The UK’s unicorns have nurtured the most tech founders across Europe, with 45 UK-founded unicorns fuelling 393 startups across the region.

According to data from Accel and Dealroom, the the UK outperformed other countries in Europe in terms of its startup support from unicorns.

Dubbing these high-growth unicorns as founder factories, the fresh report looked at how $1bn valued companies in Europe were affecting the wider ecosystem.

With founders and staff that have already successfully navigated the startup journey, these unicorns are best placed to be the epicentre of wider entrepreneurial talent.

While London is the city with the highest density of unicorns in the UK, with 34, Edinburgh shone as the Scottish lead, with 2 unicorn founder factories, and 26 tech-enabled startup spinouts.

Accel and Dealroom tracked performances and trends across European companies, finding that UK firms came out ahead of top European competitors, such as Sweden, Germany, and France, in terms of startup growth from unicorns.

However, in terms of independent startup performance, Sweden’s Klarna and Spotify generated the most new startups, with 66 and 61 respectively. That said, the UK’s collective efforts pulled ahead.

In the UK, Deliveroo generated the most startups, with 53, followed by Revolut with 46, Wise with 30, and Monzo with 23.

Edinburgh-based Skyscanner was the only UK startup outside of London to have produced more than 20 startups, with 23.

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These startups are often founded by former unicorn staff, and the report found that these startups were often based in the same city as the original unicorn, making these regions into successful tech hubs attracting even more talent.

“Back in 2000, Europe’s tech ecosystem was nascent. However, 25 years on, our data highlights the vibrant tech ecosystem that exists today and how the network effects that Silicon Valley has long benefited from are now at work across Europe and Israel,” Harry Neils, partner at Accel said, as reported by UKTN.  

“Beyond repeat founders, teams with experience across product, engineering, and management have also been on the startup journey before, and are applying their insights and learnings to building the next generation of businesses set up for long-term success.”