{"id":140876,"date":"2025-05-29T07:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T07:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/140876\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T07:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T07:57:08","slug":"why-are-only-7-of-uks-44-unicorns-outside-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/140876\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are only 7 of UK\u2019s 44 unicorns outside London?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest list of 44 UK unicorns reveals that a staggering 37 of them are based in London.<\/p>\n

According to Sifted, the leading media brand focused on the European startup scene, the only seven unicorns based outside the capital are Castore, Matillion, Tractable, Gymshark, OVO Energy, BrewDog and CMR Surgical.<\/p>\n

Of these only three \u2013 Castore, Matillion and Tractable \u2013 are based in the North of England.<\/p>\n

Castore is the Manchester-based sportswear brand founded in Liverpool<\/a> in 2016 by brothers Thomas and Philip Beahon.<\/p>\n

Fellow Manchester business Matillion entered the ranks of UK unicorns in 2021 when a $150m Series E funding round took its valuation to $1.5bn.<\/p>\n

The only other Northern business to make the unicorn list is Sheffield-based Tractable, which became the world\u2019s first computer vision unicorn for financial services.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

UK\u2019s newest eight unicorns revealed<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 2021 Tractable raised $60M in a Series D round led by Insight Partners and Georgian on the back of 600 per cent revenue growth in the past 24 months. It meant the tech startup became a fabled unicorn just six years after being launched.<\/p>\n

Of the other four fashion brand Gymshark, which was founded by Ben Francis, is in Solihull, OVO Energy is based in Bristol, global surgical robotics company\u00a0CMR Surgical is headquartered in Cambridge; and BrewDog is based near Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

In 2024 women\u2019s health app Flo Health revealed it had raised \u00a3156m (\u00a3200m) in a Series C investment<\/a> from General Atlantic which valued the business beyond $1bn. It meant that Flo became the first purely digital consumer women\u2019s health app\u00a0to achieve unicorn status.<\/p>\n

Another noticeable inclusion is the list is Multiverse, an EdTech company founded by Tony Blair\u2019s son Euan and focused on professional apprenticeships. It was valued at $1.7bn in \u00a02022 following a funding round.<\/p>\n

According to Sifted\u2019s latest list, startups must have reached a $1bn valuation following any equity funding round prior to IPO or acquisition, been founded after 2005 and be both founded and headquartered in Europe.<\/p>\n

Companies valued at $1bn at IPO but never at any prior financing stage are not considered unicorns as they are no longer privately held at that valuation.<\/p>\n

A total of 161 European unicorns have made Sifted\u2019s list, including 28 in Germany and another 28 in France.<\/p>\n

\n

Where are the UK\u2019s female unicorn bosses?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The full UK list of 44 unicorns can be found below, including the date they were founded.<\/p>\n\n\tCompanyFoundedLocation
\n<\/tr>\n\nAccelerant<\/td>\n2018<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBeamery<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBlockchain.com<\/td>\n2011<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBrewDog<\/td>\n2007<\/td>\nEllon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCastore<\/td>\n2016<\/td>\nManchester<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCheckout.com<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCMR Surgical<\/td>\n2014<\/td>\nCambridge<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCopper<\/td>\n2018<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFlo Health<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGoCardless<\/td>\n2011<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGymshark<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nSolihull<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nImprobable<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nInfobip<\/td>\n2006<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLendable<\/td>\n2014<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLighthouse<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nManyPets<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMarshmallow<\/td>\n2017<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMatillion<\/td>\n2011<\/td>\nAltrincham<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMonzo Bank<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMotorway<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMultiverse<\/td>\n2016<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOVO Energy<\/td>\n2008<\/td>\nBristol<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOakNorth Credit Intelligence<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nOctopus Energy<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPaddle<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPayhawk<\/td>\n2018<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPPRO<\/td>\n2006<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nQuantexa<\/td>\n2016<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRapyd<\/td>\n2016<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRevolut<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStablility AI<\/td>\n2019<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStarling Bank<\/td>\n2014<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSynthesia<\/td>\n2017<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTeya<\/td>\n2019<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nThought Machine<\/td>\n2014<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTouchlight Genetics<\/td>\n2007<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTractable<\/td>\n2014<\/td>\nSheffield<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTripledot Studios<\/td>\n2017<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWayve<\/td>\n2017<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWorldRemit<\/td>\n2010<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nZego<\/td>\n2016<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nZenobe Energy<\/td>\n2017<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nZilch<\/td>\n2018<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nZopa<\/td>\n2005<\/td>\nLondon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest list of 44 UK unicorns reveals that a staggering 37 of them are based in London.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,25554,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-140876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-businesscloud","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114590059428154189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}