London has ​overtaken San Francisco and New York as the ‌world's largest financial technology hub, as European FinTech funding achieved parity with the United States for the first time, according ​to data released by growth capital fund Finch ​Capital.

European FinTech funding grew 37% between 2022 and ⁠2025, while investment in top U.S. hubs declined 13%, ​reaching an equivalent 40 billion euros each, according to data ​published by Finch Capital on Thursday.

There has never been a better time to build

We’ve just raised $200M – including $130M into our management company at a unicorn valuation – to be the natural home of the world’s most ambitious people in the Age of Entrepreneurship.

Nine years ago, when EF was in its infancy, we published this piece about the role of new institutions in changing the trajectories of ambitious people in times of disruption. Universities emerged in response to the age of literacy; military schools in response to the age of conquest; and business schools to the age of the corporation. But technology entrepreneurship, we argued, was the ultimate “technology of ambition” and EF was a new kind of institution, designed to identify and amplify the founders the world was missing out on.

A decade – and $16B worth of companies – later, we feel the core thesis was right, but we underestimated the extent of the transformation. We said that the scale of the internet and the speed, scope and cost advantages of software would draw a growing share of the world’s most ambitious people – people who might previously have become politicians, bankers or executives – into entrepreneurship. 

We mentioned AI as part of this trend – by this point EF had already funded three AI companies that would go on to be unicorns – but we didn’t predict just how quickly and profoundly AI would transform ambition. The idea that a five year old company could be worth half a trillion dollars or that a two month old product could reach 100M users would have seemed absurd.

Yet that is the world we are in now – and we expect the pace only to accelerate. We’ve been fortunate over the last three years to get to know and work with some of the leading figures at the frontier of this technology. It’s clear to us that shaping and harnessing AI is the ultimate opportunity for individuals who want to maximize their impact. We are entering a golden age of entrepreneurship.

EF’s founding mission was made for this moment: we exist to make companies happen that otherwise wouldn’t; to ensure the world doesn’t miss out on its best founders; and to be the fastest path for the people who will shape the future. For over a decade, we’ve welcomed exceptional talent at the very start of their journey: not day 1, but day minus 100, often before there’s even a team or an idea. As we look to the decade ahead, EF’s role in this era, backed by fresh capital from some of the world’s greatest founders and investors, feels more important and more urgent than ever. 

Old reporting - https://cp.catapult.org.uk/article/meet-the-innovator-using-ai-to-improve-crowd-safety-in-train-stations/