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$1B+ Companies
There are now at least 174 European tech companies that have scaled to a valuation of more than $1 billion. Before entering this decade, that number stood at just 13, meaning Europe has seen over 13x increase in the number of companies scaling to this milestone. This is a diverse set of companies, a large proportion of which (43%) scaled to $1 billion+ without raising venture capital.
European founder attitudes to venture capital have undergone a transformation. While Europe has always produced tech companies that can reach billion-dollar milestones, these companies have not historically used venture capital as a means to finance themselves. As Europe’s venture capital base has matured and as awareness of the benefits of partnering with VCs has grown, this trend has reversed itself entirely.
Share of VC-backed & non-VC-backed $1B+ European tech companies (%) per founding year decade
Legend
- # of VC -backed companies
- # of non-VC-backed companies
- Note:
- All Dealroom.co data excludes the following: biotech, secondary transactions, debt, lending capital, grants. Please also note the data excludes Israel.
At the time of publication, there are 99 $1 billion+ VC-backed European tech companies. If Europe's not already surpassed 100, it's only a matter of time before this milestone is surpassed.
The UK is the single largest source of $1 billion+ VC-backed tech companies from Europe with 29, followed by Germany (17) and France (11). There are now VC-backed $1 billion+ European tech companies from 20 unique countries across Europe, including Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic.
In France, the pipeline of potential $1B+ companies has never been so promising, and has even started to deliver with Doctolib. The first exits will follow soon, and with them the 'mafias' of operators with firsthand rocketship experience that we lack. We perceive this as the last significant step before ecosystem maturity.
The total aggregate value of $1 billion+ VC-backed companies from Europe is just short of $270B with companies founded during the 2000s delivering the greatest share of value to date. Companies founded during the 2010s are on track to comfortably exceed that total based on the current trajectory of value accretion.
There are more billion-dollar companies for fintech (20) than for any other industry vertical, though there are a growing number of $1billion+ VC-backed European enterprise software companies.
European SaaS
- 16
- Europe has now produced 16 $1 billion+ VC-backed enterprise software companies.
The total value of VC-backed $1 billion+ European fintech companies now exceeds $50 billion.
I’m very optimistic. We’ve seen so many exciting ideas being developed by firms and embraced by consumers, including here at Monzo. People are appreciating how technology can provide them with a much better level of transparency and control, and I expect that trend to continue. We’re seeing multiple world-class, growth-stage companies coming out of Europe across multiple sectors, really for the first time ever. In digital banking alone, we’ve got three or four companies with multi-billion valuations.
The latest cohort of $1billion+ VC-backed European tech companies founded during the 2010s remains overwhelmingly in private hands.
Because fewer unicorn companies have started in Europe than in America, we have a less fixed mindset as to what a successful business or a successful founder should be. We're more open to quirky business ideas and teams that don't quite fit the 'socially awkward white guy with a hoodie' mould.
Europe's now produced 13 $1B+ VC-backed tech companies that have scaled to more than $5B, including four that have grown beyond the $10B milestone.
Great operating talent came out of the first generation of consumer tech companies in Europe - people who are great marketers, great at product, great at finance. That talent has been key in supporting a new generation of deep tech companies as they commercialise. We now have the ingredients to build big companies.