The UK now has a record 80 ‘unicorn’ businesses, the third highest number globally.
The businesses, worth at least $1 billion, are valued at a combined £242.4 billion.
The UK has overtaken India to move into third place for the number of unicorns, behind the US in first place with 806 and China in second with 381.
There have been 23 unicorns created in the UK over the past year, which the Hurun Research Institute report said “cements its position as Europe’s undisputed startup capital”. The UK has more unicorns than Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden combined.
Analysis of the 136 founders behind the UK unicorns found that over half were set up by individuals born outside the UK.
Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher at Hurun Research Institute, said:
“The UK’s ability to attract international talent is a superpower. More than half of our most valuable unicorns were founded by people born outside the UK. From a Somali refugee who fled civil war to a Russian-Ukrainian founding partnership that built Revolut, these founders chose Britain, and Britain has been rewarded with billions in value creation.
“But the end of the non-dom regime and rising taxes are pushing international founders to ask a hard question: why stay? Dubai has zero income tax. Singapore has territorial taxation. These are not British patriots by birth. They are British by choice. We must make that choice easy to renew.”
Other analysis showed that only 8 of the 136 founders are women which the report said showed that “the UK is failing to capture the full potential of its female entrepreneurial talent.”
The youngest UK unicorn founders are 29-year-olds Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski from ElevenLabs. The average founder was 35 when they started their company.
90% of the entrepreneurs went to university, with 27% attending Oxford or Cambridge. The businesses employ over 82,000 people.
Fintech accounts for 33% of UK unicorns and 53% of the total value.
They include Revolut, worth £57.8bn and the UK’s most valuable unicorn overall, Checkout.com (£9.2bn), SumUp (£7.7bn), XTX Markets (£7.7bn), Monzo (£4.5bn), OakNorth (£3.9bn), and Starling Bank (£3.9bn).
There are 12 pure AI unicorns worth £40.6 billion, including Nscale (£11.6bn), ElevenLabs (£8.5bn), Wayve (£6.6bn), Ineffable Intelligence (£3.9bn), and Synthesia (£3.1bn).
New energy is worth £10.3 billion across four unicorns, including Kraken Technologies (£6.7bn), Octopus Energy (£4.6bn), Fuse Energy (£3.9bn), and Nyobolt (£0.8bn).
There nine life sciences unicorns worth £10.4 billion, including CMR Surgical (£2.3bn), Isomorphic Labs (£2.3bn), and Verdiva Bio (£1.9bn).
Globally, the report said there are 1,603 unicorns in 52 countries.