The UK Has Europe’s Biggest Unicorn Stables

Even with the recent additions to the unicorn club by Germany and France, the UK still has the most billion-dollar start-ups in Europe. 36 companies have passed this magic mark according to data from CB Insights.

As Statista’s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, the rest of Europe doesn’t even come close to double digits.

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Even though still lagging, four of the five unicorns from the Netherlands are fairly recent additions which could be an indicator that the country is on track to close the gap to Germany, France and the UK. When looking at the overall market valuation, it still comes down to only two countries though: six and three of the top 10 highest valuated unicorns are based in the United Kingdom and Germany, respectively, with British direct bank Revolut in the clear number one spot with an estimated worth of $33 billion.

Investing in start-ups and tech companies isn’t exactly new, but it has only become a trend as recently as 2021. As CB Insights data shows, this year alone saw 457 new members gaining entry to the unicorn club, which encompasses 917 corporations overall. To put that number into perspective: In 2020, only 109 start-ups made the one-billion-dollar jump. The majority, or 70 percent, of highly valuated start-ups is situated in the US and China.