Investment Blogger Klement: The Funding Gap Between US and European Startups Concentrates at the Super Unicorn Stage, with Similar Growth-Stage Expansion Rates
Klement cites an OECD study on startups in Europe and the United States from 2000 to 2025, noting that while financing growth rates for mature companies are roughly similar across both regions, the true gap emerges at the super unicorn stage (valuations exceeding $11 billion), where US firms begin attracting significantly more capital than their European counterparts five to six years after founding. Additionally, approximately 40% of EU startups take more than seven years from their first patent application to securing sufficient funding for scaling, averaging 1.5 years longer than US peers.
The most intuitive manifestation of the funding disadvantage facing European startups is the stark contrast in financing scale: Mistral’s $3.5 billion Series D round stands as the largest venture capital round in European history, whereas OpenAI secured $122 billion in March 2026, Anthropic raised $65 billion in May 2026, and xAI obtained $20 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Placing Mistral’s $3.5 billion round within a list of the largest US funding rounds would rank it only 19th. Investment blogger Joachim Klement uses these figures to pose a question, but subsequently cites a new OECD study to sharpen the comparison.
The OECD study covers startups founded in the European Union and the United States between 2000 and 2025, categorizing successfully scaled enterprises into two types: 'rising superstars' (companies eventually reaching valuations over $11 billion) and 'growth-oriented companies' (those raising lead rounds of $50 million). The core finding is that growth-oriented companies experience roughly identical financing growth rates in both Europe and the US—indicating that Europe does not lack capital supply for mid-sized growth firms. The real divergence occurs at the super unicorn stage: five to six years after launch, US firms begin attracting far greater capital than their European peers.