Startups in the European Union took an average of 1.5 years longer than U.S. peers to obtain enough funding to scale after filing a first patent, according to an OECD analysis summarized by Joachim Klement in his Nov. 10 Klement on Investing newsletter.
Klement wrote that the analysis covered businesses established in the European Union and United States from 2000 through 2025. Its timing measure ran from a company’s initial patent filing to the point when financing was sufficient for expansion, rather than counting from launch.
About two in five EU startups crossed that funding point only after more than seven years, Klement said. This statistic is the share of EU companies beyond seven years; the separate 1.5-year result compares average timing between the EU and U.S. groups.
Klement described “rising superstars” as firms that later reached valuations above $11 billion. He compared them with a broader group of growth-oriented businesses, saying funding accumulated at similar rates in the EU and U.S.
The pattern diverged among the high-valued companies: by around year five or six, U.S. rising superstars were drawing far more capital than EU counterparts, according to Klement. That contrast formed the main distinction in his reading of the funding data.
Klement set the funding gap within a broader concern about Europe’s lack of major scale-ups and startup IPOs, which he described as scarce. He argued that founders seeking growth capital or a future listing often look to the United States.
Klement also cited a LinkedIn post that placed Mistral’s $3.5 billion Series D first among European venture rounds and 19th in comparison with U.S. deals. His U.S. examples included an OpenAI round of $122 billion in March 2026 and another $40 billion in March 2025; Anthropic at $65 billion in May 2026 and $30 billion in early 2026; and xAI at $20 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Klement said he plans to discuss a separate study Thursday, Nov. 12, which he says identifies another obstacle to European startups scaling.
