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VivaTech Press Releases

Tomorrow's biggest stories in tech and business begin in Paris at VivaTech. 

2020.03.09
  • FR
  • EN

VivaTech announces "Top 100 Scaleups", the most promising scaleups in Europe

Paris, March 9, 2020 - Viva Technology, Europe’s leading startup and tech event, publishes today “Top 100 Scaleups”, its list of the 100 most promising scaleups in Europe (including Israel), unveiling the high-potential companies that have a legitimate prospect of becoming unicorns in the near future, with a valuation of €1 billion or more.
 
This list was established by VivaTech in partnership with leading investment and advisory firm GP Bullhound, in collaboration with five of the most renowned international investors: Accel, Balderton, IdInvest, Partech and NorthZone.
 
Julie Ranty, Managing Director of VivaTech commented: "This list illustrates the potential of the European continent, which is in full acceleration. The challenge now is to create European digital champions, capable of competing at a global level and upholding our vision of innovation.  The key challenges that await them are access to financing rounds of several tens of millions of euros, access to talent, international development and the management of hypergrowth.”
 
Manish Madhvani, Managing Partner of GP Bullhound, added: “European entrepreneurs and investors should be justifiably proud of their achievements in creating over 100 billion dollar companies since 2000. With funding and experienced talent in strong supply - we must continue to raise ambition levels. It is clear from this list that the next cohort of Flagship tech companies is even stronger than previous ones.”
 
Key insights:

  • Of the 19 countries represented:
    • The top 3 countries are: the UK (31 scaleups), France (22 scaleups), Germany (16 scaleups) in line with the size of the ecosystems in these countries.
    • The Nordic ecosystem (Norway, Sweden, Finland) represented by 10 scaleups, a testament to its leading position in Europe’s tech scene.
  • 18 sectors are represented, including:
    • The "software/cloud" sector, which comes in first place. (22 companies out of 100)
    • The fintech sector is in second place (21 companies out of 100), followed by the advertising / communications sector (10 companies out of 100).
  • Only 13 women founders or board members of scaleups featured in the list, underlining the challenges facing female founders at start-up level.


The list was compiled by considering the following factors:

  • revenues after 3 years,
  • growth potential,
  • capital raised
  • growth of employee base
  • The selection also ensured a balanced geographical distribution, taking into account additional criteria relating to impact, and diversity of management teams.


These insights come ahead of VivaTech, taking place June 11-13 in Paris, which will feature a series of sessions entirely dedicated to the theme Scaling Up:

  • The most promising scaleups will be rewarded on stage at the event, receiving the "Next Unicorn Award".
  • GP Bullhound will publish the 2020 edition of its "Titans of Tech" report on June 11 in partnership with VivaTech.


About GP Bullhound - GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, the firm today has offices in London, San Francisco, Stockholm, Berlin, Manchester, Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid and New York. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com

Press Contact GP Bullhound press@gpbullhound.com

Press contact

Léa Roos, Viva Technology

lroos@vivatechnology.com