The Truth About European Startups Moving to the U.S.

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-14

### The Real Story Behind European Startup Relocation I don't buy the neat story of a mass exodus of European startups. The numbers just don't back it up. Most companies stay right where they were founded, and the ones that do change geography rarely make it a single dramatic decision. The more important question is: what happens to the companies that begin to scale? ### A Company Doesn't Relocate Overnight The European Commission's Joint Research Centre estimates that only 3.3–4.3% of European venture-backed companies relocate fully or partially. For companies without venture capital, that figure drops to a tiny 0.3–0.5%. That's not a mass departure—it's a trickle. Yet here's the kicker: 97% of the companies that do relocate do so only partially. They keep operations in their home country—a lab, engineers, manufacturing, or part of the team. The holding company, headquarters, leadership, fundraising, or commercial function might move elsewhere. And when that happens, the U.S. is the main destination. But "relocation" isn't quite the right word. The center of gravity shifts gradually—from one function to another, not in one fell swoop. ### The More Successful the Company, the More Expensive the Next Step The picture gets sharper for companies at the scaling stage. According to the 2024 Draghi report, as cited in the European Investment Bank's 2026 analysis, around 10% of European scale-ups relocate abroad, and roughly 85% of them choose the U.S. The report also notes that close to 30% of European unicorns founded between 2008 and 2021 moved their headquarters abroad, predominantly to the U.S. These figures cover different groups and periods, but they point to the same mechanism: Europe risks losing a disproportionate share of the value created by businesses that grow into large international companies. In biotech, the gap is especially visible. An EIC report found that between 2019 and 2025, 66 of the 67 EU biotech companies that went public chose exchanges outside the EU. That doesn't mean 66 companies closed their European offices. It means the market for their IPOs, future liquidity, and next stage of capital was almost always located in another system. ### After the Laboratory Comes a Different Economy Europe is strong at the early stage. It has universities, research centers, Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Council, and national funding programs. When a company enters the next stage of its economic development, its need for money doesn't disappear. What changes is the job that money must do. Early capital funds research and tech development. The next step is to scale manufacturing, navigate regulation, build international sales, secure hospital procurement, and hire executives who have already brought a product to market. So a company needs more than capital. It needs capital connected to a market, specialist networks, and execution experience. The European Central Bank estimates the total stock of venture capital at around $1 trillion in the U.S., compared with about $160 billion in the EU. This isn't annual investment or dry powder; it's an estimate of the overall size of each system. The gap matters most at later stages, when the sums become larger and mistakes more expensive and difficult to reverse. A founder isn't just choosing a check. They're choosing the system in which the company is less likely to make a costly mistake. > "A founder is not simply choosing a cheque. They are choosing the system in which the company is less likely to make a costly mistake." ### The Problem Isn't Consultants—It's the Cost of Navigation European funding programs are surrounded by consultants, grant writers, and intermediaries. A good consultant saves time and explains rules that a founder may be encountering for the first time. Across Horizon Europe, 17% of applicants used external consultants or experts; among EIC Accelerator applicants, that share reached 67%. The cost also varied considerably. The median consultancy fee was $8,200 for a consortium proposal, $2,200 for a single-beneficiary proposal, and $13,100 for an EIC Accelerator application. So what's the takeaway? Europe doesn't have a startup exodus problem—it has a scaling problem. The companies that stay are the ones that can navigate the system. The ones that leave are chasing a market that's better at turning research into revenue. Until Europe builds that same engine, the trickle will continue.