE) by Spotify (SE) for € 51M
7. Savedo (GE) by Deposit Solutions (DE)
8. Pritle (NL) by Binckbank (NL) for € 12.5M
9. Simulity Labs (UK) by ARM (UK) for £ 12M
10. OptoFidelity (FI) by CYG (CN)
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2016 FUNDED SCALEUPS THAT BEEN ACQUIRED IN 2017
27 scaleups that got funded in 2016
are already acquired in 2017. In
average these companies are 5 years
old and have 57 employees.
TOP DEALS

• Wealthify
• Garantibil
• GrouPay
• Kenzan Studios
• KNC Miner
• Kinematix
• Cashboard
• Visiblee
• Tapp Commerce
• DAD
• Boenke
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2016 FUNDED SCALEUPS THAT WENT BANKRUPT IN 2017
Only 0,5% of funded scaleups went
bankrupt. It looks like a surprising
low number but remember, these
are companies that raised at least €
750K in funding providing often a
runway of longer than 12 months.
The majority of bankrupt companies
are in the FinTech industry. That can
be explain by the fact that it is the
most funded industry but also it’s
heavy regulated and customers not
trusting their money to startups.
Wealthify is acquired by Aviva as is
KNC Miner by an unknow buyer and
Garantibil by Volvo.
Swedish Boenke
shows how difficult
it is to monetize data

1. Min Doktor (Sweden)
2. Nowo (Sweden)
3. Foundry Innovation & Research 1 (Ireland)
4. Norsk Titanium (Norway)
5. Drivetribe (UK)
6. Tandem Bank (UK)
7. Acast (Sweden)
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SCALEUPS THAT FIRED OR CHANGED THEIR CEO
The CEO of Jeremy Clarkson’s social
network for cars Drivetribe has left
just 6 months after the website
launched.

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AVERAGE FOUNDING YEAR TO RAISE A ‘SERIES A’ ROUND
Portugal
Denmark
2012
Belgium
Netherlands
France
Norway
Austria
UK
Switzerland
Finland
Spain
2013
Italy
Sweden
Poland
Luxembourg
Germany
2014
To raise a series A in Europe, a
company needs to be founded in
2013. It takes a long 4 years for a
startup to become a scaleup and
raise funds.
Italy, Sweden and Germany are
the best countries to raise a series
A fast.
For an IPO, the average founding
is 2008 (9 years). For an ICO it is
2015 (2 years).

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36%
22%
19%
5%
4%
3%
3%
2%
1%
1%
A
Seed
B
C
Debt financing
IPO
D
ICO
Post IPO Equity
E
Given the threshold of € 750K, it’s
not surprising that the majority of
deals are series A.
Convertible notes, crowd funding,
grants and media-for-equity are
counting all together for less than
3%.
The raise of crowd funding is
undeniable but few technology
companies manage to go above
the threshold.
DEAL TYPE 2017

36
17%
9%
8%
7%
4%
4%
3%
2%
1%
1%
Artificial Intelligence
Data Analytics
IoT
Connected Hardware
Blockchain
Hardware
Virtual Reality
Robotics
Wearable
Drones
Artificial Intelligence is a reality and
not a hype. It grew with 4% point
against 2016. Nevertheless, the
speed of AI deployment takes a lot
of time and there is no exponential
law for AI advancement.
Internet of Things is a mature
technology as well.
Blockchain made a jump of 3%
percentage points – partly because
of ICOs. Yet it still early stage and
the technology is overestimated in
the short term (Amara’s law).
Wearables and Virtual/Augmented
Reality are clearly over the top of
the hype cycle.
TYPE OF TECHNOLOGY

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32%
31%
7%
4%
4%
4%
Subscription
Marketplace
Transactional
Commission
Interest charging
Freemium
The subscription based model and
the marketplace approach are the
leading business models for
technology companies, counting
together for 63% of the total.
Open Source, Ad Funded, Sharing
Economy, Revenue Sharing, Reverse
auction, Data Monetization, Crowd
Sourcing etc are marginal.
TYPE OF BUSINESS MODELS

38
€ 1.730
€ 776
€ 1.495
€ 1.231
€ 2.999 € 3.010
€ 1.514
€ 1.756
€ 1.583
€ 1.722 € 1.786
€ 1.200
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
CAPITAL RAISED PER MONTH 2017*
*In millions
European scaleups together raise
around € 1.7B per month, up 22%
against 2016.
The amounts above € 1B usually
indicate one or more IPOs in that
specific month.

