4FRONT is leading the Exploratory Study on the European Startup Scoreboard. Partnering with EFIS Centre, Visionary Analytics, OneTandem, and Dealroom, we will develop an indicator framework and the pilot scoreboard tool to better understand and support Europe’s startup and scaleup landscape. The study will be conducted during the year 2025.
The need for a European Startup Scoreboard stems from the growing recognition of the critical role that startups, scaleups, and deep tech companies play in driving innovation, economic growth, and job creation across Europe. Currently there is a significant gap in comprehensive, real-time data that captures the multifaceted nature of these enterprises in standardized way. Existing data sources are often lacking the granularity and longitudinal perspective needed to fully understand the dynamic startup landscape and there is a clear gap in data for deep tech companies.
A centralized European Startup Scoreboard will address these gaps by providing a uniform definition of startups and scaleups. The ESS will include key indicators on framework conditions, innovation activities, investments and impacts of startups and scaleups. This will enable a more nuanced and compatible analysis of the startup- and scaleup ecosystems in the EU Member States and provide a ranking of all countries regarding their performance in relation to startup and scaleup activity.
By focusing on the dynamic of startups, scaleups, and deep-tech ecosystems, the European Startup Scoreboard will supplement the European Innovation Scoreboard, the Regional Innovation Scoreboard and the recently published Eco-Innovation Scoreboard to provide insights into Europe’s innovation performance for researchers and policymakers.
