UK cities dominate Europe's start-up scene

A quarter of Europe’s top start-up hotspots are to be found in the UK, according to the latest European ScaleUp Monitor, produced annually by the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship at Erasmus Rotterdam University.

The report revealed that 44% of European high-growth businesses are concentrated in 20 cities, and that British cities account for a quarter of these: London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and Oxford.

According to the report authors, UK cities were better at building connections with the local business and academic communities, creating more opportunities for business founders to access talent and infrastructure.

France, Germany and Sweden came next in the rankings - and Germany was the only other country to feature more than one city (Berlin, Munich) in the list of top 20 start-up hubs, which mostly corresponded to the capitals of the largest European economies.

Report authors speculated that UK city authorities were particularly “business friendly”, outperforming other cities for the level of supporting infrastructure - such as meeting space, access to officials, and connectivity with research facilities and financiers.