* 34 unicorns emerged in Europe since 2010, while 128 were born in the USA* European VC is twice as capital efficient as their American equivalents, however we still need to break the $10bn valuation for a European tech company
* Almost 300% growth in VC in Spain, a lot done, more to do
* Spain´s 1st unicorn is on the way, check out our identified rising stars
Our very own VP International, Liz Fleming will graduate next week from the Kauffman Fellows Program - a 2 year leadership program for innovation investors worldwide, making her the first female Irish Fellow and the only Kauffman Fellow based and operating in the Spanish market, (even though there are 2 lovely Silicon Valley based Spaniards in her class, Mar Perez of Venture Health, and Martin Garcia of Sozo Ventures).
A requirement for graduation from Kauffman Fellows is to produce a Thought Leadership Project in a chosen field of interest that can help bring an industry to the next level while contributing to the community involved. Liz´s Thought Leadership Project revolved around the performance of VC in Europe and in particular in Spain and what the industry needs to do to reach the level of maturity of VC in the US. By looking at VC output, successful and scaling tech companies, in this case unicorns, and comparing this with VC invested, Liz has built a snapshot of where Europe and Spain lies in terms of performance and capital efficiency.
Long story short, USA is a clear leader in this space but Europe and Spain are awesome and moving in the right direction. We at South Summit are already convinced of the opportunity that exists for entrepreneurs, and the VCs that back them, in Spain and Southern Europe, and should there be any doubters still out there, we hope that this report helps!
You can check out the full report here.
