Study: EU startups are delaying moving to the US, with just one-third moving before their Series A between 2015-2019, compared to two-thirds between 2008-2014
Freya Pratty / Sifted :
Context & Ripple Effects
The study lands in the same window that European startups raised over $36B from VCs in 2019 — a five-year high and more than double 2015's total — suggesting the drop in pre-Series A relocation tracks the deepening of local capital rather than fading founder ambition.
Subsequent coverage has kept validating that read: Atomico now counts European fundraising on track for $44B with tech at 15% of EU GDP, and US VCs themselves crossed the Atlantic by deploying ~$14.2B into European AI startups in 2025 alone. When the money travels to the founder, the founder no longer needs to move first.
First-order effects
- European founders can now reach a Series A without relocating, because domestic and inbound US capital has grown to fill the gap the 2008-2014 cohort crossed the ocean to escape.
Second-order effects
- US investors competing for European deals shifts the bottleneck from capital access to ecosystem quality — putting pressure back on the regulatory fragmentation across 35,000 EU and UK early-stage companies that Atomico flags as the region's core hindrance.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Europe retains its compounding layers — talent, follow-on rounds, exits — locally, while national hubs like the UK ($10.4B in Q2) pull further ahead of Germany and France within the region.
The trend: Venture capital is inverting its old migration pattern: capital increasingly moves to founders rather than founders relocating to capital.