In scope
European companies formed recently, counted from the day they are incorporated until the first time they take money from a fund. That first round is included, whatever its size.
About
How we read European companies in their first eighteen months
Most reporting on European startups starts once a fund has written a cheque. We wanted to look at the eighteen months before that.
What counts
Out of scope
Anything past a first round. Once a company has raised twice it is someone else's subject, and well covered.
How it is counted
One sample, read consistently. Every figure in the report traces back to the same set of companies, and each chart says what it is a share of.
The sample
- companies read
- 10,000
- cities
- 89
- founders
- 10,000
Why Cherry Ventures
Why Cherry Ventures does this
Cherry Ventures is a European early-stage firm. We meet companies at the point this report describes, usually before a round and sometimes before a name is settled. We see a lot of this layer in the course of our work, so we have published what we see instead of keeping it in-house.
Contribute
If you are building
The report ends where it starts: we want to meet the companies in it. If you are forming something in Europe and have not raised from a fund yet, tell us what you are building.
Tell us what you are building →If you run an ecosystem
Universities, accelerators and programmes can help map what is forming around them, and see how their ecosystem compares before each edition goes out. Nothing you share is attributed to a named company.
Map your ecosystem →Editorial team
About the authors
Victor Hürbe
Heartbeat Editorial lead
Victor is a Principal at Cherry focused on B2B across the DACH region. His experience building a marketplace and backing founders from the earliest stages shapes Heartbeat’s editorial view and selection of exciting companies to watch.
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Rhiannon Hames
Heartbeat Analytical lead
Rhiannon is Cherry's Chief of Staff, with a background in engineering, computer science and strategy. Deeply interested in how formation trends vary across Europe, she led the analysis of over 35,000 companies to bring Heartbeat to life with this sample.
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