European Unicorns

European Unicorns

by Martin Varsavsky

In November of 2013, Aileen Lee compiled a list of US companies that had reached billion dollar valuations in an article in TechCrunch.

Because of their rarity, she called them "unicorns".

European unicorns were even more rare

Among the thousands of new ventures there were only around 45* unicorns born in the US between 2003 and 2013. I was a seed investor in one: Tumblr

I have built several unicorns in Europe and I will share my thoughts of what makes it harder

It is especially odd given that in terms of real GDP, Europe and the US are comparable:

I founded Viatel in 1990 and when I sold my shares in 1998 was worth $1.2bn.

So why does Europe, with a larger economy than USA, produce fewer Unicorns?

US Real GDP: $15.97 trillion in 2013

I founded Jazztel in 1998 it was worth $1.1bn when I sold my shares, and it is now worth around $4bn.

And my current company, Fon, is on its way to becoming a unicorn!

European Union GDP: $15.65 trillion in 2013 add two trillion with all of Europe

I founded Ya.com and it was sold to Deutsche Telekom for around $759Mm (quasi Unicorn :)

So, again, why does Europe have so few Unicorns?

Domenico Zampieri, c. 1602, via Wikipedia

In 2004 I co-founded Eolia with Miguel Salis who ran it, and it was worth over $1.5bn when I sold my shares in 2008

Why less unicorns in Europe?

Europeans prefer US proven models

Desire to build a unicorn is lower in Europe

There is a lack of risk capital in Europe

Europe is less tolerant of Failure

Most European entrepreneurs are content with much smaller exits.

Europe has the talent, the market but not the ambition.

The European startup scene is still young and there are fewer founders with the experience, connections and financial security to go really big in their second or third project. After a failure it is much harder to recover.

VCs in Europe handle public funds and are afraid of taking big risks.

So entrepreneurs tend to take the safe road instead of reaching higher and possibly failing.

Europeans build a lot of clones as they are relatively safe bets.

While saving rates in Europe are higher than USA and so are overall capital pools less of this capital is risk capital.

There are less VCs and less Growth Funds.

Europe does not have the equivalent of the Nasdaq.

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Legal differences

The market is less homogenous

Unlike the US, even though most of Europe shares the Euro, cultures and languages are very different. Sometimes even within each country.

But this is changing...

The law makes things a lot more difficult in Europe. For example, the European IPO market is harder to reach, compensation can get tricky, and personal liability can make starting a company very risky.

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There are many promising independent startups in Europe that have a lot of potential

Here are some examples of potential unicorns

France

Deezer is a web-based music streaming service that raised $130Mm in 2012

Germany

Delivery Hero is an online delivery platform. They recently raised 88Mm, bringing total funding to over $200Mm.

UK

The SwiftKey keyboard was the biggest selling paid app on Google Play in 2013 and 2012. They have raised $21MM to date.

UK

Shazam is a commercial mobile phone-based music identification service, they have raised $72Mm to date.

Germany

Wooga creates social games for Facebook and iOS (e.g. Diamond Dash and Pearl's Peril. They have raised around $32Mm to date.

Spain

Privaia is an online fashion outlet with over 15 million members. They have raised $251Mm to date

Sweden

iZettle is a social payments company launched in 2011, they have raised $46Mm to date.

I predict that 2014/2015 will be a great year for European startups, and that we will see more unicorns join the herd.