Europe’s Leading Start-Up Hubs 2026

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Earlier this year, the Financial Times — with its research partner Statista and its colleagues at start-up media brand Sifted — published its second ranking of the best support schemes for new businesses across Europe.

It was based principally on assessments of incubator and accelerator schemes by alumni who had participated in them, as well as the recommendations of investors and entrepreneurs, and the financial performance of the most successful start-ups they backed.

Our latest ranking featured 150 hubs in 25 countries. It was accompanied by an FT special report profiling schemes in Germany, Spain, France, the UK and beyond — showing how the hubs are reacting to changes in the political and economic climate, and working to take advantage of the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence.

But, in this fast-moving area, up-to-date information is essential, so we are now starting work on a third edition of the start-up hubs ranking — and we need your help.

If you are a representative of a start-up incubator or accelerator programme, we would like you to register your programme’s details and tell us how it has performed. You can do so by clicking this link to our online registration form, which takes only a few minutes to complete. The registration period will run until August 15.

You will then receive a specific survey link that you can share with your alumni, allowing them to evaluate your programme(s). Expect to be contacted about the alumni survey soon after registration. The deadline for alumni evaluation is September 21.

Or, if you are an investor, adviser, venture capitalist or business angel, we would like you to tell us about the incubators and accelerators you know of, and to what extent you would recommend them. You can do so by clicking this link to our short online survey. Your answers will not be attributed to you.

We will publish our third annual ranking of the top European Start-Up Hubs in March 2026, as part of a special report with the FT newspaper and online at ft.com.

Among the factors that we will incorporate into the ranking process will be:

• Mentoring & training provided

• Infrastructure, eg offices, labs, software

• Legal assistance

• Business development advice

• Networking opportunities

• Funding opportunities

To learn more about this research project, please visit Statista’s information page at: https://www.statista.com/page/start-up-hubs.

Or, if you would like to contact us to ask specific questions, please send an email to [email protected] and our colleagues at Statista will respond.

Sifted is the critical friend of Europe’s start-up community. Backed by the Financial Times, we aim to be the gate-openers, connectors and trusted intermediaries to make the ecosystem a more fair and successful place.

Combining proprietary data with quality reporting and analysis, we offer insights for founders, investors and start-up operators you won’t find anywhere else. We know start-up Europe because we are start-up Europe.

Click here to learn more and become a member today.