With the objective to foster and accelerate AI in Europe, appliedAI by UnternehmerTUM (Germany), Ignite Sweden, AI Sweden and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (Sweden) came together in early 2020 to start the initial steps in mapping the AI startup ecosystem in Europe.
It is essential to shine a light on the top AI startups in Europe in order to drive AI adoption and create more partnership opportunities between startups and corporations. By creating a centralized database of quality AI startups, corporations and SMEs will have easier access to AI partners they can trust.
Why is it so important to bring together AI startups and corporations? There are several reasons why collaboration between startups and fully developed companies is the best option, not only for both parties – but for the economy as a whole. First, while almost all companies require a broad selection of AI solutions, startups focus on one specific niche. They provide the necessary solutions with the latest technology. Secondly, AI systems increase in performance with more data and applications. Therefore, in non-competitive use cases, a technology from a startup that supplies many companies tends to perform better than a stand-alone solution for one specific application in one company. Additionally, AI is a fundamentally challenging task to implement in the eye of a rapidly increasing need to develop new roles, adapt processes, collect data, hire new skills, or work in agile settings. Partnering with startups helps companies to get rid of some of these challenges and allows them to focus on value creation.
On November 17, 2020 during the virtual Sweden Innovation Days event the first version of the landscape was presented which includes over 500 startups from France, Germany and Sweden. Supported by the German Entrepreneurship and the German Accelerator program as well as Vinnova, Sweden's Innovation Agency - appliedAI (Germany), Ignite Sweden, AI Sweden, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (Sweden) as well as Hub France IA (France) developed a list of the top AI startups in their respective countries which have been combined here to provide an overview of the best AI startups in Europe. The goal of this landscape is to give companies guidance and promising startups a visible platform, benefiting both parties and driving the adoption of AI.
As of January 2022, the institute is excited to welcome Norway and the Netherlands to the landscape. The Netherlands AI Coalition (NL AIC), Norwegian Open AI Lab, Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium and Cluster for Applied AI have committed to joining the collaboration and are working to expand the map to cover even more of Europe. Dutch startups can now be found included in the map, Norwegian startups to be included summer of 2022.
- Below you can view all startups sorted via their primary category within the clusters of Industry, Technology Type, Enterprise Intelligence or Enterprise Function.
- You can also search for startups via their name or keywords found in their description.
- Hover over the logo and click the magnifying glass to read the full company description, or click the logo directly to head to the startups website and learn even more.
- Below the map you can find a table with all startups listed with even more details including secondary categories. Click the headers to sort the table by any column.
All startups displayed on the European AI Startup Landscape have AI at their core or exhibit a significant usage of AI. They were founded less than 10 years ago or pivoted their core business model less than 10 years ago and their headquarters or founder are based in Europe. Each startup was put forth and verified by the organization(s) of its respective country.
German startups - appliedAI
Swedish startups - Ignite Sweden and AI Sweden
French startups - Hub France IA
For more information about the methodology of each country see the country pages here: Germany, France, Sweden.
The clustering logic is based on Shivon Zilis’ landscape of machine intelligence. It is developed from the point-of-view of companies that want to use AI in their businesses:
- Enterprise Functions: Increasing productivity of existing tasks – Support your employees with ready-to-use, AI-enabled tools supporting their day-to-day work to increase productivity.
- Enterprise Intelligence: Exploiting new data sources – Tap into new insights that were previously too difficult or expensive to be gained through conventional methods.
- Technology Type: Building products with ML: Give developers the tools that they need to build and leverage machine learning software to gain a competitive advantage.
- Industries: Leveraging AI-first products: Use and cooperate with startups using machine learning to offer industry-related products and services.
Contributing Organizations
Contributors
The appliedAI Institute for Europe is Germanys largest institute for the application of AI technology with the vision to lift the whole country into the AI age. appliedAI was formed as a neutral and trustworthy institute that acts both as a platform and service provider. We take our responsibility in the ecosystem seriously and aim to advance each and every partner to the next level of AI maturity. We work on the technological challenges, both in the application and applied research, from a strategic and innovation standpoint as well as with a perspective on education and people development. Our activities and services are primarily determined by the partners that join the institute. Our founding partners were among others BMW, Google, Infineon, Linde, NVIDIA, and Siemens.
Ignite Sweden is a non-profit initiative that aims to foster innovation and accelerate commercialization by connecting startups to large companies and public organizations.
Since its start in spring 2017, Ignite has facilitated over 5500 tailored matchmaking meetings connecting 1200+ startups with more than 300 corporates and public organizations, resulting in 350+ commercial paid collaborations.
Ignite Sweden isled by Kista Science City, LEAD, MINC, Sahlgrenska Science Park, STING, THINGSand Uminova Innovation, and coordinated by SISP - Swedish Incubators &Science Parks. The program is co-funded by Vinnova - Sweden’s innovation agency and Energimyndigheten - the Swedish Energy Agency.
AI Sweden is the Swedish National Center for applied Artificial Intelligence, supported by the Swedish government and the public and private sectors across the country. The mission is to increase the use of AI for the benefit of our society, Swedish competitiveness, and for everyone living in Sweden.
To achieve this, AI Sweden runs projects of national interest in areas such as information-driven healthcare, AI solutions for the Swedish language, data-driven journalism, and AI to help tackle climate change. The center provides targeted training for partners and the general public. The Data Factory enables partners to AI Sweden to make available and access data and make use of computing power and storage capacity in AI projects.
