Arthur Mensch, French founder of artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI, attends the Viva Technology Show at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on May 22, 2024.
Chessnot | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Most of Europe’s most funded generative artificial intelligence companies were founded by entrepreneurs with experience at US tech giants, according to a new report from venture capital firm Accel.
The report, produced in partnership with Dealroom, found that a quarter of the 221 generative AI companies based in Europe and Israel had previously worked for Apple, Amazon, DeepMind, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
This figure rose to more than a third (38%) among the top 40 generative AI companies in Europe and Israel in terms of venture funding raised, and to 60% among the top 10 generative AI companies in terms of funding levels.
Harry Nellis, general partner at Accel, told CNBC that tech giants are natural catalysts for new generative AI companies because these companies are “the ones most committed to AI and have the capabilities around computing, data and capital.”
“They’re really smart in the sense that they’ve realized how an early lead in this space can translate into a huge competitive advantage,” he said, adding that there’s a “huge opportunity” for people with an entrepreneurial spirit to start their own genAI ventures.
Europe’s most well-funded genAI startup
| company | Founding country | Founding city | Total amount raised |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | Paris | $1.1 billion | |
| Germany | Heidelberg | $641 million | |
| France | Paris | $396 million | |
| France | Paris | $335 million | |
| France | Paris | $235 million | |
| England | London | $157 million | |
| England | London | $151 million | |
| England | London | $118 million |
In their research, Accel defines generative AI as “an emerging AI frontier that uses models trained on large data sets of content media to create something new rather than analyzing what already exists.”
Nellis noted that many of the largest U.S. technology companies have already started early efforts in AI and are increasingly turning their attention to Europe.
Google acquired British AI research firm DeepMind in 2014, and the company’s technology is now key to its AI products, including its generative AI tool Gemini.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, opened a European branch of the fair, Facebook AI Research, in Paris in 2015.
Many of the founders of prominent AI startups developing generative AI tools hail from Google, DeepMind, and Meta.
For example, Mistral, a French startup backed by Microsoft, has former DeepMind AI scientist Arthur Mensch as CEO, and co-founders Timothy Lacroix and Guillaume Lampre both worked at Meta.
Another French AI company backed by Amazon is H, co-founded by former DeepMind researchers Laurent Chiffre and Carl Theuils, along with former Stanford student Charles Cantor.
Accel says Mistral has raised $1 billion in funding to date, while H, which was founded just a few months ago, has already raised $235 million.
According to Accel, Google is the leading creator of new generative AI startups in Europe and Israel, with 11.3% of generative AI companies run by founders who have previously worked for the tech giant.
Google-owned DeepMind comes in second with 5% of generative AI companies, while Meta comes in third with 4.1%.
Accel points out that universities play a major role in creating generative AI startups, with many European universities now acting as so-called “founder factories” that churn out new startup founders.
More than a third of the companies (38%) have at least one founder who holds or has held a position at an academic institution such as professor, researcher or lecturer.
Lourdes Agapito, co-founder of Synthesia, a UK AI company that uses generative AI to remove the need for physical equipment in video production, is professor of 3D Vision at University College London.
She says her experience at UCL helped her to connect with like-minded AI innovators.
While studying at UCL, Agapito met Synthesia co-founder Matthias Niessner and went on to found the company alongside CEO Victor Liparberg and COO Stephen Cherild.
“Looking back at Synthesia’s founding team, what was special about us was how well we complemented each other in terms of expertise,” Agapito told CNBC in an email.
Agapito said being based in London was another “key factor” in Synthesia’s early success.
According to Accel’s research, UK universities are the most popular study abroad destinations for generative AI founders, and Cambridge University has the most generative AI companies, with 7.9% of founders having studied there.
France’s École Polytechnique is the second most talented university in Europe, with 7% of generative AI founders having studied there.
