Becca Lipman

Yesterday, we launched the Sifted 100: Nordics & Benelux 2025 leaderboard, spotlighting the region’s 100 fastest-growing startups, ranked by revenue growth over the past three years. In total, 631 investors backed startups in the 2025 cohort, with 26% of them backing at least two companies. Belgium-based EIT tops the list of public investors, with stakes in 11 of the 100 startups (up from 8 last year).

When earlier this year, tech deals tracker Dealroom suggested that Paris had overtaken London as Europe’s top startup hub, it caused quite a commotion. But it shouldn’t have been too surprising. France has been gaining momentum for some time now by pouring investment into AI, technical education and the startup ecosystem via incubators like Station F.

Sifted’s latest DACH & CEE leaderboard — which ranks the region’s 100 fastest-growing startups by revenue growth — features 27 profitable companies. That’s a strong showing. By comparison, the UK & Ireland leaderboard had 25 profitable companies this year (up from just 12 in 2024). And — spoiler — the soon-to-launch France & Southern Europe leaderboard features 32. Profitability remains a complicated benchmark.