Dealroom, Tech Nation and Digital Economy Council report Q3 2018
1. UK’s leadership in European tech accelerates
and extends beyond London
October 2018
Prepared for Tech Nation and the Government’s Digital
Economy Council by Dealroom.co
2. ▪ Following the IPOs of Farfetch and Funding Circle, the UK currently has 15 unicorns - companies valued
at more than a $1bn, with an estimated combined value of $28bn
▪ In total 60 unicorns have now been created in the UK. The pace has been accelerating in the last three
years
▪ It’s not just London that creates significant, fast-growing businesses. Major UK cities and capitals are
competing successfully with other European capitals
▪ Oxbridge - the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge combined - have together produced nine
unicorns, more than Paris which has produced five
▪ Manchester has created five unicorns of its own, the same number as Amsterdam and Paris
▪ The UK is also creating more potential future unicorns than any other European country and Israel
▪ The UK has 54 potential unicorn companies valued at $250m to $1bn. Germany and France have
created 28 and 27 potential unicorns respectively
Summary
Source: Dealroom. See methodology page for more info. 2
3. The United Kingdom leads with 60 unicorns created (35% out
of 169 in Europe & Israel)
3Source: Dealroom. See methodology page for more info.
Cumulative number of companies by year in which $1 billion valuation mark is crossed
4. Since 2016 more new unicorns were created in the UK than in
Germany, France, Sweden and the Netherlands
4Source: Dealroom. See methodology page for more info.
United
Kingdom
The Hut Group
Oxford Nanopore
Deliveroo
TransferWise
Mimecast
Global Switch
Skyscanner
Metro Bank
OakNorth Bank
Improbable
Blue Prism
Brewdog
Alfa
PurpleBricks
Matchesfashion
Host Europe Group
Revolut
Greensill
Darktrace
SumUp
On The Beach
Callcredit
FNZ
Autolus
Monzo
Trivago
1&1 Internet
Flixbus
N26
BioNTech
About You
Celonis
NuCom Group
Germany
Coolblue
Takeaway.com
Gitlab
Elastic
Netherlands
Evolution Gaming
Bambora
Paradox Interactive
iZettle Sweden
OVH
Exclusive Group
Deezer
France
United Kingdom Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands
Number of new unicorns Number of new unicorns
5. The UK also continues to lead Europe by number of
potential future unicorns
Source: Dealroom.co 5
6. London Berlin
Unicorns
Unicorn stats 36 unicorns worth $132B 8 unicorns worth $32B
Investment per
capita
$610 $490
Top universities
Imperial College London (#8)
London School of Economics and Political Science (#25)
Humboldt University of Berlin (#62)
Accelerators 146 42
6
Unicorns: number of companies founded since 1990 that reached $1 billion valuation.
Investment per capita based on investment in 2017 and city population.
University rank as per Times Higher Education.
7. Cambridge & Oxford Paris
Unicorns
Unicorn stats 9 unicorns worth $57B 5 unicorns worth $10B
Investment per
capita
$ 1,800(Cambridge)
$650 (Oxford)
$700
Top universities
University of Oxford (#1)
University of Cambridge (#2)
Paris Sciences et Lettres (#74)
Grenoble Alpes University (#301)
HEC Paris, ESSEC
Accelerators 22 51
7
Unicorns: number of companies founded since 1990 that reached $1 billion valuation.
Investment per capita based on investment in 2017 and city population.
University rank as per Times Higher Education.
8. Manchester Amsterdam
Unicorns
Unicorn stats 5 unicorns worth $13B 5 unicorns worth $29B
Investment per
capita
$490 $400
Top universities University of Manchester (#54) University of Amsterdam (#59)
Accelerators 10 18
8
Unicorns: number of companies founded since 1990 that reached $1 billion valuation.
Investment per capita based on investment in 2017 and city population.
University rank as per Times Higher Education.
9. 9
London: 36 unicorns
Manchester: 5
Cambridge: 5
Berlin: 8
Paris: 5
Stockholm: 8
Amsterdam: 5
Oxford: 4
Munich: 6
Source: Dealroom.co
Note: Cities with two or more $1B+ companies created since 1990.
Dublin: 2
Hamburg: 2
Uniquely, the UK has six tech hubs in which already two or
more unicorns have been created
Edinburgh: 2Leeds: 2
Madrid: 3
Barcelona: 2
Copenhagen: 4
10. Summary slide
London Oxbridge Berlin Paris Manchester Amsterdam Edinburgh Dublin Leeds
Unicorns created 36 9 8 5 5 5 2 2 2
Population 8.2M 290K 3.5M 2.2M 510K 821K 489K 565K 780K
Investment per
capita
$610 $1,150 $490 $700 $490 $400 $100 $490 $33
Highest ranked
university
8 1 & 2 62 72 54 59 27 117 139
Number of
accelerators
146 22 42 51 10 18 6 14 10
10
Unicorns: number of companies founded since 1990 that reached $1 billion valuation.
