German startups dominate a recent list of the 50 next unicorn startups in Europe. Two Munich-based companies are also among the top 50.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Tech Tour platform has compiled a list of the 50 fastest-growing VC-backed technology companies in Europe. The selection committee expects the top 50 startups to soon reach billion-dollar valuations, thus becoming "unicorns."
With 13 companies, the largest number of representatives comes from Germany. Switzerland ranks second with nine companies, followed by France with eight and the United Kingdom with four. The list of potential unicorns also includes two companies from Munich: Egym and Konux.
The list was compiled by 21 European venture capital and growth fund managers. They analyzed 300 privately funded, later-stage startups with a valuation of less than $1 billion and selected the 50 candidates with the strongest growth momentum and the greatest impact on their respective industries. On average, the top 50 have an estimated enterprise value of $456 million. In total, they have already raised over $3.6 billion in equity from 428 investors.
“We combined hard criteria such as publicly available data on valuation, sales growth and financing as an objective basis for the selection with the profound market knowledge of the members of the selection committee,”
says Falk Müller-Veerse, Chairman of the Commission and partner at the investment bank Bryan Garnier & Co.
“The German VC industry is comparatively manageable”
On average, the 13 German companies each raised over $114 million in capital. The average for the top 50 is $72 million. At the same time, German VCs contributed only about 13 percent of the funds. The largest share came from international technology investors. Falk Müller-Veerse says:
“This is undoubtedly also due to the fact that the German VC industry, especially in the growth segment, is comparatively small and bears no relation to the size of our gross domestic product.”
A good two-thirds of the startups on the list have completed an incubator or accelerator program.
“This clearly shows that European founders are quite capable of developing companies from startups to super-scaleups on the top 50 list,”
says Müller-Veerse.
