New research shows that the UK is a European leader when it comes to the business unicorn.
The UK, well-known for its vibrant start-up culture, now has 13 so-called unicorn companies to its name – privately held start-up businesses that are worth $1 billion or more, according to Compare the Market.
More unicorns than Germany and France
The companies are pretty evenly spread across a range of sectors, including fintech, virtual reality, food and drink, software and computers.
This means the UK has more unicorns than Germany (4), France (2), Switzerland (2) Sweden (1) and the Netherlands (1) put together
However, this is behind the US which has 114 unicorns and China which has 70.
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The research pulls together data on all 241 unicorns across the world and found that companies operating in the mobile and real estate sectors reach unicorn status the fastest, at an average of two and three years. Fitness, biotech, social, travel and cybersecurity companies reached a $1 billion valuation within an average of five years. The table below shows all the unicorns currently in the UK.
| Company | Valuation | Date Formed |
Became A Unicorn
|
Area | Industry | |
| Improbable | $1bn | 2012 | 2017 |
London
|
AR/VR | |
| benevolent.ai | $1bn | 2013 | 2015 |
London
|
Healthcare | |
| Funding Circle | $1bn | 2010 | 2015 |
London
|
Fintech | |
| Radius Payments Solutions | $1.07bn | 1990 | 2017 | Crewe | Internet Software & Services | |
| BrewDog | $1.15bn | 2007 | 2017 |
Fraserburgh
|
Brewing | |
| ACORN OakNorth | $1.2bn | 2015 | 2017 | Middlesex | Fintech | |
| Farfetch | $1.5bn | 2008 | 2015 |
London
|
eCommerce/Marketplace | |
| Oxford Nanopore Technologies | $1.55bn | 2005 | 2015 | Oxford | Healthcare | |
| TransferWise | $1.6bn | 2010 | 2015 |
London
|
Fintech | |
| Deliveroo | $2bn | 2012 | 2017 |
London
|
On-demand | |
| BGL Group | $3bn | 1992 | 2017 |
London
|
Fintech | |
| The Hut Group | $3.25bn | 2004 | 2017 | Manchester | eCommerce | |
| Global Switch | $6.02bn | 1998 | 2016 |
London
|
Computer Hardware & Services |
Companies tipped to become a unicorn in the next few years include Medopad, a UK healthcare company, which raised $28 million in Series A funding this year and digital bank Monzo and Perkbox are also expected to reach a $1 billion valuation soon.
Unicorn founders investing
Firstminute Capital, which is backed by 30 unicorn founders from the likes of lastminute.com, Skyscanner, Trulia and Betfair have raised $100 million in a new fund. The fund has backed Cambridge self-driving start-up Wayve and fuel delivery firm Zebra recently.
See also: Tech unicorns UK – complete guide to the billion-dollar club
