The Growth50 companies raised an impressive €2.2 Billion in the past 13 months.

Brussels, Paris, 22 February 2023 – Today, Tech Tour announced the 2023 edition of the Tech Tour Growth50, as the prospect List of Europe’s future unicorns, shining the lights on the European tech companies with the biggest potential. (see the Tech Tour Growth 50 List below)

 

This edition engaged over 90 investors on the selection panel which first nominated and then voted to compose the List.  The selection panel was chaired by Falk Muller-Veerse of Bryan, Garnier & Co. and flanked by Elina Berrebi of Revaia (digital lead), Janke Dittmer of Gilde Healthcare (health lead), and Remy de Tonnac of ETF Partners (sustainability lead).  

 

The Growth 50 List and Data [see infogram] reveals positive trends but also structural challenges for the European tech entrepreneurship and investment scene:

 

 

 

• All tech tracks attract sizeable investments deep tech companies equally so - The average funding raised by the Growth50 companies in Health, Sustainability or Digital is not substantially different. It shows that growth investment is now crossing over to all tech tracks, particularly to “deep tech” spaces, such as quantum computing, photonics, new space, AI for health, green energy or climate tech.

 

• Germany, France and the EU innovation leaders score high - Historically, the UK delivered the largest group of the Growth50 companies, but Germany and France now co-lead.  Switzerland and Finland score really high, punching well above their economic weight but mirroring their top rankings on the international innovation scoreboards. The List is centred in NW Europe.

 

• Growth investors are still in short supply in the EU – 48% of the estimated number of Growth 50 investors are outside the EU and 20% outside Europe, mostly in the US (16%) However, EU sovereign investors such as Bpifrance and the European Innovation Council (EIC) increasingly act as cornerstone investors, backing the highest number of companies on the List. The recent announcements of institutional growth funding initiatives will not be enough to match the gap. 

 

• The gender imbalance persists - Despite all societal attention, 9 out of 10 potential unicorns on the List are founded or led by men. The good news is that only 1 out of 10 Growth50 entrepreneurs are serial, indicating balanced chances for the next generation of leadership. It remains a challenge to be addressed by investors and tech teams alike.

 

The Growth50 companies will convene in Paris at the Tech Tour Growth Europe event on March 8th with the selection panel investors. The event is co-hosted with EuroQuity Bpifrance and the European Innovation Council (EIC) ScalingUp project. The Award winners will be announced over dinner.

 

For further information, please check https://www.techtour.com/about/news and  https://www.eicscalingup.eu/news or contact 

• Iva Tchetinova, Tech Tour at itchetinova@techtour.com and M +359 2 419 82 96

• Jennifer Migan, EuroQuity-bpifrance at jennifer.migan@ext.bpifrance.fr and M +33 6 81 84 31 56