The Fastest-Growing Firms in Europe

The Fastest-Growing Firms in Europe was originally published on Vault.

When you hear the word “startup” what location do you think of?  

Silicon Valley? 

New York? 

Maybe one of the growing hubs for new businesses, like Denver, Austin or Vegas? 

That’s not surprising: most of the major startup success stories that have graced the business pages in recent years—from the social media space to Netflix, Zappos and beyond—have come from the US. In fact, starting new, innovative companies is one of the things the US economy does best. 

But–and hear me out here–what if I told you that there are burgeoning startup scenes elsewhere in the world? And that they’re creating companies that could well come to be global players across a variety of industries, taking down established firms, disrupting entire sectors and, perhaps, even signing your paychecks some day? 

Assuming you’ve read the headline, the location I have in mind isn’t going to come as a shock: Europe. What might be surprising, however, is the idea that the European economy is chugging along at a rate that can support a vast number of rapidly-growing businesses. After all, this is a part of the world where business journalists have been reflexively adding expressions like “dragged down by the financial crisis” to any description of the region’s economy since, well, the financial crisis.

However, as the recently-launched FT 1000 list of the region’s fastest-growing companies indicates, there seems to be a great deal of entrepreneurial action across the Atlantic. What it means for those seeking jobs with exciting startups here in the US is uncertain at the moment—most of these firms are not household names in the US at present. But then, neither were companies like Facebook or Netflix, just a handful of years ago—and both have come to dominate their respective global industries (for better or worse) in a way that many of the companies on the FT list will surely be hoping to replicate.

So, whether you’re interested in a job in Europe, the opportunity to help a rapidly-growing company to establish a footprint in other markets, or just seeking to keep tabs on up-and-coming firms around the world, you could do a lot worse than check out that list—starting with this graphic from Statista, which provides a handy visual illustration of just how quickly some of these firms are growing.

 

Statista Fastest-Growing European Firms