39
161
150
196
140
163 165
143
104
151
196
153
128
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
Around 154 deals are closed in
Europe every month. There is a
slow down during summer, however
it gets compensated in the month of
September.
The number of deals is slightly
higher in 2017 versus 2016.
The summer drop is traditionally the
highest in France.
NUMBER OF DEALS 2017

1. London (0)
2. Paris (0)
3. Stockholm (0)
4. Berlin (0)
5. Barcelona (+1)
6. Munich (+1)
7. Amsterdam (+1)
8. Helsinki (+2)
9. Copenhagen (+2)
10. Dublin (-5)
1. London
2. Berlin
3. Paris
4. Stockholm
5. Basel
6. Zug
7. Zurich
8. Barcelona
9. Tessenderlo
10. Munich
40
SCALEUP CITIES 2017
NUMBER OF DEALS AMOUNT RAISED
The top 4 of cities didn’t change.
Dublin dropped significantly,
probably due to the move of Web
Summit to Lisbon.
On the amount-raised-ranking, it is
striking that Switzerland has 3 cities
in the top 10. The ICO friendly
framework of the country makes an
impact in attracting scaleups.
The small Belgian city of Tessenderlo
is the HQ of X-Fab, hence the high
ranking.

41
THE IMPORTANCE OF TECH HUBS WITHIN COUNTRIES
The percentage shows the
concentration of scaleups in a single
city per country.
In principle, this should be a good
thing because proximity still counts
in a given ecosystems.
71%
70%
67%
67%
66%
65%
56%
53%
52%
50%
UK, London
IRL, Dublin
IT, Milan
SE, Stockholm
FR, Paris
DK, Copenhagen
DE, Berlin
ES, Barcelona
FI, Helsinki
NL, Amsterdam

42
The gap between London and Paris
is widening while Stockholm and
Berlin are still in a fight for the
bronze.
THE BIG FOUR CITIES 2016-17 (# DEALS)

43
TOP 5 BIGGEST FUNDING DEALS*
€ 995M € 933M € 407M€ 461M € 400M
#01 #02 #03 #04 #05
*In amount raised

44
Only 7% of European scaleups are
spin-offs or spin-outs. And dropping
(2016 = 9%). While it’s true that
spin-offs are not the only way that
universities can monetize research,
it’s nevertheless an indication that
innovation is mainly happening
outside campuses and labs.
However, universities do play a role
in patentable hard tech in specific
areas such as Medtech, BioTech Life
Sciences, encryption, materials
science, robotics, nanotechnology,
semiconductors, and the like.
MOST ACTIVE SPIN OFF INSTITUTES 2017
1. University of Cambridge (UK)
2. ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
3. Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
4. Lund University (Sweden)
5. KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)
6. Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)
7. Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France)
8. Imperial College London (UK)
9. Fraunhofer (Germany)
10. VTT (Finland) / Technical University of Munich (Germany)

45
Less than 3% of European scaleups
protect their technology using
patents.
HealthTech, a more specifically,
MedTech is the industry with the
highest number of patented
technology.
PATENTS
1. HealthTech
2. Manufacturing
3. Utilities
4. AgriTech
5. Semiconductors
6. Telecom
7. Aerospace
8. Entertainment
9. MadTech
10. Mobility

