UK tech unicorns gallop past European counterparts

Amid Brexit uncertainty, billion-dollar tech companies are the UK’s knights in shining armour

UK tech unicorns gallop past European counterparts

Britain’s best businesses must shine more than ever to wade through Brexit tides. And given their domination of Europe, tech unicorns are blowing the competition out the water.

Indeed, six billion-dollar companies have been added to the UK’s roster in the last 12 months alone, including Revolut, the digital banking startup and Blue Prism, the robotic software corporation.

The six firms not only represent an impressive value of $12.4bn – greater than every fellow European market – but a total of 26 businesses represents the largest number of unicorns in the continent since the millennium began, according to GP Bullhound, the investment banking company. Additionally, Blighty’s billion-dollar businesses now comprise $64bn of Europe’s $240bn tech ecosystem – that’s a 26.67% share, which is more than continental neighbours.

It’s perhaps unsurprising given nearly two-thirds of Europe’s prospective unicorns hail from the UK, France and Israel and half from the enterprise SaaS, fintech and transportation industries. 

However, Blighty certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on all European tech. For instance, Germany leads the charge in transportation tech and nations from Estonia to Portugal have been recently upping their game to be number one.

Commenting on the findings, Manish Madhvani, managing partner at GP Bullhound, said: “The UK’s tech ecosystem continues to present an attractive proposition to global investors and British tech companies are driving up the ambition level and paving the way for the rest of Europe.

“The US and Asia may still dominate the market for billion-dollar tech businesses but our report indicates a hugely optimistic outlook for the UK’s tech industry over the next decade.”

While ripping off the Brexit bandage is expected to see hardships for Britain, there’s no denying that the tech industry should be given the support necessary to thrive to remain attractive to investors globally. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angus Shaw
Angus Shaw
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