Paris named as Europe's leading tech ecosystem, beating London

By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM: Paris has been named as the new
European tech champion
, beating London for the first time on some metrics, according to data from Dealroom, which collects information on startups and venture capital firms.
Between 2017 and 2024, the combined enterprise value of Paris startups increased 5.3 times, compared with 4.2 times for London, Dealroom said, after assessing dozens of metrics that contribute to a successful
tech ecosystem
.
Although London attracted bigger funding rounds, the actual valuations of the companies have not increased dramatically, while the funding rounds secured by Paris-based companies have had a bigger impact on valuations, it said.
French tech companies, including Mistral AI and Poolside, raised $7.8 billion last year, less than London's $11.3 billion.
Europe has been falling behind other regions in tech innovations, with only some countries trying to boost tech investments.
While the market capitalisation of global tech, media and telecom companies rose from $7 trillion in 2000 to $34 trillion last year, Europe's share dropped from 30% to just 7%, a McKinsey report said on Wednesday.
If Europe had maintained its share, it would have generated an additional $8 trillion in market value, it said.
Paris is also the only European city on Dealroom's top five global champions list, which is dominated by U.S. cities.
It comes a month ahead of Paris hosting one of the largest global tech conferences, VivaTech, featuring top executives from companies such as Nvidia, Alibaba, Meta , OpenAI, Mistral, Anthropic and Cohere. Last year's conference was attended by more than 165,000 people.
"It's not just about the competitiveness of Paris on the AI scene today, it's also about what will happen next and how we can keep on attracting the talent, investment, and the tech activities," Francois Bitouzet, managing director of VivaTech, told Reuters.
Since coming to power in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron has talked about wanting France to be a world leader in AI and 'deep-tech', inviting several firms to invest in the country and pushing for creation of startup incubator Station F.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

New Indian Express

24 minutes ago

• New Indian Express

Florian Wirtz joins list of most expensive soccer signings in history

Florian Wirtz became one of the most expensive players in soccer history when the Germany playmaker joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen on Friday for a fee of up to 116 million pounds ($156 million). Neymar: $262 million (222 million euros) Paris Saint-Germain shattered the world-record transfer fee by signing the Brazil superstar from Barcelona in August 2017. It was more than double the outlay of Manchester United to sign Paul Pogba from Juventus for $116 million a year earlier. It remains the record transfer fee. Kylian Mbappé: $216 million (180 million euros) A few weeks after buying Neymar, PSG also secured a loan deal for Mbappé — then the rising star of French soccer playing for Monaco — that included the option to make the move permanent in 2018. PSG did so, making it an outlay of nearly $500 million on two players. Philippe Coutinho: $192 million (160 million euros) Flush with cash after selling Neymar a year earlier, Barcelona spent most of it in a deal to buy Brazil playmaker Coutinho from Liverpool for a Spanish record fee. Moises Caicedo: $146 million (115 million pounds) The Ecuador midfielder's move was previously the most expensive deal by a British club, with Chelsea buying him from Brighton in August 2023. João Félix: $140 million (126 million euros) Atletico Madrid triggered a buyout clause in Félix's contract to sign the Portugal forward from Benfica in August 2019. Jude Bellingham: $139 million (128.5 million euros) The England star got his big move to Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund in June 2023, for an initial up-front fee of 103 million euros plus add-ons linked to performance. Antoine Griezmann: $134 million (120 million euros) Atletico could afford to sign Félix after selling France forward Griezmann to Barcelona for a similar fee a few weeks earlier. Neymar: $98 million (90 million euros) Outside from Europe, the biggest transfer deal also involved Neymar when he joined Al Hilal, a team in the Saudi Pro League, from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2023. That came at the height of Saudi Arabia's push to sign high-end soccer talent to ignite the oil-rich state's domestic league.

Indian Express

36 minutes ago

• Indian Express

NATO leaders to meet amid Israel-Iran conflict: What's on the table?

NATO leaders will gather in The Hague, Netherlands, from June 24 to 25, for a summit aimed at strengthening the Alliance's deterrence and defense posture amid mounting global threats. Heads of State and Government from all 32 member countries, including US President Donald Trump, are expected to attend. The meeting comes at a time when West Asia has seen escalating tensions owing to the Israel-Iran conflict. The two-day meeting will focus on strengthening collective defense, increasing military spending, and maintaining unity within the Alliance. According to NATO, a central agenda item is ensuring the Alliance has the necessary resources, forces and capabilities to face any threat. The summit is expected to produce a commitment from European allies to increase defense spending—a key demand from Trump, who has previously criticised NATO members for not meeting the 2% GDP target. However, ahead of the 2025 Hague Summit, he escalated his demand, urging European allies to boost spending to 5% of GDP—including 3.5% for core military and 1.5% for defense-related infrastructure and cybersecurity. Ahead of the summit, Trump clarified that the United States should not be required to meet the same 5% GDP defence-spending target he demands of NATO allies, as per reports by Politico. Despite the push for increased budgets, many NATO states still fall short of fulfilling capability commitments. Rutte has also warned, as per BBC, that Russia could attack a NATO country within five years. The BBC reports that the summit has been carefully tailored to avoid confrontation with President Trump. The final communiqué has been shortened to five paragraphs and the main discussions limited to three hours—moves interpreted by some analysts as efforts to accommodate Trump's preferences and preserve Alliance cohesion. Mark Rutte, seen as having a cordial relationship with Trump, is reportedly seeking to give the US President a win on defense spending while avoiding deeper rifts over trade, Russia, and Middle East conflicts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the summit dinner but will not participate in the main North Atlantic Council discussions. Though Russia's war in Ukraine remains one of the gravest threats to European security, discussions on Ukraine and Russia have reportedly been excluded to avoid tensions with the US delegation. Kurt Volker, former US ambassador to NATO, told the BBC: The US 'does not see Ukrainian security as essential to European security, but our European allies do.' Dutch authorities have launched the largest security operation in the country's history, as per BBC, for what will be NATO's most expensive summit to date, with a reported budget of €183.4 million ($210 million). (With inputs from NATO official website, BBC, Politico)

Time of India

43 minutes ago

• Time of India

Apple AI troubles continue, sued by shareholders over Apple Intelligence and Siri delays; here's what lawsuit claims

Apple is facing a proposed securities fraud class action lawsuit from its shareholders, a report claims. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the lawsuit claims that the Cupertino-based tech giant understated the time required to integrate advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant, which caused a delay in rolling out these features and has allegedly harmed iPhone sales and Apple's stock price. The complaint covers shareholders who experienced significant losses in the year leading up to early June, when Apple introduced new product features but limited AI advancements. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, names Apple, CEO Tim Cook , CFO Kevan Parekh, and former CFO Luca Maestri as defendants. What the Apple shareholders' lawsuit against the company claims As per the Reuters report, a group of shareholders led by Eric Tucker has alleged that Apple misled investors during its June 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference by suggesting that AI would be a key selling point for the upcoming iPhone 16, particularly through its Apple Intelligence features aimed at enhancing Siri. However, the lawsuit claims Apple did not have a working prototype of the AI-based Siri upgrades and had no reasonable basis to believe the features would be ready in time for the iPhone 16 launch. Apple shareholders have argued that concerns started to surface in March, when the company postponed some Siri improvements to 2026, the Reuters report notes. The issue continued into Apple's WWDC developer event in June, where the company's update on its AI progress fell short of analyst expectations. Since its peak in December 2024, Apple's share value has dropped by nearly 25%, resulting in an estimated $900 billion decline in the company's market capitalisation, the report adds. World Music Day 2025: Tech That Changed How We Listen to Music AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now