Europe’s Fastest Growing Tech Companies

At the end of March 2016, Switzerland held its annual Growth Forum conference, organized by investors’ platform Tech Tour. During the event, information on the 50 fastest growing IT companies in Europe was presented.

Data for the Growth 50 List was collected by Tech Tour jointly with the investment bank Silverpeak and the selection committee of international investors from companies such as Accel Partners, DN Capital, Earlybird and Highland Europe.

The information about 175 European startups was studied. In order to be included in the Growth 50 list, a company was to meet at least three of the following criteria.

• Sales increased by more than 50% in the period from December 31, 2012 to December 31, 2015
• The company’s value is placed in the range between $ 100 million and $ 1 billion
• The company has raised over $ 20 million investment
• The company’s annual revenue exceeds $ 10 million

As a result, Tech Tour got a long list of 151 companies that met these criteria. Then the members of the selection committee completed the list with the companies that did not quite meet the set criteria, but had a high innovative potential, an outstanding management team and an interesting history. Afterwards, each of the members of the selection committee made their own Top 50. This allowed to weed out 64 companies. The representatives of Tech Tour platform contacted these companies and clarified relevant financial indicators to verify compliance with the required criteria. As a result of the applicants’ verification only 40 companies have remained. Eventually, after long discussions, the selection committee added ten more promising companies to their List.

Despite such a complicated and careful selection, representatives of Tech Tour recognize that no single method can be objective enough. Consequently, any ranking of the final sample can be out of the question.

Tech Tour emphasizes that the companies included in the list have in total created about 8 thousand jobs and attracted more than $ 3.5 billion investments. The total value of all fifty companies is estimated at $ 14.2 billion.

In comparison with the last year’s List, the orientation of companies undergone some changes. For example, last year, half of the companies included in the List were B2C retailers. In 2016, these companies account for only 30% of the List. But the number of projects dealing with the development of FinTech – financial technologies – has increased significantly.

Here are some interesting facts about the companies from the Growth 50 List 2016.

• 9 out of 10 companies were founded less than ten years ago. Last year, these companies made 75%.
• The average time it took for the company to attract the first investment is 1 year and 10 months since its foundation. Companies from the 2015 list needed three and a half years to attract investments.
• The time from receipt of the first investment to the most recent round of funding is approximately 4 years and 2 months. In last year’s list, it was about 3 years and 11 months.
• The average number of rounds of funding remained unchanged – four.
• Each company has an average of 7.5 investors. Last year, this figure made 5.
• The total number of investors of all 50 companies is 277, against 223 last year.
• Two-thirds of European companies have at least one investor from the United States. It is interesting to note that last year there were more American investors – 94%.
• 42% of companies have at least one individual investor – the so-called business angel.
• The average size of the first investment i is approximately $ 7.5 million.
• The average size of the most recent investment is $ 38.5 million.
• In total, all listed companies have attracted $ 3.5 billion investments since 1998. The average size of investment in one company is $ 70 million.
• The total value of 50 companies is $ 14.2 billion – $ 284 million for the company.