Paris has officially emerged as Europe’s new tech capital, overtaking London in key metrics for the first time, according to new data from Dealroom, a platform that tracks startup and venture capital activity.
Between 2017 and 2024, the combined enterprise value of Paris-based startups grew by a remarkable 5.3x, compared to 4.2x for London. While London still attracts larger individual funding rounds, Paris’s startup ecosystem has seen greater valuation growth relative to the capital raised, suggesting a more efficient translation of investment into company value.
In 2023, French startups — including high-profile players like Mistral AI and Poolside — raised $7.8 billion, compared to London’s $11.3 billion. Despite the funding gap, Paris’s growth in enterprise value pushed it to the top spot in Dealroom’s rankings, a shift driven by more impactful fundraising and a stronger valuation trajectory.
Paris is now the only European city featured in Dealroom’s list of the top five global tech champions, a list otherwise dominated by U.S. hubs.
🔍 Europe’s Tech Struggles
The Dealroom announcement comes alongside a sobering report from McKinsey, which highlights Europe’s broader tech stagnation. While the global market capitalization of tech, media, and telecom firms rose from $7 trillion in 2000 to $34 trillion in 2023, Europe’s share fell from 30% to just 7%. Had the region retained its former share, it could have generated $8 trillion more in market value.
🚀 Paris on the Global Stage
The news comes ahead of VivaTech 2024, one of the world’s largest tech conferences, set to take place in Paris next month. The event will host leaders from global tech giants like Nvidia, Alibaba, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. Last year’s edition attracted over 165,000 attendees, solidifying Paris’s status as a major global innovation hub.
François Bitouzet, VivaTech’s managing director, emphasized the city’s momentum:
“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.”
🇫🇷 Macron’s Vision Paying Off?
Since 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron has championed tech as a national priority, pushing for leadership in AI and deep tech. His administration has encouraged foreign investment, supported ambitious startups, and launched initiatives like Station F, the world’s largest startup incubator.
Paris’s recent rise appears to validate that strategy — and offers a rare beacon of tech success in a European ecosystem otherwise struggling to keep pace with its U.S. and Asian rivals.