The European Startup Alliance (ESNA) has published a new report on the EU Startup Nations (SNS) standards for 2025. The Czech Republic is ranked 19th in this ranking.

After 2024, the Czech Republic was ranked 26th, and by 2025 it was ranked 19th.

“Despite the fact that we have jumped from 35% to 60% in the last two years, primarily thanks to the new ESOP regulation, we still remain in the last quarter of countries (19th out of 22). The chart shows that we are lagging behind in three areas: access to capital, legislation directly aimed at startups and public procurement, and digitalization,” says Martin Jiránek, Commissioner for Startups at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Commissioner also points to the difference in progress between the Czech Republic and neighbouring Poland: while the Czech Republic has moved from 35% to 60% in the last two years, Poland has jumped from 34% to 88%, just behind leaders France and Spain. “Significant systemic changes can be made in two years,” he points out.

“The results of this year’s ESNA report confirm that the Czech Republic can improve conditions relatively quickly where there is a clear political priority – typically in employee share ownership or company formation. The shift from 35% to 60% in two years is significant in the European context. But at the same time, the report is very open about our structural weaknesses. The biggest challenge remains access to capital, where the Czech Republic lags far behind advanced startup ecosystems and where growth is often shifted abroad,” says Markéta Přenosilová, Deputy Minister for Startups and Innovation at CzechInvest.

“If we want to keep up with countries like Poland, which has managed to accelerate much faster in a short period of time, we need to focus on systemic measures – in particular on venture capital development, investor support and creating a truly competitive environment for scaling companies. It is the ability to sustain startups even in their growth phase that will determine whether the Czech Republic moves from the role of a ‘good place to start a startup’ to a true European leader,” adds Přenosilová.

CzechInvest, an ESNA member since 2022, joined the initiative to improve the environment for fast-growing innovative companies. In 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade already signed the Startup Standard Declaration, which is behind the creation of ESNA.

The ESNA report highlights Czech progress in the very first area monitored, which is the rapid establishment of companies and ease of market entry. According to the report, progress has been driven by the full digitisation of the trade register, the removal of redundant steps in company registration and the recognition of selected foreign documents and signatures within the EU’s single digital gateway.

In the chapter on the eighth area monitored, digitalisation (Digital First), the ESNA report mentions the Czech mobile application “eDoklady”, which provides digital official documents and thus reinforces the national Digital First principle.

The Czech Republic was also the country, along with France, that made the most progress in the monitored criterion “number of days to set up an online business”. Both countries reached full implementation, with the Czech Republic improving by 75 percentage points.

Challenges and key areas for improvement:

• CIS 1 Quick company formation and ease of market entry – up from 50% to 77%.
• CIS 2 Attracting and retaining talent– up from 48% to 73%.
• SNS 3 ESOP (Employee Stock Options)– dramatic increase from 4% to 83%.
• SNS 4 Innovation and Regulation – decrease from 47% to 45%
• SNS 5 Public procurement for innovation and technology transfer– increase from 42% to 55%.
• SNS 6 Access to finance– dramatic reduction from 67% to 22%
• SNS 7 Social inclusion, diversity and protection of democratic values – rocketing from 0% to 77%
• SNS 8 Digital First – up from 47% to 48%

Photo source: ESNA