An Analysis of the Performance of European Venture Capital-Funded Startups

March 18, 2026

Susan E. Woodward
Shawn Blosser

The Digital Markets Act and antitrust enforcer scrutiny eliminated European startup acquisitions by explicitly targeted U.S. companies and reduced European startup acquisitions by other large U.S. companies. However, this did not lead to more European startup creation, better European startup performance, or more European startup IPOs, and may have actually harmed European startups and founders. Moreover, analysis of startup and venture capital data reveals that European startups were performing well until the DMA was enacted, and Europe did not have a startup "Kill Zone" problem to solve.

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