Why are only 7 of UK’s 44 unicorns outside London?

The latest list of 44 UK unicorns reveals that a staggering 37 of them are based in London.

According to Sifted, the leading media brand focused on the European startup scene, the only seven unicorns based outside the capital are Castore, Matillion, Tractable, Gymshark, OVO Energy, BrewDog and CMR Surgical.

Of these only three – Castore, Matillion and Tractable – are based in the North of England.

Castore is the Manchester-based sportswear brand founded in Liverpool in 2016 by brothers Thomas and Philip Beahon.

Fellow Manchester business Matillion entered the ranks of UK unicorns in 2021 when a $150m Series E funding round took its valuation to $1.5bn.

The only other Northern business to make the unicorn list is Sheffield-based Tractable, which became the world’s first computer vision unicorn for financial services.

UK’s newest eight unicorns revealed

In 2021 Tractable raised $60M in a Series D round led by Insight Partners and Georgian on the back of 600 per cent revenue growth in the past 24 months. It meant the tech startup became a fabled unicorn just six years after being launched.

Of the other four fashion brand Gymshark, which was founded by Ben Francis, is in Solihull, OVO Energy is based in Bristol, global surgical robotics company CMR Surgical is headquartered in Cambridge; and BrewDog is based near Aberdeen.

In 2024 women’s health app Flo Health revealed it had raised £156m (£200m) in a Series C investment from General Atlantic which valued the business beyond $1bn. It meant that Flo became the first purely digital consumer women’s health app to achieve unicorn status.

Another noticeable inclusion is the list is Multiverse, an EdTech company founded by Tony Blair’s son Euan and focused on professional apprenticeships. It was valued at $1.7bn in  2022 following a funding round.

According to Sifted’s latest list, startups must have reached a $1bn valuation following any equity funding round prior to IPO or acquisition, been founded after 2005 and be both founded and headquartered in Europe.

Companies valued at $1bn at IPO but never at any prior financing stage are not considered unicorns as they are no longer privately held at that valuation.

A total of 161 European unicorns have made Sifted’s list, including 28 in Germany and another 28 in France.

Where are the UK’s female unicorn bosses?

The full UK list of 44 unicorns can be found below, including the date they were founded.