Nordic countries dominate the high-growth firm charts across Europe

Nordic countries, particularly Denmark, Finland and Sweden, top the high-growth firm’s charts, according to the latest report from the European Scaleup Institute.

Eastern European countries, particularly Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Latvia, performed strongly when it came to growth in young scaleups, whilst the Nordics were strongest for firms above 10 years old.

The findings come from the European Scaleup Institute’s European Scaleup Monitor 2024 – the second annual report on Europe’s scaleup scene. The report provides insights into the dynamics and drivers of high-growth companies in Europe.

To understand the market, the researchers reviewed data on over 1.5 million entities based in the EU27, between 2015-2022. The data allowed the researchers to review over three years of growth for each firm, where they were able to categorise firms as scalers, high-growth firms, consistent high-growth firms, consistent hyper growers, gazelles, mature high-growth firms, scaleups and superstars.

Using these growth metrics, the researchers were able to identify which countries performed best when it came to high-growth firms. Nordic countries performed the best when it came to longevity – firms over 10 years old – whilst Eastern European countries performed best when it came to younger firms.

Countries like Greece, Finland, Ireland, Denmark and Cyprus experienced strong recoveries from the covid pandemic years, drastically improving their percentage of scalers. Whilst countries like Malta, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Poland and Germany all continued to decline on this metric.

“High-growth firms are important to the economy due to their contributions to job creation and innovation.”, says Veroniek Collewaert, Academic Director of the European Scaleup Institute and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Vlerick Business School.

“However, the complexity of their growth presents a challenge for governments, as developing effective policies to support these firms can prove difficult with little insight into how to stimulate growth”.

The researchers also found that the services sector, including information and communication, administrative and support services and professional, scientific and technical activities, all consistently performed best on growth metrics. Whilst accommodation and food services saw the biggest recover post-covid.

"At the European Scaleup Institute, we are committed to make Europe a stronger scaleup ecosystem by bridging academic knowledge with practice. Supporting innovative SMEs to scale and thrive in Europe has never been more urgent than today, with strong economic and societal implications for us all’’ says Leonardo Fuligni Executive Director of the European Scaleup Institute and Deputy Director of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The European Scaleup Institute is a platform of academic experts and practitioners in Europe for scaleups, high-growth firms, governmental organisations and policymakers to address the scaleup gap. Their mission is to help Europe become a leading global scaleup ecosystem, through increased joint research, education initiatives and sharing of best practices and knowledge across the industry.

Partners of the European Scaleup Institute include Vlerick Business School, ESSEC Business School, Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and the Rotterdam School of Management, WHU Otto-Beisheim School of Management, ESADE Business School, NOVA School of Business and Economics, Luiss Business School and the University of Galway.

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If you would like to receive the full report or speak with the researchers please contact Alex Lopez, BlueSky Education, at alex@bluesky-pr.com, or on +44 (0)1582 797959.