Startpage isn't an actual search engine, it's just a wrapper around Google's results. That's not the case with Qwant, Yandex, or Baidu as far as I know.

Also, this: https://reclaimthenet.org/startpage-buyout-ad-tech-company/

Quant only exists in order to receive all that sweet, sweet grant money.

All for-profit companies only exist in order to receive that sweet, sweet money.

So basically the quintessential EU version of Google.

Also Seznam (Czech). They have also asorted related services, like video streaming, an auction site, shopping aggregator, etc.

there was a scandal where it was shown qwant had its search result from bing

not holding my breath

DDG seems like a good contender

DDG, Ecosia and Quant all use the same underlying Bing (Microsoft) data.

Startpage recently sold out to System1, an ad tech company.

I would not recommend it anymore.