Like it or not, startup ecosystems are partly defined by how big their unicorn herds are; in other words, by how many companies have hit the billion-dollar valuation mark.
In Europe, the unicorn count is steadily growing — and has now hit 60.
In 2020 so far, several new unicorns have been ‘born’ — including super-speedily growing events platform Hopin, meal kit company Gousto, communications platform MessageBird, fitness business Gymshark, payments fintech Mollie, messaging platform Infobip, online used car retailer Cazoo, rental kitchens company Karma Kitchen, cybersecurity startup Snyk and electric vehicle maker Arrival.
There are also plenty more fast-growing startups likely to join the list soon, from French healthtech startup Alan to German fintech Solaris Bank.
Others will leave: Europe has also seen several IPOs this year, including The Hut Group (although Covid has slowed things here) — and is likely to see many more in 2021.
To help you keep track of it all, Sifted’s team has compiled a list of Europe’s unicorns using data from European Startups and our own research. Read it here. We’ll update the list whenever a new company hits the billion-dollar valuation.
N.B. To make the list, companies must hit the following criteria: headquartered in Europe; founded in 2000 or later; private (not listed or acquired or spun out of a larger company).
