UK takes top spot in Europe for GenAI startups, Accel says

By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The United Kingdom is home to the biggest number of generative AI (GenAI) startups across Europe and Israel, followed by Germany and Israel, according to a study by venture capital firm Accel.

Accel analysed 221 GenAI startups and found that 30% were founded in the UK, 14% in Germany, and 13% in Israel, with France home to 11% and the Netherlands 6%.

GenAI is artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images, videos or other data, based on models developed using huge quantities of information.

Britain's top universities, its track record in forming AI company Deepmind in 2010, and investment from U.S. tech giants in the country have all helped to bolster its status in AI.

Despite this, GenAI companies founded in France lead the way in raising funding, attracting $2.29 billion, followed by the UK on $1.15 billion, Accel said.

Paris-headquartered Mistral, widely considered a European rival to OpenAI, last week raised 600 million euros ($644 million) at a valuation of 5.8 billion euros.

In 2023, GenAI startups globally raised more than $25 billion in funding and that is expected to increase to around $45 billion this year, Accel said.

"When looking deeper at these companies’ roots, we begin to see where the main GenAI talent hubs exist in the region and the common paths founders take," said Accel partner Harry Nelis.

A quarter of the startups have at least one founder who has worked at Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, DeepMind, Meta, or Microsoft, and more than a third have held positions at academic institutions, he said.

A quarter of the founders were educated in UK universities such as University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and Oxford University, Accel said.

($1 = 0.9304 euros)

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Mark Potter)