Dealroom, which gathers data on startups and venture capital firms, has announced Paris as the new European tech champion, surpassing London for the first time on some parameters.
After evaluating dozens of criteria that contribute to a successful digital environment, Dealroom found that the combined enterprise value of Paris startups climbed 5.3 times between 2017 and 2024, while London companies saw a 4.2-fold growth.
The fundraising rounds obtained by Paris-based companies have had a greater influence on valuations, it claimed, while London drew larger funding rounds, but the actual valuations of the companies have not changed significantly.
London raised $11.3 billion last year, whereas French IT businesses, such as Mistral AI and Poolside, raised $7.8 billion.
With only a few nations attempting to increase IT spending, Europe has been lagging behind other regions in technological advancements.
Europe’s stake fell from 30% to just 7%, according to a McKinsey analysis released on Wednesday, even though the market capitalisation of global tech, media, and telecom companies increased from $7 trillion in 2000 to $34 trillion last year.According to the report, Europe would have created an extra $8 trillion in market value if it had kept its share.
Additionally, Dealroom’s list of the top five global champions, which is dominated by American cities, only includes Paris.
It occurs one month before VivaTech, one of the biggest international tech conferences, is held in Paris. It will feature prominent executives from businesses including Alibaba (9988.HK), Nvidia (NVDA.O), OpenAI, Mistral, Anthropic, and Cohere. Over 165,000 people attended the conference last year.
“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, VivaTech’s managing director.
French President Emmanuel Macron has stated since taking office in 2017 that he wants France to lead the world in artificial intelligence and “deep-tech,” encouraging a number of companies to invest in the nation and advocating for the establishment of Station F, a startup incubator.
