Revealed: the 2025 Future Unicorn Award finalists

Today, DIGITALEUROPE reveals the European companies that have made it to the final of the 2025 Future Unicorn Award, which showcases Europe’s most promising tech firms every year 

Matteco (Spain), Pactum AI (Estonia), Picus Security (Turkey), and Turbine Simulated Cell Technologies (Hungary) will compete for the future unicorn category, which recognises growth potential to become Europe’s next tech unicorn.  

Swarmer (Ukraine), Quantum Systems (Germany), and Aerospacelab (Belgium) are the finalists for the Dual-Technologies category, which distinguishes the use of cutting-edge technologies for both civilian and military applications. 

The 7 finalists for the 2025 edition come from 7 different European countries and are at the forefront of technologies like energy tech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones, and space tech. They are leading both Europe’s innovation and dual-use technology development.
 

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, said: 

“Today, only 14% of the world’s unicorns are from Europe. This is far from enough, especially at a time when Europe seeks to boost its economic and security resilience in an increasingly tense geopolitical context.    

Europe’s competitiveness lies in its capacity to champion and empower its innovators. Our 2025 Future Unicorn Award finalists are a testament to Europe’s potential to reclaim its leadership on a global scale and win the tech race. And to secure both our competitiveness and security.  

From digital health and cybersecurity solutions to energy tech and defense tech, our finalists stand out with solutions needed to solve the most burning challenges Europe is facing: healthcare shortages, climate change, increasing cyber threats, modern warfare, and many more. 

Europe’s greatest asset is its own innovators. But to keep them here, they need the right business conditions to scale up. Our 3-step gameplan: cut, simplify, incentivise offers concrete ideas on how to get there.”   

About the 2025 Future Unicorn Award finalists 

Future Unicorn Award category

• Matteco from Spain: develops next-gen catalysts and electrodes for green hydrogen production, revolutionizing electrolysis technology (makes green hydrogen production cheaper and cleaner). 

• PACTUM AI from Estonia: Leaders in the Agentic AI revolution in procurement, empowering Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) to transform their operating model into agile growth engines, with procurement and AI Agents working side-by-side.

• Picus Security from Turkey: pioneers in Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS), helping organizations improve cybersecurity through validation and mitigation tools (its tools test and fix their cybersecurity before threats hit). 

• Turbine Simulated Cell Technologies from Hungary: develops software to simulate patient biology. Their platform allows pharmaceutical companies to conduct virtual experiments and predict how patients will respond to therapies before actual clinical testing.

 Dual-use technologies category 

• SWARMER from Ukraine: focuses on making UAVs (drones) work together smarter and more safely with less human risk, using collaborative autonomy. They aim to set new standards for autonomous drone teaming, improving capabilities while maintaining ethical standards. 

• QUANTUM SYSTEMS from Germany: creates advanced drones with long endurance and multi-sensor capabilities, serving both defense and commercial sectors. 

• Aerospacelab from Belgium: designs cost-efficient satellites for tailored missions, offering rapid deployment and reliable space-based intelligence, vital for defense and security needs. 

About the Future Unicorn Award  

The Future Unicorn Award is a collaboration between the 41 national trade associations affiliated with DIGITALEUROPE. Participants must be nominated by these associations and be European tech companies in the scale-up phase, having grown by over 20% per year for at least three years 

The winner will be announced by Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, at DIGITALEUROPE’s flagship annual conference Masters of Digital in Brussels, on 19-20 February. 

• Find out more about the award and how the winner is chosen here  

• Find out more about Masters of Digital, the conference themes, and how to register at mastersofdigital.org