Talent movements feed the ecosystem Europe is an attractive destination for tech talent. Looking at the talent moving across borders to start a new job in European tech, it’s clear that employees tend to follow the money. Countries that have raised the largest amount of funding, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, tend to also attract most foreign talent. This makes sense as rapidly growing companies need this in昀氀ux of employees to keep expanding. Interestingly, there are a few outliers to this trend. Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway stand out as relatively underweight in net new talent entering the country vs. the volumes of funding raised. Language skills and immigration law may be barriers for relocation to these countries. Europe is a net bene昀椀ciary of talent movement, with all top countries as well as rest of Europe each year see- ing more talent enter than depart thanks to attracting employees from overseas. However, digging more into the numbers clustered under ‘Rest of Europe’, it becomes evident that the top funded countries are attracting talent away from smaller European ecosystems. While Ukraine was already seeing a net negative 昀氀ow in talent historically, this was exasperated by the war, with tech talent leaving the country at an unprecedented scale. Other European countries suffering from signi昀椀cant brain drain are Bela- rus and Hungary. While it is tempting to create a negative narrative around talent leaving their home countries, the so called “brain drain” does ultimately bene昀椀t the European ecosystem. Talent mobility is important to allow for cross-fertilisation as new talent brings with it a new perspective and a wealth of experience. | 172