A new European Commission scoreboard tracking startup and scaleup conditions across the EU found that 20 of the bloc’s 27 member states have improved their performance since 2020, the baseline year used for the index.
The first European Startup and Scaleup Scoreboard measures national ecosystems using 36 indicators across six areas, including regulation, finance, talent, and market expansion, the Commission explained on Friday.
Estonia, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark were identified as the leading group, performing 40 to 60 percentage points above the EU average across the indicators.
Estonia topped the scoreboard for digital infrastructure and early-stage funding, with 615 venture capital-backed companies per million inhabitants — the highest in the EU.
Sweden led on talent and later-stage financing and recorded 409 unicorns per million inhabitants, the Commission added, using the term “unicorn” for privately held start-ups valued at more than $1bn.
Finland was cited for research and development investment and patenting activity.
Gaps remain among lower-ranked member states
Greece, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania were listed among the “rising” countries, scoring 30 percentage points below the EU average across the 36 indicators, the Commission said.
Later-stage venture capital was described as scarce in those countries, while fragmented regulations, slow administrative processes and “brain drain” were also flagged as constraints,.
The Commission said the scoreboard’s findings would feed into further work on EU startup and scaleup policy, including plans for an upcoming European Innovation Act.
It also pointed to existing proposals and initiatives including “EU Inc.” — a proposed single set of corporate rules intended to help companies operate across the EU — as well as the European Business Wallet and an EU Visa Strategy.
The scoreboard draws on public data from Eurostat and the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, alongside private market data from Dealroom and the European Startup Nations Alliance, with the underlying datasets finalised in early 2026.