46
19% of the European scaleups
graduated from an acceleration
program. That’s up from 14% in
2016.
Half of the European scaleups join a
US acceleration program, the rest is
staying in Europe. Belgian based
imec.iStart ranked even fourth in
UBI Global's University Business
Accelerator ranking.
A number of programs are focusing
on scaleups only, namely Upscale
Tech City UK and TechShare of
Euronext.
ACCELERATORS, BY NUMBER OF FUNDED SCALEUPS 2017
1. Seedcamp (UK)
2. Upscale Tech City UK (UK)
3. Microsoft Accelerator (multiple countries)
500 Startups (US)
4. Techstars (US)
Startupbootcamp (multiple countries)
5. imec.iStart (Belgium)
SOSV (Ireland)
Plug and Play (US)

47
Corporate Venture Capital is
involved in 20% of all European
deals, becoming the second most
important source of finance for
scaleups (up from 16% in 2016).
Corporate investment activity
continued to rise, both via corporate
venturing and balance sheet
investments.
The number 1 CVC investor of last
year, US based Salesforce, dropped
significantly in 2017.
MOST ACTIVE CORPORATE VC 2017
1. RWE (Germany)
2. Orange (France)
3. Intel (US)
4. Swisscom (Switzerland)
5. SAP (Germany)
6. Samsung (South-Korea)
7. KPN (Netherlands)

48
OUR NEW BOOK: WWW.CORPORATEVENTURING.CO

49
The most active 2017 venture
investor in Europe is once again the
French government.
MOST ACTIVE INVESTORS BREAKDOWN OF INVESTORS
1. Bpifrance (France)
2. Partech Ventures (France)
3. Global Founders Capital (Germany)
4. Index Ventures (Switzerland/UK)
5. Idinvest Partners (France)
6. Balderton Capital (UK)
7. Kima Ventures (France)
8. Accel (US)
9. Northzone (Sweden)
10.LocalGlobe (UK)
VC
54%CVC
10%
PE
10%
Government
5%
Family Office
4%

50
MOST ACTIVE INVESTORS
SERIES A SERIES B SERIES C SERIES D
1. Global Founders Capital
2. Bpifrance
3. Index Ventures
4. Partech Ventures
5. LocalGlobe
6. Balderton Capital
7. Earlybird
8. Creandum
9. Accel
10. b-to-v Partners
1. Partech Ventures
2. Atomico
3. Northzone
4. Global Founders Capital
5. DN Capital
6. Holtzbrinck Ventures
7. Bpifrance
8. EQT Ventures
9. Index Ventures
10. High-Tech Gründerfonds
SERIES A SERIES B
2. Accel
3. Northzone
4. Target Partners
5. Holtzbrinck Ventures
6. Idinvest Partners
7. Index Ventures
8. Bpifrance
9. Bayern Kapital
10. Draper Esprit
SERIES C
1. Idinvest Partners
3. Accel
4. KKR
5. Bpifrance
6. Passion Capital
7. Orange Digital Ventures
8. Sapphire Ventures
9. Notion Capital
10. Northzone
SERIES D

51
HIGH PROFILE INVESTORS
• Budbee (Sweden) by Karl-Johan Persson (CEO H&M)
• Dedrone (Germany) by John Chambers (ex-CEO Cisco)
• Kayrros (France) by Lord Browne of Madingley (ex-CEO BP)
• SmartUp (UK) by Barry Smith (Skyscanner), Alex Asseily (Jawbone) & Ed Wray (betfair)
• Challengermode (Sweden) by Zlatan Ibrahimovic
• Coras (IRL) by U2
• Emoticast (UK) by Sean Parker (Napster) and will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas)
• Fanmiles (GE) by Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich)
• Menē (France) by Diana Widmaier Picasso

