The Holy Trinity of Unicorn Start-up Locations in Europe

“Unicorn” is the term coined by Aileen Lee for describe private, innovative start-up technology companies valued at $1 billion or more in the US. According to CB Insights, there were more than 1,100 unicorns worldwide in June 2022. Where are they located?

According to a study by the Statista portal, the European start-up market has three clear leaders.

Where is the paradise for these mystical creatures?

In Europe, we have three lands with the most start-ups. These are the UK, Germany and France. The rest of the continent is far behind.

What is power distribution?

The leader is the UK, which has 47 such entities, then we have Germany with a score of 30, and in third place on the podium is France with 28. However, it is catching up fast – this year, it recorded eight new specimens.

In the rest of the Old Continent, we do not find too many newly opened companies of this size.

A few unicorns were spotted in the Scandinavian countries. There are 5 in Norway, a whole 8 in Sweden and 4 in Finland. CB Insights data shows that unicorns can also be found in the Netherlands and Switzerland, but it is almost as difficult as to spot the real ones. 

What about the south and east of Europe?

Unfortunately, there are not many mystical unicorns there. It will be a challenge for Southern or Eastern European countries to catch up with the continent’s biggest economies, especially as they are not slowing down.

And what do the numbers say?

If we look at the valuation of start-ups, it is easy to see the significant dominance of the UK and Germany, which occupy as many as nine positions in the top ten of such a list.

Conclusions

From 2021 onwards, you can identify an upward trend in start-up investment inflows. And is seems to be continuing, so why not jump on that train?