There Are 77 Potential Unicorns in the UK&Ireland, Says Report
According to the 2022 European Unicorn Report published by Tech M&A Advisor i5invest and venture builder i5growth, in 2021, Europe’s tech companies’ growth rate surpassed the ones overseas by an astonishing 100%. It means that Europe is producing unicorns faster than the United States, although the number of tech businesses in the United States is four times greater.

The UK alone developed 23 new unicorns out of the 85 new Tech Unicorns created in Europe, bringing the total to 41 unicorns and placing it first in the field. The study also shows that US investors account for 48% of unicorn cap tables in Europe.
Klarna, Checkout.com, Revolut, Northvolt, and Global Switch are Europe’s highest valued unicorns, three of which are based in the UK. The UK and Ireland as a region produced 27 new unicorns in 2021, which raised the total number to 44. The region’s top 5 unicorns are Checkout.com (£29.5B), Revolut (£23.1B), Global Switch (£8B), Hopin (£5.5B) and Howden (£3.5B).

A unicorn in the region, on average, has a valuation of £2.9B, has raised £445.1M in fundraising, has generated 941 jobs, and is ten years and five months old. Whilst, Europe average shows that a unicorn has a valuation of £2.5B, has raised £468.9M, has generated 1027 jobs and is ten years and four months old.
Although data on soon-to-be unicorns are harder to come by, it could provide a better understanding of the future. For example, in the UK and Ireland region, 77 companies hold the possibility of becoming unicorns within the next 24 months. On average, a soonicorn in the region has a valuation of £263.6M, funding of £102.4M, has created 279 jobs, and is nine years old.
Similar to unicorns, amongst soonicorns FinTech industry takes the lead. Other industries are AI & Big Data and Life Science & HealthTech.
According to CEO of i5invest Herwig Springer, “[i]n total, uni- and soonicorns in the UK and Ireland have created an incredible 63,000 jobs to date. Given the very promising soon-to-be unicorns in the pipeline, we will see a stronger than ever the economic impact of tech startups in the region in the next 24 months.”
You can access the full report here.

List of UK&Ireland Unicorns
- Checkout
- Revolut
- Global Switch
- Hopin
- Blockchain
- Zepz
- Howden Grou Holdings
- Monzo
- BGL Group
- GraphCore
- Copper
- CMR Surgical
- Bought By Many
- Rezolve
- Benevolent
- Improbable
- Zilch
- Starling Bank
- Wayflyer
- The Bank of London
- Ovo Energy
- Go Cardless
- Beauty Pie
- BrewDog
- WorkHuman
- Marshmallow
- Fenergo
- Gousto
- Zopa
- Infobip
- Thought Machine
- Motorway
- Gett
- Truelayer
- Tractable
- SaltPay
- Ppro
- Zego
- Lendable
- Aritishvolt
- Touchlight
- Sumup
- Matillion
List of UK&Ireland Soonicorns
- Freetrade
- Multiverse
- Quantexa
- Curve
- Beamery
- Taptap Send
- Paysend
- Atom bank
- ClearScore
- Secret Escapes
- 10x Banking Technology Services
- Fresha
- Tide
- Huma
- Truphone
- Perspectum
- Railsbank
- LYST
- OpenClassrooms
- Clear Bank
- Privitar
- ComplyAdvantage
- Primer
- Onfido
- Dice
- Tripledot
- Tessian
- Infosum
- Yu Life
- Cytora
- Butternut Box
- Reaction Engines
- Owlstone Medical
- Faculty
- Plentific
- Tines
- Hungry Panda
- Sonovate
- Feature Space
- Poly Materia
- Synthesia
- Elvie
- Citymapper
- Oribiotech
- Yoobic
- Ogury
- Yapily
- Moneyfarm
- Oxford PV
- Moneybox
- Oxbotica
- Monese
- Phoremost
- Form3
- Elliptic
- Impala
- Cuvva
- FaceIt
- Transfer Go
- Kheiron
- Mogrify
- Ultromics
- Soldo
- Dext
- Second Nature
- Flipdish
- PrimaryBid
- Fabric Nano
- Permutive
- Causeway
- Uncapped
- Cloudpay
- Salary Finance
- Hastee
- Future Finance
- Heroes
- FintechOS