Analysis

July 15, 2026

Europe’s ‘real’ founder factories: Klarna and Improbable

Working at a growth-stage startup — rather than a unicorn or Big Tech firm — is the strongest predictor of a founder's future success, according to a new study of over 50k startups

Éanna Kelly

2 min read

Two European companies are producing more successful startup founders than any other on the continent: UK deeptech Improbable and Swedish fintech giant Klarna.

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Éanna Kelly

Éanna Kelly is a contributing editor at Sifted, and writes Startup Life , a weekly newsletter on what it takes to build a startup. Follow him on X and LinkedIn

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