Dusseldorf They have reached their billion dollar valuation in record time and have something in common: The four fastest unicorns in Europe all come from Berlin. The fabulous companies valued at at least one billion dollars are called unicorns in the start-up scene.
As the Handelsblatt exclusively learned, SellerX is now in third place: Philipp Triebel and Malte Horeyseck’s company has just received a unicorn rating in a financing round 14 months after its start.
She buys up numerous small retailer companies that are successful on the Amazon marketplace in order to make them even bigger together. The same business model operates the Razor Group, which reached a valuation of one billion dollars after 15 months. Only fifth place at 22 months went to a company outside Berlin – the British event platform Hopin.
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The boom year 2021 will write records. The annual report of the London-based venture capitalist Atomico confirms this with new figures: According to this, more than 100 billion dollars will be invested in the sector by the end of the year. That is ten times the sum of 2015.
“The pandemic has shown how resilient the European tech ecosystem is”
In more than 150 mega financing rounds, start-ups have raised more than 100 million dollars each up to and including September. 75 venture capital-funded firms were valued at at least $ 1 billion prior to going public.
This means that the current year has produced more new unicorns than there were in Europe as a whole at the beginning of the year. And with more than ten tech IPOs per month, the number of IPOs is now twice as high as the average for the past five years.
“The pandemic has shown how resilient the European tech ecosystem is,” the report quotes the Berlin founder Osnat Michaeli, who with Infarm enables herbs to be grown in supermarkets. European start-ups are able to “realize their ambitious expansion plans, despite the logistical challenges and the ongoing uncertainty”.
There is no full transparency about the development of start-ups because the companies do not have to publish their figures. But with the Atomico analysis based on the Dealroom database, the big trends can be traced, and many of the big deals are well documented. From the largest financing rounds to the fastest unicorn to the largest IPO: the records at a glance.
Start-ups in a rush of money: the biggest financing rounds
One billion dollars and more per financing round – the sums that investors put into European start-ups this year are far beyond the previous framework. The Munich software company Celonis shares only third place with its financing round of one billion dollars together with the Swedish payment service provider Klarna. In 2020 Klarna topped the ranking with a financing round of over $ 650 million.
The Swedish battery cell manufacturer Northvolt collected by far the most money this year: The company received 2.75 billion dollars from, among others, Swedish pension funds and the Volkswagen Group. The company wants to build two new giant factories in Europe by 2030.
The second largest financing round came from the British online used car dealer Cinch, which raised $ 1.28 billion. In general, a strong concentration can be observed: the ten largest financing rounds made up ten percent of the total capital invested in European start-ups, half of these top rounds took place in financial technology companies.
Five new “Decacorns”: After the unicorns come the ten horns
Unicorns were yesterday, today investors are looking for decacorns. What is meant are companies valued at more than ten billion dollars. By 2020, Europe had only produced two of them: The automation provider Uipath from Romania is now listed, while payment service provider Klarna from Sweden is currently Europe’s most valuable start-up with 45.6 billion dollars.
But this year there were five new Decacorn evaluations, including one in Germany: Celonis has developed software that companies can use to analyze their processes and make them more efficient. In June, investors valued the company at $ 11 billion; Fifth place in the ranking of the most valuable start-ups.
Klarna is followed by the smartphone bank Revolut – a competitor of the German N26 – with a valuation of 33 billion dollars and Klarna’s competitor Checkout.com from London with a valuation of 15 billion dollars. The range is completed by the battery cell manufacturer Northvolt from Stockholm and the Talkdesk founded in Lisbon, which offers software and artificial intelligence to improve customer communication.
What happens to the ratings: the largest exits
In 2021, start-ups had more exit options than ever: In addition to the classic IPO and “direct listing”, in which shareholders place company shares directly on the stock exchange, there is now a third route to the public capital market: Spacs.
Investors bring an empty company shell to the stock exchange, which merges with a start-up, giving it quick access to the capital market. Six IPOs and six Spacs were among the 20 largest exits in Europe. Measured in terms of market capitalization, the Berlin online used car dealer Auto1 Group succeeded in going public: the company was valued at 12.9 billion dollars when it launched.
Air taxi developer Lilium landed in 18th place per Spac, with a valuation of 3.3 billion dollars. High valuations were also achieved in the case of company sales and majority takeovers by private equity firms. In Germany, the bidding battle for Zooplus caused a sensation. The result: Hellman & Friedman and EQT Private Equity were jointly awarded the contract, according to Atomico for a company valuation of 3.5 billion dollars (16th place).
Eat better than to be eaten: the biggest M&A deals
US corporations in particular paid a lot of money in 2021 to reposition themselves with innovative tech companies from Europe. The payment card provider Visa stands out, having bought both the open banking platform Tink from Stockholm with a valuation of 1.98 billion dollars and Currencycloud, a London-based specialist for international transfers.
In Germany, SAP took over Signavio for 1.2 billion dollars, which analyzes and visualizes processes as a competitor of the Munich-based Decacorn Celonis. The venture capital-financed scene made the biggest M&A deal among themselves: The US supplier Doordash took over Finnish competitor Wolt in November at a valuation of 8.1 billion dollars.
More: The new power of the founders: Why the start-up scene is changing massively