Can France Lead EU Startups? We’re betting on it!

At the start of 2015 the total worth of European unicorns was $110Bln. European startups are on the rise. And as larger and more successful companies develop, EU is receiving growing attention from American investors.

In 2015 Andreesen Horowitz lead Transferwise’s series C and Sequoia backed the seed round of Mapillary. In the meantime startup accelerator and seed fund 500 Startups was setting up in several places across Europe. There are clear signs of increasing interest of American VCs in motherland startups and this trend is not likely to fade in the near future.

European Millenials are increasingly avoiding corporate careers and starting their own companies. Early stage companies with great ideas and sparkling innovation, such as Dubsmash and Jukedeck, are emerging all over Europe.

Can France Lead the Revolution?

In the meantime, since France’s first unicorn –
BlaBlaCar -was officially crowned, the French startup scene has been gaining momentum. Today Paris alone has 5,000 startups and is hosting almost a thousand new startups a year. The French capital is home to as many as 40 accelerators and is on the verge of accommodating the largest startup incubator in the world.

These seem to be early signs of a flourishing growth of the French startup ecosystem. Indeed, France seems to be well positioned in Europe to carry the leader role. A large home market, active investors, and past successes, along with one of the larges and richest cities in Europe, might constitute solid basis for its future development.

Last but not least, past successes have added synergies. Past generations of entrepreneurs become investors, risk takers, teachers, and mentors, fostering the growth of the ecosystem.

Despite the recent hype of the European startup scene, scaling in the motherland is still more difficult than scaling in the US. We discussed a lot in previous articles how small home markets should lead companies to expand internationally as soon as possible.

That’s why we are taking the big step

And of course, Equidam, as a Dutch startup, can’t avoid walking its talk!

So it is with immense pride that we make this announcement: Equidam is finally available in French!

From today, the whole Equidam application and report are available in French. The language gets added to English, German and Dutch and we hope will delight the already numerous French-speaking users.

Our aim is to serve France and all other French-speaking countries at the best of our means, and of course listen to all of you for any advice or feedback!