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2024.05.24
Titans of Tech – Unrivalled era of A.I. led innovation for European Tech
24 May 2024 - GP Bullhound is proud to announce the release of its Titans of Tech 2024 report. For the tenth year in a row, GP Bullhound has released its annual Titans of Tech report, highlighting and analysing the growth trends in Europe's tech ecosystem. This comprehensive analysis underscores the resilience and growth of Europe’s tech sector, setting the stage for a new era of innovation and investment.
Key takeaways from our report include:
- The funding frenzy is over, but the new normal is very healthy: Funding levels have normalised, averaging €15Bn per quarter over the last year, which is ~50% higher than 2019.
- The value of the ecosystem is growing despite the failures:14 new unicorns were created in the last 12 months. Europe and Israel now have 323 unicorns, up from 311 a year ago and 283 the year before. The ecosystem’s total valuation has grown to $1.2Tr, an ~11x increase in billion-dollar companies and a ~14x increase in aggregate valuation since our first report in 2014.
- Megarounds are fewer but larger and still accessible:Access to capital rounds exceeding $50 million has tightened, but investors remain interested in supporting innovators. The deal count dropped 68% over the last two years due to a focus on profitability and conservative planning. Only 17% of European unicorns raised capital in 2023, as 93% had already raised funds during the 2021-2022 bull market.
- Software innovation continues, shaping the way we live and work: Despite funding challenges, technological developments, especially in artificial intelligence, continue to drive automation and cost savings. European AI companies received over €11Bn in funding in the last year, with 36% of new unicorns being AI/ML businesses.
- Category leaders and geographies: This year, the UK and France lead the startup arena with three unicorns each. The UK’s unicorns are valued at $3.4Bn, with significant contributions from AI leaders Synthesia and Builder.ai. France’s trio reaches a collective valuation of $7Bn, highlighted by innovators like Mistral AI. Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands each added two unicorns, while Sweden and Italy added one unicorn each.
- Europe’s most promising startups:GP Bullhound has analysed more than 100 European startups for scale, velocity, and sentiment, and ranked the top 50 companies with the most potential to become one-billion-dollar companies. The top 10 include Agicap, Brevo, Typeform, Homa, AMBOSS, Akeneo, Form3, Flo Health, Aidoc, and ConnexOne.
Manish Madhvani, Managing Partner at GP Bullhound, said: “After ten years of issuing our Titans of Tech report, we have witnessed the highs and lows of the European tech ecosystem. A year ago, the situation was less encouraging for the fundraising environment, with macro uncertainty and with businesses more focused on layoffs than on growth and innovation. Today, against the backdrop of negative headlines, we have cemented the building blocks for the next wave of innovation. Funding levels have stabilised, and are amazingly 50% higher than pre bull market levels.
With Europe’s maturing base of engineering talent and the world’s fascination in its potential productivity gains, artificial intelligence offers a unique opportunity to create global leaders in record time. There is no shortage of funding for the best entrepreneurs and companies, as evidenced by the record $220m seed round for Paris based H announced this week. What was noticeable about the round was the range of the investor syndicate : from strategics such as Amazon, Samsung and UI Path, household names such as Bernard Arnault, Eric Schmidt and Xavier Niel, and leading VC’s.Looking ahead, we expect the next few years to represent an era of unprecedented innovation in the European ecosystem. Innovation is flowing, vast amounts of capital are available for the strong and the talent pool is expanding. No more excuses Europe!”
Expert interviews
What does it take to build a billion-dollar company? What are the critical success factors for European tech? How to remain resilient in a challenging market and benefit from economic downturns? This year’s report features expert views from leading founders and CEOs, including Synthesia, Quantexa, SEON, Flo Health, Zappi and CoverManager.
Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact: press@gpbullhound.com
Key takeaways from our report include:
- The funding frenzy is over, but the new normal is very healthy: Funding levels have normalised, averaging €15Bn per quarter over the last year, which is ~50% higher than 2019.
- The value of the ecosystem is growing despite the failures:14 new unicorns were created in the last 12 months. Europe and Israel now have 323 unicorns, up from 311 a year ago and 283 the year before. The ecosystem’s total valuation has grown to $1.2Tr, an ~11x increase in billion-dollar companies and a ~14x increase in aggregate valuation since our first report in 2014.
- Megarounds are fewer but larger and still accessible:Access to capital rounds exceeding $50 million has tightened, but investors remain interested in supporting innovators. The deal count dropped 68% over the last two years due to a focus on profitability and conservative planning. Only 17% of European unicorns raised capital in 2023, as 93% had already raised funds during the 2021-2022 bull market.
- Software innovation continues, shaping the way we live and work: Despite funding challenges, technological developments, especially in artificial intelligence, continue to drive automation and cost savings. European AI companies received over €11Bn in funding in the last year, with 36% of new unicorns being AI/ML businesses.
- Category leaders and geographies: This year, the UK and France lead the startup arena with three unicorns each. The UK’s unicorns are valued at $3.4Bn, with significant contributions from AI leaders Synthesia and Builder.ai. France’s trio reaches a collective valuation of $7Bn, highlighted by innovators like Mistral AI. Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands each added two unicorns, while Sweden and Italy added one unicorn each.
- Europe’s most promising startups:GP Bullhound has analysed more than 100 European startups for scale, velocity, and sentiment, and ranked the top 50 companies with the most potential to become one-billion-dollar companies. The top 10 include Agicap, Brevo, Typeform, Homa, AMBOSS, Akeneo, Form3, Flo Health, Aidoc, and ConnexOne.
Manish Madhvani, Managing Partner at GP Bullhound, said: “After ten years of issuing our Titans of Tech report, we have witnessed the highs and lows of the European tech ecosystem. A year ago, the situation was less encouraging for the fundraising environment, with macro uncertainty and with businesses more focused on layoffs than on growth and innovation. Today, against the backdrop of negative headlines, we have cemented the building blocks for the next wave of innovation. Funding levels have stabilised, and are amazingly 50% higher than pre bull market levels.
With Europe’s maturing base of engineering talent and the world’s fascination in its potential productivity gains, artificial intelligence offers a unique opportunity to create global leaders in record time. There is no shortage of funding for the best entrepreneurs and companies, as evidenced by the record $220m seed round for Paris based H announced this week. What was noticeable about the round was the range of the investor syndicate : from strategics such as Amazon, Samsung and UI Path, household names such as Bernard Arnault, Eric Schmidt and Xavier Niel, and leading VC’s.Looking ahead, we expect the next few years to represent an era of unprecedented innovation in the European ecosystem. Innovation is flowing, vast amounts of capital are available for the strong and the talent pool is expanding. No more excuses Europe!”
Expert interviews
What does it take to build a billion-dollar company? What are the critical success factors for European tech? How to remain resilient in a challenging market and benefit from economic downturns? This year’s report features expert views from leading founders and CEOs, including Synthesia, Quantexa, SEON, Flo Health, Zappi and CoverManager.
Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact: press@gpbullhound.com