Research showed that London is home for more tech firms with market values above $1 billion than other European cities for the last 10 years. GP Bullhound, a tech-focused investment bank, also said that more "unicorn" tech businesses are based on the capital of Britain than other cities in the continent.
The bank's research showed that 17 developing companies in London are worth more than $1 billion since 2010. Asos (ASC.L), Just Eat (JE.L), Zoopla, Funding Circle (FCH.L), Monzo, and Deliveroo are among the notable "unicorns" seeded in London. The fintech Revolut is the recent London startup that has surpassed a $1 billion valuation.
London is now labeled as the undisputed capital of tech "unicorns" for the whole United Kingdom and Europe. Since 2010, there were 26 tech businesses with more than $1 billion in valuation have been created in the United Kingdom. It highlighted the dominance of London in terms of billion-dollar worth startup firms. Berlin comes second as the biggest "unicorn" hub in Europe which is the home for 9 $1 billion worth startups for the last 9 years.
Manish Madhani, the co-founder and managing partner of GP Bullhound, London is the beating heart of the European tech scene and it is great to see so many unicorns currently based here, along with several contenders that are likely to hit the status next.
Alliot Cole, the CEO of investment firm Octopus Ventures commented that like some of the more mature technology hubs in the US, London is starting to feel the benefits of a growing pool of serial entrepreneurs with experience of taking businesses to very significant scale.
According to Madhvani, The challenge now is for London unicorns to kick on, and crucially for investors to back them with increased resources so that they can challenge the dominance of Silicon Valley. London's dominance in the tech industry is a great advancement than they have decades ago. Investors are, however, concern about the risks that Britain's exit to the European Union might bring. So far, investments in the city remained high. Fintech brought a large contribution after it has attracted lots of capital. In 2018, the "seed" funding for early-stage startup firm dropped by 15 percent. The drop might threaten to reduce the number of potential billion dollar businesses being created in the city.
London, also, had the third highest total of foreign direct investment of any city globally as reported by the London & Partners.
