30 European companies with $1bn-plus valuations have been founded since the millennium according to new research.
Clothing retailer ASOS, voice-over-IP service Skype, and games studio King Digital are among the companies in Europe’s $1bn elite.
The research conducted by GP Bullhound shows Europe has a tech scene to compete with the US. Over the same period, 39 companies with $1bn-plus valuations came from America.
Manish Madhvani, Managing Partner GP Bullhound, said:
Europe is much more adept at creating billion-dollar tech companies than most experts expected.
The fact that it is in touching distance of the US demonstrates how both the ambition levels and ecosystem have progressed to allow entrepreneurs to scale global businesses.
UK way ahead
It also found that British companies lead the way in Europe. Eleven of the companies were founded in the UK – more than any other European country.
The success of British companies was put down to both a sizeable domestic market and the fact that technology adoption is very high.
In second place was Russia with five companies in the list. This included the biggest European tech company Yandex, with a valuation of over $9bn.
Interesting points
Of the 30 tech companies, half were founded between 2000 and 2003 – showing it takes time to achieve high valuations.
No company founded since 2010 has yet achieved the lofty heights of a $1bn valuation.
It also showed how difficult it is to achieve such value. Only around 0.27% of European tech companies founded since 2000 have been valued at that level.