Soon after a ranking of the best 125 European startup hubs done by the Financial Times and Statista hit email inboxes, Luxembourg’s Chamber of Commerce fired off a press release enthusing over the inclusion, on the list, of Luxinnovation and the Luxembourg City Incubator.

The press release quotes representatives of both organisations: “We are delighted and honoured to be recognised by the Financial Times and Statista as one of the leading European Startup Hubs for 2024,” says Bastien Berg, Luxembourg City Incubator CEO.

“This recognition underscores our ongoing commitment to providing a supportive and innovative environment for the flourishing development of startups,” adds Sven Baltes, Luxinnovation’s startup relations manager.

In summarising the methodology of compiling the list, the Chamber of Commerce explains that three criteria were used: “assessment by alumni,” “recommendations from external experts,” and “[an examination of] the most successful startups that emerged from each hub.” Beyond an additional reference to “a selection process involving public calls for participation,” it doesn’t offer any more detail.

But more detail exists. The Financial Times itself lays out the methodology in much barer terms: startups were invited to register via articles on FT.com and Sifted.eu; ads and newsletters sent out by Sifted; and emails and calls from Statista researchers. Thus, only hubs that reacted to these outreach efforts and actively applied were considered. And to be eligible in the first place, they had to meet three criteria: a physical presence in Europe; at least one incubation or acceleration programme; and operation since 2019 at least.

The Chamber of Commerce press release also doesn’t specify how the local hubs actually ranked: Luxinnovation came in 80th, the Luxembourg City Incubator 101st.

Still, regardless of the details, local proponents of entrepreneurship will be pleased and proud that two Luxembourgish hubs made the international ranking.

Who, by the way, is on top of the list?

UnternehmenTUM took first place. Attached to the Technical University of Munich, it incubates some 50 scalable startups per year and offers 2,700m2 of “MakerSpace,” a campus where startups can produce prototypes.

Next came the Belgian Hexa, which is actually a “startup studio” rather than strictly an incubator. Instead of accepting applications, startup studios generally develop ideas internally and assign them to teams. Hexa raised €20m last year and wants to invest some €800,000 per startup.

And in third place is SETsquared, a collaboration between six universities in England and Wales, which has raised €18bn to date and--according to an independent study commissioned by the organisation itself--is responsible for the creation of some 16,000 jobs.

Personally, we can’t wait for the next ranking to include the incubator at the University of Luxembourg, or the Technoport and its new (last autumn) acceleration programme, or the Lhoft…

This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.