Photo: Kai Kuusisto 01.2 Executive Summary Let Europe be Europe A word to the naysayers: irrespective horizon periods. We believe this is a of the huge strides European tech has bellwether for a changing landscape. taken in the last few years, our tech Let’s not forget that 95% of the value sector will continue to be compared to creation of today’s US tech sector the performance of Silicon Valley. is from companies founded 15 years ago or more, and that the early tech And as the ecosystem accelerates, successes of ARM, Amadeus and Ocado we are increasingly cool with that! For were not venture-backed. Given that a long time, US VC has outperformed 21 European companies have been European VC in terms of portfolio founded and scaled to billion-dollar- returns, but that is increasingly untrue. plus valuations with the support of The latest historical performance data venture capital since 2010 alone, we are shows that European venture has been confident that Europe has caught up on outperforming US venture in recent North America’s head start. A big diversity and This year’s report also unearths several way behind where it needs to be. This inclusion problem figures which are extraordinary for stark reminder of our shortcomings is all the wrong reasons. The State of timely, and it’s important that we draw European Tech has always highlighted the right conclusions. the challenges Europe faces, but this year, we’ve identified a particularly Reporting this data is a first step in the serious problem: 46% of women told us right direction. Only by measuring the they have experienced discrimination problem can you start to solve it. To in the European tech industry. As our take on this challenge, we’ve worked chapter on diversity and inclusion with Diversity VC to launch an industry- shows, this statistic is the tip of the first resource: a practical and hands-on iceberg. While most investment figures guide for technology entrepreneurs in this report spell good news, the fact that will help them build companies that all-male founding teams received that have diversity and inclusion at around 93% of the capital and 85% of their core. It’s not a complete solution, the deals speaks for itself. Women and but we hope it’s a contribution that minorities are underrepresented at founders will find useful nonetheless. every level of the ecosystem. Corporate You can find the toolkit at policy on diversity and inclusion is still www.inclusionintech.com & 10 In Partnership with www.thestateofeuropeantech.com