52
Europe saw 37 IPOs of technology
companies in 2017 totaling € 2.2B.
That’s 42% more than 2016, once
again thanks to one single country:
Sweden.
Apparently, going public in Sweden
is as simple as crowdfunding. The
Nasdaq First North Stockholm,
Aktietorget and the Nordic Growth
Market manage to facilitate IPOs at
a low cost allowing startups to raise
a series A and even seed round.
Not a single European scaleup went
public in Wall Street in 2017,
compared to 2 in 2016.
Euronext is working hard to create
awareness of the IPO path to capital
with its TechShare program for
scaleups.
IPO PER COUNTRY 2017
1. Sweden (17)
2. Finland (5)
3. UK (3)
4. Germany (3)
5. Denmark (3)
6. France (2)
7. Belgium (1)
8. Iceland (1)
9. Norway (1)
10.Poland (1)

53
2016 IPO PERFORMANCE, 1 YEAR LATER: TOP GAINERS
Source: Google

54
2016 IPO PERFORMANCE, 1 YEAR LATER: TOP LOSERS
Source: Google

55
2017 is the year of the Initial Coin
Offering (ICO). At least 24
investments totaling for € 863M.
Switzerland is leading with half of all
European ICOs. The city of Zug
became the capital of ICOs in
Europa both in number of deals as
in capital raised.
Despite the fact that Switzerland has
a legal framework for ICO, it could
not avoid scams such the Magos AI
case. On the other hand, Swiss ICOs
in 2016 (Lisk, Lykke) are alive and
kicking. Lykke even raised again
money using an ICO in 2017.
Often, the ICO process is been
supported by Bitcoin Suisse, a
crypto financial broker based in Zug.
ICO PER COUNTRY 2017
1. Switzerland (12)
2. UK (6)
3. France (2)
4. Germany (1)
5. Sweden (1)
6. Portugal (1)
7. Liechtenstein (1)

56
Not surprising, ICOs are popular
with companies using blockchain
technologies. Over 90% of ICOs are
blockchain companies.
It indicates that there is room for
growth and we only see the
beginning of a new path to capital.
Especially with the lack of
specialized blockchain funds in
Europe such as Blockchain Capital
(SF) and Digital Currency Group
(NYC).
The majority of companies are
active in FinTech but this is expected
to broaden over the years to come.
FinTech scaleup The Naga Group
raised more in an ICO (€ 42M) than
in an IPO (€ 2M).
ICO PER INDUSTRY 2017
1. FinTech (11)
2. Software development (3)
3. IT services (3)
4. Utilities (1)
5. Supply Chain (1)
6. Mobility (1)
7. Consumer Electronics (1)
8. MediaTech (1)
9. HRTech (1)
10.LegalTech (1)

57
TOP 5 BIGGEST ICO DEALS*
€ 208M € 137M € 85M€ 89M € 60M
#01 #02 #03 #04 #05
*In amount raised

ICO PERFORMANCE: TOP GAINERS
Based on the digital footprint of
ICO companies (i.e. SERP, website
traffic, backlinks, search intent,
SEM, social & community reach,
geographical footprint…), an
indication of traction can be
calculated.
1. Aptoide
2. Bancor Foundation
3. Lisk
4. status.im
5. Tezos
6. SIRIN Labs
7. SingularityNET
8. iEx.ec
9. Lykke
10.Eidoo

ICO PERFORMANCE: TOP LOSERS
Based on the digital footprint of
ICO companies (i.e. SERP, website
traffic, backlinks, search intent,
SEM, social & community reach,
geographical footprint…), an
indication of traction can be
calculated.
This doesn’t mean that this
companies are failing, rather it can
be a sign of a lack of validated
business model or surrounding
ecosystem.
1. BetBox
2. Dfinity Network
3. Melonport
4. SwissBorg
5. Modum.io
6. PikcioChain
7. Humaniq
8. Dovu
9. The Naga Group
10.Mysterium Network

EUROPEAN
VENTURE CAPITAL
Click on the above link to access the full dataset
60

METHODOLOGY
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT METHODOLOGY
61

62
Companies includes web, app, mobile, digital products
and services, software, marketplace, connected
hardware, data-driven and HardTech companies.
Companies that have their HQ or launched in Europe are
considered. LifeScience and BioTech (except software
solutions targeting this industry), non digital CleanTech
(such as solar panel producers etc), eCommerce (such as
Hallofresh, Zalando etc), research institutes and
consultancy companies are excluded.
We encourage you to review the methodology to better
understand the numbers presented in this report.
Scaleups, not startups, are generating added value,
create jobs, expand international and create economic
value for stakeholders and society. This group is
attracting the lion share of (venture) capital, in some
countries of up to 90% of all capital. In other words, we
use the Pareto distribution rule to create an accurate
view on the venturing landscape. Only deals of at least
$1M / € 750K are considered.
We use a data-driven approach to track financing activity
for European tech companies.

