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philipy philipy
 
M$3.25 September 08, 2009 07:32 PM

What are the most successful European startups of recent years?

Feel free to interpret "successful" and "recent years" how you like. Even "European" if there's some ambiguity, e.g. a company has relocated, or opened a base in the US, after starting in Europe.

Looking for examples, lists, and commentary, either your own or taken from good sources.
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mrcal mrcal
 
 September 08, 2009 08:45 PM
The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Skype. Released in 2003, the company was just sold to private investors in a deal valued at $2.75 Billion. The company had revenues of about $550 Million last year and has over 400 Million registered users.

Plastic Logic is another that has made some headlines recently. Amazon's Kindle has garnered a lot of attention, but that attention has also brought notice to the competition - Plastic Logic looms large in this space with some very interesting technology.

TechCrunch (UK) also has the following "Europe Top 100" list which I think is worth a look: http://uk.techcrunch.com/the-techcrunch-europe-top-100/

Skype Deal: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a3ef33c-9702-11de-83c5-00144feabdc0.html?referrer_id=yahoofinance&ft_ref=yahoo1&segid=03058
Plastic Logic Demos: http://www.plasticlogic.com/news/video.php
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philipy philipy
 
September 09, 2009 12:56 AM
TechCrunch Europe and YouNoodle are interesting resources thanks!

Do you know anything that classifies major startups geographically?

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mrcal mrcal
 
September 10, 2009 01:27 PM
I don't know of anything off the top of my head. I did come across this today (www.seedcamp.com) and thought it might be of interest to you.

Cheers.

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philipy philipy
 
September 10, 2009 04:06 PM
I had heard of this before, but mostly forgotten, so thanks for the reminder!

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jasoncalac... jasoncalac...
 
September 08, 2009 11:19 PM
The two most successful startups in Europe are Skype and Last.fm in terms of exits.

However, most of the successful internet brands in Europe are US-based folks like Google, Yahoo, EBAY and Amazon.

However, in Asia there are many domestic brands like Naver.com and Baidu.com.

Tags: europe, startups, technology, internet

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nickunders... nickunders...
 
September 09, 2009 10:02 AM
A German company called Solarworld would make my list. Recent in this case is 1998, perhaps too old to make your definition. Here is part of their "About Us" from the website:

--quote--
The vision to make the world a little better with clean energy has now become reality: In just a few years, SolarWorld AG has grown from a solar trading house to an international solar concern. The expansion began after it started in the year 1998: With subsidiaries in Germany, Spain, Asia, Africa and the United States. SolarWorld AG today is one of the largest solar concerns worldwide.
--/quote--

It is a successful startup in my eyes because it has dramatically grown in size and influence in the industry. Solarworld is very innovative and has been very profitable.

A similar, more recent company, is Swiss Solar Systems, also known as 3S. It has won several awards for innovation and other prizes and its shares exploded right around 2007/2008 retreating somewhat again. However another great company. It was started in 2002 and according to its website made over 1 million Swiss Francs in its first year.

Besides both should be considered "successful" because they will help us fight global warming and curbing emissions if their technologies are more widely applied.
Source(s):
http://www.solarworld.de/?L=1
http://www.solarworld.de/Ad-hoc-Messages.135.0.html?&L=1
http://www.3-s.ch/en
http://www.3-s.ch/en/about-us/background/


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