Investment per capita based on investment in 2017 and city population.
University rank as per Times Higher Education.
11. Realised unicorns: 45 Unrealised unicorns: 15 Future unicorns: 54
Appendix: overview of UK unicorns
Source: Dealroom.co 11
12. About Dealroom.co
Source: Dealroom.co
1. Verified rounds excluding secondary, ICOs, debt and other non-equity rounds. 12
The most comprehensive European data sourceIntelligence, trusted by world-leading clients
■ Dealroom is a global company information database & research firm
■ Its software, database and bespoke research enable its clients to stay at
the forefront of innovation, discover promising companies and identify
strategic opportunities
■ Among its clients are world-leading strategy consulting firms, investment
banks, multinationals, technology firms, venture capital & buyout firms and
governments
Number of European VC rounds tracked in 2017 (1)
Not disclosed in official report
Selected publishers of Dealroom data
Selected Dealroom clients
Europe’s most comprehensive database of promising
companies and investment
Growth metrics like product usage, funding and valuation
momentum (web, iOS, Android)
Track team size, background, composition and growth
Discover potential unicorns, long before others do
Industry taxonomy and database structure designed for
innovative technology startups & scaleups
Stay at forefront of innovation and investment trends
13. ▪ Investment numbers refer to venture capital investment rounds such as seed, series A, B, C, …. late stage, growth equity rounds. It excludes debt or
other non-equity funding, lending capital, grants and ICOs
▪ Buyouts, M&A, secondary rounds, and IPOs are treated as exits: excluded from funding data, but included in exit data
▪ A unicorn is defined as an independent private company (i.e. not publicly listed) that has reached a $1 billion valuation, on the basis of a funding
round or -retrospectively- on the basis of an acquisition or IPO
▪ There are some notable edge-cases:
- Companies that IPO-ed at or above $1 billion but subsequently dipped below that valuation, are still included (e.g. Alfa, Rovio, eDreams)
- Some companies have at some stage reached a $1 billion but subsequently raised, IPO-ed or were acquired below that value. In this case the
company is not counted as a unicorn (examples: Blippar, Home24, ironSource, Fanduel, Ulmart, Conduit, Wonga, VE Interactive, Powa)
- If a unicorn moved HQ, the company is counted in the country where it reached unicorn status. Occasionally companies received dual HQ status
(1)
▪ This report focuses on companies that have crossed the $1 billion mark in the post-internet age, i.e. after 2000. Most but not all unicorns are
venture backed
▪ Companies in the included in the analysis are tech-driven. Industries include software, ecommerce, online marketplaces, hardware, ICT
infrastructure. The full industry & business model taxonomy can be found online via app.dealroom.co/heatmaps/funding/industries
▪ Increasingly, innovative models are scaling offline or via hybrid online-retail models. Examples are beer brand Brewdog which innovated distribution
and marketing, by leveraging viral marketing and crowdfunding to build a brand and Metro Bank, a retail-first challenger bank
▪ Dealroom’s proprietary database and software aggregate data from multiple sources including processing of public news-flow, data feeds, web
scraping, crowd-sourced contributions (verified by Dealroom) and manual research
▪ Data is verified and curated with an extensive manual process, augmented by data processing
▪ Most underlying data from the report is available online. For more info please visit dealroom.co or contact support@dealroom.co
Source: Dealroom.co.
1. Examples include: King.com (UK/Sweden), Intercom (USA/Ireland), Sitecore (Denmark/USA), Cybereason (Israel/USA).
Methodology & definitions
14. Tech Nation - About us
Tech Nation empowers ambitious tech entrepreneurs to scale faster through digital entrepreneurship skills, a visa scheme for exceptional talent, building networks and
connections, and by championing the UK’s digital sector through data, stories and media campaigns.
Founded in 2011, Tech Nation’s programmes cater for businesses of all growth stages, from initial idea and early stages (The Digital Business Academy, Founders’ Network and
Rising Stars), right through to the mid and late stages (Upscale and Future Fifty). It also recently launched its first ever sector-specific programme, for fintech companies, with
more in the pipeline.
Some of the UK's biggest tech success stories have taken part in Tech Nation's growth programmes, from Just Eat, Deliveroo, Not On The High Street, and Skyscanner, to Farfetch,
Unruly, Zoopla and Darktrace. Check out all alumni companies.
www.technation.io
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