63
Deals with a non-disclosed value or lacking value indication are not counted. If an amount is
described as a seven-figure number, the lowest possible value has been counted. Funding is
registered based on announcement date. All currencies (USD, GBP, CHF, SEK etc) are converted to
Euro using aonda.com. The number of employees is captured on the moment of fund raising and
based on the press release, LinkedIn, Xing, Viadeo or the company’s website.
The founding year and location is based on information in press releases, company website,
Crunchbase, LinkedIn or Xing. If deal information is being detected or corrected after closing the
month, quarter or year, it will be included in future reports. Funding of both private and public
companies are considered. Debt financing, IPOs, media for equity, crowdfunding, Initial Coin
Offering, private placements, post IPO equity, private equity, grants and convertible loans are
included.

64
THE CATEGORIES ARE:
Accountancy, AdTech, Aerospace, AgriTech, Automotive, Business Intelligence, Business Services,
CivicTech, Consumer Services, Cybersecurity, Document Management, eCommerce, EdTech,
Entertainment, FinTech, FoodTech, Gaming, HealthTech, HRTech, IoT, IT services, LegalTech,
Manufacturing, MediaTech, MICE, Mining & Environmental services, Mobility, MusicTech,
PropTech, Retail, Security, Semiconductors, Software development, SportTech, Supply Chain,
Telecom, Travel, Utilities and Virtual Reality
THE COUNTRIES ARE:
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK. Data of Turkey and Israel is being used as a benchmark for
Europe.

65
Omar Mohout, currently Entrepreneurship Fellow at Sirris, is a former technology entrepreneur, a
widely published technology author, C-level advisor to high growth startups as well as Fortune
500 companies and Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Antwerp, the Antwerp
Management School, ULB and Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.
He is author of 'Pricing Strategies for Startups', 'The Belgian Startup Landscape', ‘Crowdfunding in
Belgium’, ’99 reasons why startups fail’, ‘Corporate Venturing’ and the popular 'Startup Master
Class series'. A contributing author to the ‘100 Days Digital Marketing Plan’ and ‘The Future of
Business’ books.
Mohout writes for VentureBeat, SaaScribe, Data News, Bloovi, StartUs and is academic
contributor to the European Startup Monitor.
He’s delivers the following workshops for startups and scaleups: Community Engineering; Pricing
strategies for startups; Lean Marketing; Setting-up and managing an Advisory board; How to go
from idea to scaleup; Subscription based business models and; Cash Flow models for startups
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

66
He is Co-chair of the Circle Of Growth; Community host for Corporate Venturing Europe;
Organizer of the Growth Hacking Meetup, Co-founder of the #BeTech Community and keeps track
of European funding and scaleups on scaleups.sirris.be.
He is an active member of the Board of Directors at Startups.be and serves at the board of high
growth technology companies Aproplan.com and Teamleader.eu. He joined recently the Board of
Directors of venture capital fund imec.iStart.
Mohout is Chairman of the Strategy Advisory Board of VITO, a research and technology
organization in the areas of cleantech and sustainable development; Chairman of BeCentral, the
new focal point for everything digital in Belgium; Advisory Board member of the Euronext
TechShare Program.
He is also Belgium Ambassador at World Startup Report, Innovator Community Ambassador for
Belgium, Ambassador for MIT Innovators Under 35 Europe and Country Ambassador for UBI
Global.
Mohout is a keynote speaker and panelist on technology, entrepreneurship and innovation topics
at leading conferences.
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

