Luxembourg is deservedly considered an excellent place to start or scale your entrepreneurial adventure. Success stories of many companies confirm this. Learn more about top 10 companies in Luxembourg and get inspired.
Luxembourg is a country with a well-developed economy, high credit rating, a diverse and skilled workforce and an advanced digital infrastructure supported by the government. In addition, the Grand Duchy is traditionally considered an excellent launching pad for companies to enter the European Union markets. All these factors attract young entrepreneurs who want to launch or scale their startup.
The government has been investing a lot of money in recent years to support innovative companies and start-ups in Luxembourg. The country is gradually becoming Europe's Silicon Valley as a result. The Grand Duchy has a thriving startup scene that the government is actively backing. This ecosystem includes the startups themselves and several large accelerators and incubators, some of which are private companies and some of which are institutional organisations.
According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Index, Luxembourg is ranked 34th in the world in 2023, and 17th in Western Europe. In comparison with 2022 the country jumped 6 spots globally.
The startup ecosystem supports young companies at all stages of development. Participation in special programs such as Fit4Start or one of the incubators in most cases helps aspiring entrepreneurs at the pre-seed stage to reach the funding and launch stage. The ecosystem offers a wide selection of incubators in different fields. The largest of them is the House of Startups, created with the support of the Luxembourg government.
The ecosystem unites players that are ready to finance promising innovative companies. Among them are the Luxembourg Ministry of Economy, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, investment funds, venture capital firms and the Luxembourg Business Angels Network (LBAN).
A very important role is played by the Luxinnovation agency, which acts as a guide throughout the entire path of creating and establishing a new innovative company. The agency offers several public aids aimed at promoting research, development and innovation activities.
Startups in Luxembourg are all over the place, covering almost all areas and industries. Nearly 40% of the younger companies in Luxembourg, those less than 10 years old with significant growth potential, are in two sectors: FinTech and IT. HealthTech, Creative Industries, Space, and Generic Business Software are also pretty popular, with shares ranging from 6 to 8%.
The Startup Luxembourg ecosystem is open and transparent. There is open access to the database built by and for founders, investors, executives and tech enthusiasts. At the moment, it presents 546 startups with basic economic indicators. The main ranking criterion is Dealroom Signal.
Dealroom Signal is specifically designed to find and fund the most promising and fast upcoming opportunities. The algorithm used is set up to find companies or startups having strong traction and, according to the list, are forecasted to be ready to take part in a funding event, or that are round-ready.
The Startup Luxembourg website publishes Top 50 startups to watch in Luxembourg. The ranking of the top startups in Luxembourg is based on this ranking. All startups are evaluated on their current situation regarding a number of factors, among them the fundraising timeline, growth indicators, the founding team, and others. Here are the top 10 companies in Luxembourg from this list in different industries.
For yet another example, there is a great success story of a local startup, which was founded in 2018 by Aidan McClean. Today, UFODRIVE is a smartphone app that lets you rent electric vehicles. Aidan McClean came up with the idea after trying to rent a car several times without success.
Renaud Marquet
Together with COO Renaud Marquet, they took a comprehensive look at the car rental industry and found out exactly what consumers want. They also pointed out that there is a lot of demand for electric vehicles. They created UFODRIVE, the first digital rental company that only rents electric vehicles. The company offers premium cars with no unexpected fees or payments. The entire rental system is transparent.
Over the course of three Seed rounds from 2018 to 2021, the startup raised €6.1 million. In 2022, Series A took place, which brought the company 19.0 million euros. Currently, the total funding is €23.4m.
The startup scene in Luxembourg is always changing. New companies join the mix every year, and many of them have great potential. That means the list of top startups in Luxembourg is always evolving and is likely to change in the future while changing the future.
Source: startupluxembourg.com, directory.startupluxembourg.com, luxinnovation.lu, app.dealroom.co
We took photos from these sources: companies websites, Unsplash