In 2020, we created the first edition of our research report, The 15 Future Unicorns Launched in 2020.
A year later, we wanted to take a look at the companies we've featured and discover what they've achieved. In only one year, 6 companies have already achieved unicorn status, and another one is on track to passing that valuation.
We're back with the latest edition of our report, The 10 Future Unicorns launched in 2021, in partnership with Maddyness. Throughout this paper, we've gathered brand new insights from a range of businesses on how they plan to experience explosive growth cycles!
Future Unicorns from 2020 - where are they now?
During 2020, we've witnessed many early-stage startups go to market and grow rapidly, whether it's related to capital raised, the number of employees hired or revenue generated. Many of these companies have become household names and have reached unicorn status within a short time.
And for some companies, the COVID-19 crisis has certainly enabled incredible growth as it unlocked many new opportunities. Yet, these companies are still growing and going strong!
A year after the publication of the first edition of this report titled The 15 Future Unicorns Launched in 2020, here are some of the companies listed that passed the $1B valuation mark:
Founded in 2019, Hopin has established itself as a key figure in assisting companies in hosting their events online with its all-in-one platform. Timing is crucial to reach hypergrowth. However, Hopin has become the market leader in the event organisation space despite many competitors. More than product, their sales and marketing strategies give them an edge over the competition, such as a low-priced plan beneficial with lead generation.
Volta Trucks was founded in 2019 is a vehicle company offering electric commercial vehicles designed for inner-city parcels distribution. The company's solution highlights how political and social-economic contexts can be the most significant growth catalyst with upcoming regulations. They've taken the best from the leasing model and have added a heavy level of B2B service, ensuring client satisfaction and limiting churn.
Speedy grocery delivery solutions have boomed over the last few years. One particular company which has taken the lead is Gorillas providing on-demand groceries deliveries at retail price in 10 minutes. Founded in 2020, nine months after its launch, the company had already hit the $1 billion evaluation mark.
- Wiz:
Founded in 2020, the Israel-based cybersecurity startup provides cloud visibility solutions for enterprise security across clouds, containers and workloads. Its innovation in this untapped industry provides exceptional revenue and growth opportunities valuing the company at $1.7billion.
Trends from 2021
When creating the second edition of this report, we've first analysed more than 100 startups founded in 2021 or late 2020. There are some key differences within the European startup landscape:
- Rise of blockchain:
More and more companies are leveraging blockchain technology. As the crypto economy will continue to grow in 2022, we will see more startups reward their clients in the form of tokens thanks to this technology.
Consumers will push and use companies' products more if they can invest in their success through tokens.
- New products to overcome tough hiring:
Many companies sometimes struggle with recruitment due to the lack of capital and/or attractiveness. This issue isn't necessarily new but creating products that non-specialists can manage enables them to continue growing without hiring dedicated specialists that are not necessarily available on the market.
- Understanding the state of current industries:
Sometimes creating entirely new products isn't necessarily needed within specific industries. So understanding what's missing and essential within the day to day is also laying some strong foundations down for a successful product—for example, the demand from B2B buyers to use fewer platforms to make purchasing decisions.
Conclusion
Strategies are continuously evolving and changing year on year. In 2021, the startups we have found are very different from the previous year. Many companies we've featured have decided to operate in stealth mode for a long time before launching publicly. Companies are way less capital intensive and are instead focused on serving a particular audience's needs.
We've combined many more learnings within our latest report, The 10 Future Unicorns Launched in 2021.