68
Sirris, the collective centre of the Belgian technology industry, helps companies with the
implementation of technological innovations, enabling them to strengthen their competitive
position over the long-term. Sirris helps you make the best technological choice and rapidly turn
your innovations into marketable products and services. The Sirris experts visit companies on site,
offer technological advice, launch innovation paths, and provide guidance to reach the
implementation phase. The aim is to find applicable solutions to the real challenges faced by
technology entrepreneurs and startups.
Sirris guides technology companies to a higher level of know-how and expertise in a wide range of
domains. The in-house experts provide a broad range of technological and go-to-market
knowledge. Where necessary, Sirris relies also on external knowledge partners, including
specialized companies, universities, knowledge centres, and research institutions.
For more information on how Sirris can help your company success, please visit www.sirris.be.
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT ABOUT SIRRIS

69
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT SOURCES
SPECIAL THANKS
Serkan Ünsal, startups.watch for covering Turkey and Tech.eu for the most detailed coverage of Europe
WEBSITES & NEWSLETTERS
150sec, agfundernews.com, allbrain.org, alliancy.fr, alloweb.org, angellist, arcticstartup, avoltapartners, barcinno, beauhurst, breakit.se, businessinsider.com,
calaofinance.com, cbinsights, cityam.com, cmuportugal.org, coindesk, companisto.com, computable.nl, computable.be, datafox, datanews.be, dealroom, derbrutkasten,
deutsche-startups.de, digital.di.se, dn.no, dublinglobe.com, e52.nl, economyup.it, emeastartups.com, enterprise.cam.ac.uk, eu-startups, feedsquared.com,
finanznachrichten.de, finsmes, fora.ie, frenchweb.fr, funderbeam.com, geektime.com, gigaom.com, GIMV, globalcorporateventuring.com, noah conference,
go4venture.com, goaleurope.com, goodnewsfinland.com, gruenderszene.de, high-tech-gruenderfonds.de, ideaspace.cam.ac.uk, Index.co, itespresso.fr, ivca.ie, ivc-
online.com, journaldunet.com, jvpvc.com, labsoflatvia.com, lesechos.fr, lightwaveonline, linkis.com, loogic, maddyness.com, marketwatch, mattermark,
myfrenchstartup.com, nocamels.com, nordurskautid.is, oresundstartups.com, palico.com, Pando.com, parisandco.com, parkwalkadvisors.com, pehub, pitchbook,
portugalstartups.com, privateequitywire.co.uk, prnewswire, regional-it.be, rudebaguette.com, scotsman.com, seedrs.com, shifter.no, siliconcanals, siliconrepublic.com,
spotfolio.com, sprout.nl, startablish.at, startupitalia.eu, startupjuncture, startups.be, startups.co.uk, startups.watch, startupticker, swedishstartupspace.com, syncni.com,
syndicateroom.com, tech.eu, techberlin.com, techcitynews, techCrunch.com, techsite.io, theheureka.com, thetechportal.com, toftecompany.com, trendingtopics.at,
trendsonline.dk, unquote, usine-digitale, vc-europe, voltassocies.com, wall-street.ro, webcapitalriesgo.com, webrazzi, websummit, widoobiz
SOCIAL MEDIA
Abyssinia, amaigre, atizo, AudingaJa, AudingaJar, austrianstartup, Barcinno, BeTech_, blpoland, boostturku, bot_innovation, Brainport_regio, breakit_se,
BridgeBudapest, cdixon, chrysalisleap, chulu, ClujHub, CowboyGamedevBt, cphftw, csdeptucy, CyprusInno, davidcohen, Digital_Magics, dinaistwitting, DStartups,
dublin_startups, dziennik, El_Startupero, Emerce, EndeavorGr, ericries, etohum, festivaluprise, frontiersci, goodnewsfinland, growthfunders, gruenderszene,
health_xl, HelloPirates, hightechcampus, how_to_web, HUB13_Helsinki, hubvilnius, ICTSpring, ID_GC, ImpactHubBA, ImpactHubRO, impacthubzurich, ineshaeufler,
InkubatorStart, inkubatorypl, Innovaspain, InnovAthens, InternetWeekLJ, istanbulstartup, iTXFROM, joonathan, JouveSud, Kbinkubators, KBinkubators, keskkyla,

