UK tech scene continues to defy pessimists with three new unicorns this year
Three new tech unicorns were born in the UK this year according to Pitchbook.
The unicorn status is given to startups valued at over a billion dollars.
One of them, Castore, achieved this just last month with a valuation of $1.2bn (£1bn).
The burgeoning UK sportswear brand, founded in 2015 by brothers Tom and Phil Beahon, has raised $195m (£155m) to date.
Castore has clinched a range of lucrative kit deals across the sports industry, including with Newcastle United and Aston Villa, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), rugby union sides Saracens and Harlequins, and the McLaren Formula One team.
Famous investors such as the Issa brothers and tennis icon Andy Murray are backing Castore.
Of the 88 startups worldwide that became unicorns this year, 28 are artificial intelligence (AI) companies, according to Pitchbook.
One of these is London-based Quantexa, which also happens to have the highest post-money valuation of the UK’s new unicorns.
The startup which specialises in AI tools to major banks, governments and other financial services organisations hit a $1.8bn (£1.4bn) valuation in April, having raised $129m in its Series E funding round.
Chief executive Vishal Marria said there is a “lot of pressure” to reach unicorn status, which does not go away when you get there.
He told City PM: “As we look to the new year, we’re now in a position in which we’re entering a broadening playing field and it’s exciting.
“We have a growing set of customers across a multitude of industries and regions, and we will continue to accelerate our technology innovation and offerings to serve them.”
The third new unicorn is Taptap Send, a money transfer fintech that allows customers to send money to Africa, Asia and Latin America cheaply. It was valued at $1.2bn in May with $148.8m (£118.6m) raised to date.
The registered UK company, based in Delaware in the US, is the brainchild of Michael Faye, a development economist who previously worked for the United Nations. It aims to target some of the world’s most under-served regions in the financial sector.
Its business model works by leveraging foreign exchange for revenue and charging no commission or fees for transfers. By building its own tech stack it claims it can offer customers lower rates.
The UK continues to be home to the most unicorns in Europe and recent Dealroom data also shows the UK is also harbouring 34 per cent of Europe’s future unicorns, also known as ‘futurecorns’.