08 Dec 2020

21 European scale-ups nominated for DIGITALEUROPE’s Future Unicorn Award 2021

Today, DIGITALEUROPE presented its shortlist of nominees for the DIGITALEUROPE Future Unicorn Award, which every year showcases Europe’s most promising scale-ups.

The 21 nominees – which include innovative young companies working in digital health, renewable energy, cloud computing, fintech and more – hail from all four corners of our continent and show the diversity of European innovation.

The winner will be announced at Masters of Digital, DIGITALEUROPE’s flagship annual conference, held online this year on 3 and 4 February 2021.

“Today, only 12 per cent of the world’s unicorns are from Europe” said Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE. “This is nowhere near enough. At DIGITALEUROPE, we believe that at least a quarter of the world’s fastest-growing, most innovative companies should be European. Together with our national associations, we have gathered an impressive shortlist of the most brilliant start-ups across Europe. These are the companies that have what it takes to grow and become the next European unicorn.”

The Future Unicorn Award is a collaboration between national trade associations affiliated with DIGITALEUROPE. Each national association nominates one small company from their country that has the potential to become Europe’s next digital leader. The Award is now being held for the fourth year in a row and is a testimony of the vital importance of SMEs in Europe and the wider digital ecosystem.

DIGITALEUROPE’s Future Unicorn Award nominees make up a pan-European selection of 21 outstanding digital companies from a variety of sectors – including e-health, fintech and energy – and cover 17 countries.

The winner will be announced at Masters of Digital during a ceremony on 4 February 2021. This year’s edition, for the first time held online, has already top EU leaders as confirmed speakers, including President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

In DIGITALEUROPE’s How to spend it: A digital investment plan for Europe, one of our success target for a stronger digital Europe is the continent being home to 25 per cent of the world’s unicorns. A unicorn is a privately held company less than ten years old that is valued at over $1 billion.

In the digital economy, a company’s value largely comes from the data it gathers and its ability to take advantage of network effects. Because of this, unicorns are a meaningful indicator of which companies can rapidly scale and potentially become market leaders in Europe and globally.

Future Unicorn Award nominees

Art-FI, France

A maker of innovative electromagnetic field measurement solutions that work like a high-precision scanner.
BETTER, Slovenia

Digital solutions for healthcare organisations for data sharing and process management to improve patient care.
CanopyLAB, Denmark

A research-based social e-learning platform for developing competencies through individualised learning experience.
DefinedCrowd, Portugal

Overarching infrastructure solutions for clients’ artificial intelligence models, to make AI smarter.
Exeger, Sweden

A producer of a unique patented light harvesting material that can power electronic devices with energy virtually endlessly.
FintechOS, Romania

A provider of digital technology that helps banks and insurers innovate at speed.
Garrison, UK

Patented ultra-secure isolation technology for secure IT solutions.
Inmatica, Italy

An ICT System Integrator mainly for the public administration, energy and banking sectors.
Interact Medical Technologies, Turkey

AI-guided robotic exoskeletons to enhance the mobility of disabled/elderly people and to reinforce the performance of industrial workers.
IS-Wireless, Poland

A software company that develops and delivers 5G network solutions based on the Open RAN model.
Ocean Sun, Norway

Solution provider and design architect for floating solar power plants.
Oncomfort, Belgium

Oncomfort commercializes Digital Sedation, a digital therapy to reduce pain and anxiety in patients.
Oncompass Medicine, Hungary

An AI-based medical software to choose the right targeted cancer therapy for every patient.
Ondato, Lithuania

A complete compliance management suit for KYC (know your client) procedures.
Orqa, Croatia

Technologies for low latency video transport enabling remote control of autonomous vehicles and drones.
Qarnot Computing, France

Green cloud computing services that reuse heat release by servers to heat buildings.
Radiobotics, Denmark

Algorithms for hospitals to automate the reading of musculoskeletal x-rays.
Servvis, Turkey

A multi-brand platform that connects users to technical support for large electronics appliances.
SwiftComply, Ireland

Digital transformation solutions for water and wastewater authorities.
Valuer.ai, Denmark

A multi-sided platform designed to exchange innovation, like LinkedIn for innovation.
Veriff, Estonia

A visionary AI-driven identity verification platform.