70
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT SOURCES
SOCIAL MEDIA (CONT.)
labsoflatvia, LAUNCHub, Leapfunder, LeumiTech, LisbonChallenge, LOFFICEbudapest, louishavri, LuceyFund, Lupacz, MadeinJLM, marketerslu, MassChallengeUK,
masteringrowth, metavallon, miniforetak, MMKlaszter, MusicHackFest, NCBR_pl, nestholma, NeulogyVC, NewTrendBG, NoCamels, NorthstarVent, OsloInnoEmbassy,
placeprint_mktg, ppmessengerpp, ProgramaMinerva, pt_startups, rp_teknoloji, Rubixlab, sama, saminnovatorene, sbcCopenhagen, SDigestCork, SeedstarsWorld,
sektorfuenf, SICampNorway, SiliconLux, siliconvikings, SkatteFUNN, Smart_Ireland, SmartCity4Italy, socialbakers, sprout_nl, STAkrog, StarCubeCZ, startitup_sk,
startup_italia, Startup_Kingdom, Startup_Podcast, StartUpBraga, startupbrett, StartupCampSK, startupestonia, startupgrind_LU, startupiceland, startupireland,
startupjobsite, STARTUPLISBOA, StartupRVK, StartupsBe, startupturkey, startupvcnews, startupyard, StartUscc, stefanlundell, STHLMTech, summitdesignatx,
swluxembourg, SwPrivateequity, Tech_Acad_Fin, tech_eu, TechBritannia, TechHubBuc, TechHubRiga, Technoport_, thecoulroom, thinkubator_dk, timwcap,
tyinternety, VC_watcher, venturelab_ch, version2dk, Vienna_CM, VirginStartUp, webcampzg, webrazzi, whiteboardmag, WHMeanor, ZIPZg, KairosSocietyHU,
SitraFund, ForumVirium, Tech_Acad_Fin, ReloadGreece, colabathens, bitspiration, NCBR_pl, blpoland, dziennik, CyberparkTGB, rp_teknoloji, sosyalmedyaco, IATurkije,
czechcrunch, PerpetuumZg, helgosson, StartupGrindSWE, ZuoraEMEA, nyteknik, CampusLondon, growthfunders, VirginStartUp, MassChallengeUK, CognicityCW, INiTS_at,
austrianstartup, IPNunes, SDigestCork, RyanAcademy, , LuceyFund, CrowdfundSpirit, kurtfinance, JouveSud, FuenteLatina, Silicon_wadi, BuildStuffLT, hightechcampus,
HollandFinTech, Leapfunder, IMPACT_acc, ProgramaMinerva, playinglean, , Teknisk, NorskVenture, StartupLabNo, rp_teknoloji, sosyalmedyaco, sbcIstanbul,
DLDConference, VC_watcher, startupradioDE, HTGF_, Lupacz, tyinternety, EconomyUp, SmartCity4Italy, Puglia_Startup, how_to_web, SeedstarsWorld, JeanneMazuret,
ParkwalkAdvisor

71
No dataset is complete and this report provides an indication of reality only. Comparing to reports
of other providers on similar subjects is partly possible when taking into account the different
methodologies.
This report has been compiled for informational purpose only and should not be regarded as a
solicitation to invest in any entity.
This report relies on data and insights from a wide range of public and private sources and we
can’t be hold responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the information provided.
This report may freely be distributed, republished and posted as long as the content is not
modified, decompiled or reference to the source is being removed.
2017 EUROPEAN SCALE UP REPORT DISCLAIMER

OmarMohout
omohout
@omohout
Omar-Mohout
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