Europe’s Top Universities for Startup Efficiency

Recently, European venture capital firm Redstone, together with AlpMomentum, Technical University of Munich, and University of Trier, published the third edition of the Redstone University Startup Index: Europe's Nine Trillion Euro Opportunity. The study maps the entrepreneurial output of Europe’s academic ecosystem and quantifies the economic value that the continent leaves unrealized when institutions fall short of their startup-creation potential.

The study examines startups founded in 2025 and covers 1,000 universities and 50 public research institutions across the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. To identify startups and their founders, the researchers primarily relied on LinkedIn profile data, the Dealroom database, and data from the European Patent Office.

For the third consecutive year, the index ranks institutions by efficiency—defined as the number of economically viable startups created per €100 million of annual budget—rather than by absolute startup output, thereby normalizing for institutional size and funding levels. Institutions are grouped into six peer categories for like-for-like comparison: very large, large, mid-sized, and small universities, business schools, and public research organizations (PROs).

Among universities, efficiency generally increases as institutional size decreases. Imperial College London once again ranks first among Very Large Universities, followed by University of Amsterdam and King's College London. Of the top ten very large universities, six are located in England.

London School of Economics and Political Science leads the Large Universities category by a substantial margin, followed by Politecnico di Milano and Nottingham Trent University. Among the top ten large universities, England and the Netherlands each have three institutions represented.

Paris-Panthéon-Assas University ranks first among Mid-sized Universities, followed by Technical University of Valencia and CNAM Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. Of the top ten mid-sized universities, five are from England and four are from France.

CODE University of Applied Sciences tops the Small Universities category, followed by EPITECH École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies and ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon. Among the top ten small universities, France and Spain each account for three institutions.