#SPACs

We've been increasingly hearing about SPACs forming in Europe and/or targeting European "unicorns". I've previously posted due-diligence on several SPACs that I think have a good chance of landing a unicorn - $IMPX, $AVAN, $PNTM, and $GFX.

Well, what is a unicorn? A unicorn is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion. There are currently 452 unicorn companies according to CB Insights, an angel investment database.

Roughly 61 of them are in Europe and this number is rapidly expanding. I believe that many will go public, and I suspect that many of them will go the SPAC route, as these deals offer a faster path to the public market as compared to a traditional IPO.

What are some of these companies, what countries are they from, and what do they actually do? Well, I've compiled a list for you. Let's take a look:

The United Kingdom leads Europe with the most European unicorns.

UK:

Global Switch - data centers in Europe and Asia
Greensill - supply chain finance
Transferwise - peer to peer currency exchange
Arrival - EV
Hopin - events platform
Gousto - meal kit delivery
BGK Group - online insurance comparison app

Monzo - challenger bank
Oaknorth - property financing
Gymshark - fitness apparel and accessories
BenevolentAI - AI to speed up drug discovery
Babylon Health - AI-driven telemedicine
Cazoo - online used car marketplace
Karma Kitchen - rental kitchen spaces

Deliveroo - online delivery (machine learning to help optimize delivery times)
Oxford Nanopore Technologies - biotech company (DNA/RNA sequencing technology)
Datatrace - cybersecurity
Graphcore - semiconductors for AI
Synk - cybersecurity

Revolut - fintech company (money management services, international money transfers, currency exchange, and prepaid debit cards)
OVO Energy - sustainable energy
Atom Bank - mobile-only lender
Brewdog - brewery/craft beers

Rapyd - payment platform
Radius Payments Solution - payment services
CMR Surgical - surgical robotics systems

Next, we have Germany:

Auto1 Group - online used car marketplace
Otto Bock Healthcare - prosthetic maker
N26 - online banking
Celonis - data analytics
Flixbus - long-distance bus booking service
NuCom Group - portfolio of consumer and lifestyle brands

CureVac - biopharmaceutical company (mRNA for medical purposes, such as developing vaccines)
Deposit Solutions - open banking platform
GetYourGuide - online travel booking platform
About You - fashion E-commerce
Omio - online travel booking

Switzerland:

Acronis - data protection company
Avaloq - cloud-based fintech
MindMaze - virtual reality
Numbrs - banking app
Dfinity - decentralized cloud
Sportradar - collects and analyzes sports data

France:

BlaBlaCar - carpooling app
Deezer - music streaming service
Doctolib - medical database
OVH - cloud provider
Meero - infrastructure and management for photographers

Netherlands:

BitFury - software and hardware products for cryptocurrency
MessageBird - cloud communications
Mollie - payment services provider

Luxembourg:
OCSiAl - carbon nanomaterial manufacturing

Sweden:
Klarna - online payment services
Northvolt - sustainable battery developer

Spain:
Cabify - ride-hailing

Portugal:
OutSystems - cloud-based mobile app development platform

Estonia:
Bolt - ride-hailing

Lithuania:
Vinted - online clothing E-commerce platform

Croatia:
Infobip - mobile messaging and payments provider

Whew, that's it (for now)!

As you can see, fintech dominates as a sector.

I'm sure we'll see more European companies join the unicorn club by the end of 2021. SPACs offer the fastest route to the public market and I truly believe we'll see some blockbuster SPAC deals.

Please let me know there were any oversights in the list, as the list is always evolving. I'd love to hear what you think of the scope of SPACs in Europe in the near and far term. Hopefully, this will generate some good discussion. What companies do you like the most?

Adieu!