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Opinion

April 6, 2026

Europe lost the B2C tech race. Can it win in B2B?

AI-enabled B2B startups are all the rage with budding European entrepreneurs. Next step: take them global

John Thornhill

4 min read

A few years ago every budding entrepreneur seemingly wanted to launch a B2C app to recommend travel experiences in Marrakech, deliver artichokes to your front door or find a dog walker for your Cockapoo. US companies excelled at that B2C game, blitzscaling network businesses in the world’s biggest consumer market to create dominant startups such as Airbnb, Uber, Instagram and DoorDash.

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John Thornhill

John Thornhill is Sifted’s founder and innovation editor of the Financial Times. He tweets from @johnthornhillft

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