Hub France IA is an association founded 2017 by independent members of the French AI ecosystem. Its ambition is to promote a dynamic AI ecosystem in France and Europe, to foster the development of new players and the sustainable competitivity of French companies facing non-EU disruption or value loss. Hub France IA boosts AI adoption in all industrial sectors by creating cooperation projects on national and European level.
Hub France IA ambitions to be a central actor in reclaiming European sovereignty and is therefore keen in participating in actions that foster strong, autonomous European AI networks, competitive on the international market or with the potential to become so.
Hub France IA organizes a number of activities to strengthen the AI community in France and Europe. These include strategic and thought leadership initiatives, providing logistical services for its members, including facilitating cooperation and commercial transactions among members (a marketplace), offering training services, helping with talent recruitment, providing legal services. Hub France IA also hosts and co-organizes conferences and events that bring together the AI community at the national, European, and global levels. Finally, Hub France IA is also a knowledge hub, developing technological and economic knowledge about AI.
German Accelerator empowers German startups to scale globally. We take high potential companies on a fast-paced learning journey in the world’s leading innovation hubs in the U.S. and Asia. German Accelerator provides mentoring from dedicated experts, access to our vast global network of business partners and investors, as well as free office space in all our locations. Our programs are highly customized to the participants’ individual needs in order to help them enter international markets and succeed quickly. We don’t take any equity and our programs are free of charge with the exception of “Next Step,” a market discovery program for the Asian region. Since launching in 2012, German Accelerator has nurtured 288 startups which have raised more than US$4.9 billion in funding so far. German Accelerator is currently run by German Entrepreneurship GmbH and is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Visit www.germanaccelerator.com for more information.
Vinnova is Sweden’s innovation agency. We help to build Sweden's innovation capacity, contributing to sustainable growth. Our vision is that Sweden is an innovative force in a sustainable world. We help to build Sweden’s innovation capacity, contributing to sustainable growth. We base our work on the global sustainability development goals of the 2030 Agenda adopted by the United Nations. We identify areas where our efforts can make a difference, and we create opportunities and incentives for organisations to work together to meet important societal challenges.
We stimulate collaborations where knowledge and skills from different perspectives meet and where organisations learn from each other. Our support gives companies and organisations the opportunity to experiment and test new ideas before they become profitable. Every year, Vinnova invests approximately SEK 3 billion in research and innovation.
Vinnova is a government agency under the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, and the national contact authority for the EU framework programme for research and innovation. We’re also the Swedish Government's expert authority in innovation policy. Vinnova employs just over 200 people. Our head office is in Stockholm with affiliates in Brussels, Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv.
At German Entrepreneurship, it is our mission to promote innovation in companies of all sizes – from DAX-listed corporations to medium-sized companies and startups. Our credo: Individual solutions instead of one-size-fits-all. We run the German Accelerator program, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy, and the Accelerator at the LMU University Entrepreneurship Center in Munich. We also help companies set up their own corporate accelerators, such as the VW Data:Lab or the Siemens AI Lab. Since our foundation in 2008, we have accompanied more than 590 startups such as Celonis, Flixbus, Foodora, and N26 on their way. In more than 500 innovation projects, we have developed and successfully implemented customized solutions and concepts for numerous customers and partners from various industries.
The Netherlands AI Coalition (NL AIC) is a public-private partnership in which the government, the business sector, educational and research institutions, as well as civil society organizations collaborate to accelerate and connect AI developments and initiatives. The ambition is to position the Netherlands at the forefront of knowledge and application of AI for prosperity and well-being. We are continually doing so with due observance of both the Dutch and European standards and values. The NL AIC functions as the catalyst for AI applications in our country.
Cluster for Applied AI is Norway’s first business cluster for applied AI, with the main goal of serving and developing a leading eco system for commercial use of the most potent technology of our time. Today the cluster has come to hold more than 86 members and close collaborating partners, representing the entire value chain of AI- from the competent problem owners with crucial domain competencies, to the actors that does research and develop solutions for handling and analyzing data that addresses specific problems. Cluster for Applied AI is mentioned by name in the Norwegian national strategy for artificial intelligence, which was released in January 2020.
Cluster for Applied AI is hosted by Smart Innovation Norway, a Norwegian research and innovation company with a main purpose to practice independent, applied research within the fields of renewable energy and information technology (AI), and to develop and facilitate networks that enables profitable and sustainable use of artificial intelligence in a business context.
NORA – Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium – is a Norwegian collaboration between 8 universities, 3 university colleges and 4 research institutes within AI, machine learning and robotics. NORA aims to strengthen Norwegian research, education and innovation within artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics, as well as other relevant research that supports the development of artificial intelligence applications.
Recognised by Innovation Norway as an entrepreneurial ecosystem for AI in Norway, NORA.startup is NORA’s innovation platform. NORA.startup works to build a knowledge-based innovation arena that facilitates networking and collaboration opportunities across the research and the startup community in Norway within artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. NORA.startup has 20+ startup companies and 30+ researchers.
Norwegian Open AI Lab (NAIL) is a research centre connecting research, education and innovation in artificial intelligence. NAIL's ambition is to be the premier hub for cooperation between Norwegian universities, research institutes, and the private and public sector, focusing on applied research and research driven innovation within sustainable and trustworthy AI. NAIL contributes to continued education and professional development within AI topics, and is responsible for the Norwegian version of the online course 'Elements of AI'.
NAIL is hosted by Norway's largest university NTNU, and is co-funded by its partnership base, including some of the biggest and most ambitious companies in the country, smaller companies, municipalities and other public sector organisations, as well as partners from the Norwegian research sector.
