This report compares and contrasts the characteristics of unicorns to those of start-up companies in general in Europe, with a particular focus on the influence on the trajectory of these companies of location, industry, and the reputation of venture capitalists investing in them. The analysis is based on a sample of 16,004 start-up companies headquartered in Europe. Our results shows that unicorns mostly emerge in a limited number of countries and metropolitan areas. They primarily operate in high-technology sectors and tend to attract venture capitalists with established and reputable backgrounds. In contrast, the geographical incidence of lower valued startup companies is less concentrated though still predominantly located in major entrepreneurial hubs. These start-ups are often funded by local VC funds and many of them receive government support.
Authors
- Other identifiers
- EUR 40046,OP KJ-01-24-047-EN-N (online)
- Pages
- 39
- Published in
- Belgium
- Rights Holder
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/legal-notice_en#copyright-notice
Table of Contents
- Contents 3
- Abstract 4
- Executive summary 5
- 1 Introduction 7
- 2 Background 8
- 2.1 The role of location for the emergence of start-up companies and unicorns 8
- 2.2 The role of the industrial cluster and the reputation of VC firm 9
- 3 Data and sample 11
- 4 Results 14
- 4.1 Characteristics of unicorns 14
- 4.1.1 Location 15
- 4.1.2 Industry characteristics 16
- 4.1.3 Investors’ Features 17
- 4.2 Comparison of unicorns to other VC-backed startups 18
- 4.2.1 Investments 18
- 4.2.2 Location 19
- 4.2.3 Location by industrial cluster 21
- 4.2.4 Investors’ composition 23
- 5 Conclusions 26
- 6 References 28
- 7 Annex 32
- 7.1 Sector Classification 32
- 7.2 Definition of Variables 33
- 7.3 Database Completeness and Representativeness 33
- List of Tables 36
- List of Figures 37
