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.

Unicorn Map

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).

Soonicorn Map

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.

UK Ireland Infographic

List of UK&Ireland Unicorns

  1. Checkout
  2. Revolut
  3. Global Switch
  4. Hopin
  5. Blockchain
  6. Zepz
  7. Howden Grou Holdings
  8. Monzo
  9. BGL Group
  10. GraphCore
  11. Copper
  12. CMR Surgical
  13. Bought By Many
  14. Rezolve
  15. Benevolent
  16. Improbable
  17. Zilch
  18. Starling Bank
  19. Wayflyer
  20. The Bank of London
  21. Ovo Energy
  22. Go Cardless
  23. Beauty Pie
  24. BrewDog
  25. WorkHuman
  26. Marshmallow
  27. Fenergo
  28. Gousto
  29. Zopa
  30. Infobip
  31. Thought Machine
  32. Motorway
  33. Gett
  34. Truelayer
  35. Tractable
  36. SaltPay
  37. Ppro
  38. Zego
  39. Lendable
  40. Aritishvolt
  41. Touchlight
  42. Sumup
  43. Matillion

List of UK&Ireland Soonicorns

  1. Freetrade
  2. Multiverse
  3. Quantexa
  4. Curve
  5. Beamery
  6. Taptap Send
  7. Paysend
  8. Atom bank
  9. ClearScore
  10. Secret Escapes
  11. 10x Banking Technology Services
  12. Fresha
  13. Tide
  14. Huma
  15. Truphone
  16. Perspectum
  17. Railsbank
  18. LYST
  19. OpenClassrooms
  20. Clear Bank
  21. Privitar
  22. ComplyAdvantage
  23. Primer
  24. Onfido
  25. Dice
  26. Tripledot
  27. Tessian
  28. Infosum
  29. Yu Life
  30. Cytora
  31. Butternut Box
  32. Reaction Engines
  33. Owlstone Medical
  34. Faculty
  35. Plentific
  36. Tines
  37. Hungry Panda
  38. Sonovate
  39. Feature Space
  40. Poly Materia
  41. Synthesia
  42. Elvie
  43. Citymapper
  44. Oribiotech
  45. Yoobic
  46. Ogury
  47. Yapily
  48. Moneyfarm
  49. Oxford PV
  50. Moneybox
  51. Oxbotica
  52. Monese
  53. Phoremost
  54. Form3 
  55. Elliptic
  56. Impala
  57. Cuvva
  58. FaceIt
  59. Transfer Go
  60. Kheiron
  61. Mogrify
  62. Ultromics
  63. Soldo
  64. Dext
  65. Second Nature
  66. Flipdish
  67. PrimaryBid
  68. Fabric Nano
  69. Permutive
  70. Causeway
  71. Uncapped
  72. Cloudpay
  73. Salary Finance
  74. Hastee
  75. Future Finance
  76. Heroes
  77. FintechOS