Europe has the potential to build a $50 billion tech business, according to new research.
European technology investment bank GP Bullhound has released its report ‘Titans of Tech: Europe’s Flagship Companies’.
It found that the continent is home to 57 tech ‘unicorns’ worth a billion dollars or more, including three businesses valued at more than $10bn – Supercell, Zalando and Spotify.
And it said performance indicators and shifts in market conditions suggested Europe will soon achieve the critical mass required to deliver its first ‘titan’.
The report attributes the rise and resilience of Europe’s billion-dollar businesses to greater funding, scaled revenues and increased profitability.
“European tech has a thriving cohort of ambitious entrepreneurs, but there is still ground to make up,” said Manish Madhvani, managing partner at GP Bullhound.
“Europe’s leading tech firms have on average raised a fifth of the capital raised by global titans such as Facebook, Tesla and Baidu.
“This report shows that Europe’s pioneering entrepreneurs now have the collective vision, ambition and execution to bridge this gap and build global leaders.”
Ilkka Paananen, CEO & co-founder of mobile gaming firm Supercell, said: “Europe is maturing rapidly as a technology ecosystem and there are numerous examples of founders that have been through the entire cycle of scaling globally successful companies.
“As this ecosystem continues to expand, there is no reason why Europe cannot create other global leaders to rival the likes of Facebook or Uber, Baidu or Didi Chuxing.”
With 36 companies valued at $1bn or more, the UK, Germany and Sweden remain Europe’s leading hubs for scaling digital businesses.
Another ten countries are now also home to billion-dollar businesses, of which six give rise to no fewer than two businesses valued at over $1bn.
GP Bullhound also canvassed the opinion of its close network of Europe’s most influential investors, who voted for the firms they believed could reach a billion-dollar valuation in the next two years.
The five leading firms selected were: Darktrace, The Hut Group, GoEuro, Elastic and Sigfox.