Antler Study: Scaling Startups Are Europe's Top Founder Factories

The numbers shift substantially for founders who previously worked at a company as it scaled from Seed to Series C. For that group, the Series A conversion rate rises to 45.6 per cent, according to the research cited by Tech.eu. That represents an increase of 22.6 percentage points over the baseline, meaning such founders are close to twice as likely to build startups that reach Series A.

Notably, the study found that experience at a large technology company produced the same conversion uplift as working at a seed-stage startup, with both associated with a rate of around 33 per cent. In other words, the data suggests that early-stage startup experience carries an advantage comparable to a background at a major tech firm such as Google.

Geographic differences also emerged. Tech.eu reported that founders in Germany who had previously worked at growth-stage companies were the most likely to go on to build their own startups successfully to the Series A stage, relative to the other markets studied.

What it signals for the ecosystem

Separately, Sifted published coverage highlighting specific European companies it described as the region's founder factories, naming Klarna and Improbable among them. The two outlets approached the theme from different angles, with Antler's dataset focusing on the growth-stage employment pattern and Sifted spotlighting individual companies that have produced later founders.

Taken together, the coverage underscores a broader point for policymakers, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs across European hubs: the operational experience gained inside scaling companies appears to be a measurable asset. For talent moving between markets, including professionals connecting African and European ecosystems, the findings suggest that time spent inside a growing startup may be as valuable a credential as tenure at an established technology giant.