I realise it's maybe clear from the context of the thread, but it's worth reiterating that this is only true for unicorn-scale. There is plenty of startup capital available for good ideas in both Paris and Munich as well as many other European cities, they are just unlikely to breed unicorns.

I think this is important; I am in a bunch of startup hubs in the eu/uk as technical validator and tech expert and over the last 10 years of doing that, I haven’t heard 1 team that wanted to go for unicorn growth. There is money enough here for a healthy, profit making company; just generally (Revolut as counter example) not for burning a few 100m$ to become a (loss making) unicorn.

And if perchance they do some US company will buy them.

It’s a cultural difference not regulation, at least according to every VC and mentor I’ve ever met who has worked in both the US and Europe.

I know of American VCs who have been just as ambitious investing with U.K. startups as with American ones.