This piece runs alongside our newly launched ranking of B2B SaaS “rising 100” soonicorn startups. Check it out in full.
French business planning software startup Pigment sits atop our new list of 100 VC-backed, SaaS “soonicorns”, published today by Sifted.
Pigment was followed by German “no-code” robotics tool Wandelbots and Paris-based online gaming lab Homa Games. Earlier this month, Pigment raised an $88m Series C round led by ICONIQ, a US-based investment firm.
The analysis, which set out to predict which SaaS companies would someday join the ranks of the $1bn-plus valuation startups, or unicorns, was based on several key metrics, including companies’ financials, cap table strength, product differentiation, momentum and market opportunity. The report was sponsored by VC Sapphire Ventures, with research undertaken independently by Sifted.
Spanning 19 countries and 34 cities, this cohort of Europe's soonicorns is backed by more than 860 investors, angels and accelerators.
As expected, the UK, Israel, Germany and France are home to most (almost 65%) selected startups. Their respective capitals are the hottest hubs, although Dublin, Madrid and Munich also boasted a few appearances.
The list reflects the times. Not only is the number one spot taken by a company that provides tools for the chief financial officer, a job that has rarely been more important for a startup’s survival as capital remains scarce, but the ranking also includes a flock of startups that have taken advantage of the investor frenzy around generative AI. Large cheques for companies such as V7 and Aleph Alpha contributed to the sector’s funding prominence.
Knocking on the unicorn paddock: top 10
1/ Pigment — Business planning platform for finance teams
2/ Wandelbots — An app to teach industrial robots new processes
3/ Homa Games — Digital “gaming lab” that helps developers build low-cost mobile games
4/ Tines — “No-code” software that automates company security tasks
5/ Fonoa — Tool to help companies manage their taxes
6/ Weaviate — AI-powered tool to help companies make sense of unstructured data
7/ Run:AI — Tool to help computing processors run machine learning models more efficiently
8/ Yulife — Life insurance provider-cum-wellbeing platform
9/ V7 — London-based company that turns images into training data for AI
10/ Pitch — Makers of collaborative presentation software
Read the full report on the next 100 European B2B SaaS unicorns
Or if you just want a view of the top 100, go here.
