Google, DeepMind and Meta are spawning the most generative AI startups in Europe and Israel, according to a new report from US VC Accel and data platform Dealroom.
The report found that a quarter of the 221 GenAI startups it analysed have one or more founders with work experience at Google, DeepMind, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft or Apple. This increases to more than a third (38%) when looking at the top 40 GenAI companies in terms of funding and 60% for the top 10 GenAI companies by funding.
The report also reveals that London is home to over a quarter (27%) of GenAI startups in the region with Berlin (12%), Paris (10%) and Amsterdam (5%) also in the top five.
The GenAI talent hotbeds
Google is the most prolific talent hotbed, with 11% of the companies analysed by the report started by its alumni. London-based DeepMind — which was acquired by Google in 2014 — comes second with 5% of the companies analysed founded by people who worked there.
4.1% of the region's GenAI companies were started by Meta alumni, 4.1% by people who worked at Stanford University and 3.6% by folk who worked at Apple.
Which country is bringing in the most funding?
French-founded GenAI companies — which make up 11% of the list — have raised the most funding: $2.29bn. That figure is almost double the $1.15bn raised by UK-founded GenAI companies, which make up 30% of the list. Israel-founded companies raised $1.04bn, and German-founded companies $636m.
More than two-thirds (70%) of GenAI startups in the analysed region have announced $1m or more in funding.
Among the startups that have brought in big money from VCs in the last year are Paris-based Omi, an AI-led image creation tool founded by Meta alum Hugo Borensztein, which recently raised €13m; Paris-based agentic AI startup H, founded by former DeepMind scientists, which raised a huge $220m in May; and Mistral — the Paris-based AI darling whose founding team has nearly two decades of combined experience at Meta and DeepMind — which closed a €486m equity funding round at a €5.8bn valuation last week.
Which universities have spawned the most GenAI startups?
Most GenAI founders studied at UK universities, according to the report — 7.9% of the 221 companies were founded by one or more founders educated at the UK’s University of Cambridge, 7% by Imperial College London alumni, 6.5% by University College London alumni, 5.1% by University of Oxford alumni and 3.3% by University of Edinburgh alumni.
Of the 221 GenAI startups analysed, the majority of them (30%) were founded in the UK.
Other hotbeds include France’s École Polytechnique — 7% of the companies had one or more founders who were educated there. For the 20 GenAI companies that have raised the most funding, 25% had at least one founder who was educated at École Polytechnique.
