Fintech unicorn factories

Success breeds success. Europe and Israel’s unicorns have been acting as training grounds for entrepreneurial talent, who are now founding the region’s next generation of startups. In partnership with Accel, we explored the new wave of fintech unicorn founder factories.

Fintech has been the industry breeding the most unicorns and biggest exits in Europe and Israel. It should be no surprise then that fintech unicorns have produced a wave of new founders.

We looked at 61 fintech unicorns founded in Europe and Israel and found their former employers founded 310 startups, 40% of these which are also fintechs.

N26, Revolut and Klarna have all produced more than 20 startups, where talent who have gained experience at these giants have gone on to found startups themselves. While N26 tops the overall list for startups produced with 24, Klarna has been responsible for more fintech startups. 15 of the 23 startups founded by Klarna alumni have been new fintech startups, compared to just five for N26.

Chart showing the fintech unicorn factories - fintech unicorns that have produced new startup founders from amongst their alumni

Some of these founder factories are themselves already second generation startups. Wise was founded by the a first hire at Skype. Monzo’s founding team have their roots at GoCardless. Europe and Israel’s fintech family tree is growing.

Read the full report on Europe and Israel’s unicorn founder factories, and fintech founder incubators.

Report - Europe and Israel’s startup founder factories