London Tech Week: the UK capital leads Europe in fintech unicorn race

A new study has shown that London has the most fintech unicorns of any European city, and has more of the billion dollar startups than San Francisco.

One unicorn has been created every month for the past year in the city, according to figures released by TechNation and Dealroom.

London has 45 unicorn firms to date out of 72 which are based in Britain, making the UK the third most successful region for unicorns in the world behind the USA and China. 18 of these unicorns are fintech companies.

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Meanwhile, San Francisco has 15 fintech unicorns based out of the city – though there are many more in the wider Bay Area.

Examples of successful fintech unicorns based in London include challenger banks Monzo and Revolut.

The news comes at the beginning of London Tech Week, an event that hopes to celebrate and promote innovation in the city of London. As part of the week, the UK Prime Minister will announce more than £1.2bn of fresh investment from 13 tech companies.

Software firm VMware will lead the charge with investment of over £1bn in the next five years.