Contents
04 THE VIEW FROM
GP BULLHOUND
06 CHAPTER 1
Momentum
20 EXPERT VIEW
Peter McKay, Snyk
26 CHAPTER 2
Sector insights
30 EXPERT VIEW
Serguei Beloussov, Acronis
34 EXPERT VIEW
Oscar Pierre, Glovo
36 CHAPTER 3
Europe’s next generation
42 EXPERT VIEW
Julie Ranty, VivaTech
44 CHAPTER 4
Late-stage funding
48 EXPERT VIEW
Des Traynor, Intercom
52 EXPERT VIEW
Dr Ali Parsa, Babylon
54 CHAPTER 5
On the path to Europe’s first Tech Titan
60 METHODOLOGY
64 DISCLAIMER
CONTENTS
3
THE VIEW FROM GP BULLHOUND
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The View
We believe 2019 and 2020 year-to-date has been a pivotal
period for tech as a whole, in particular for the European
ecosystem, and that the landscape is sufficiently robust for this
growth to continue.
At GP Bullhound we are big believers in technology’s importance
to mankind. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly magnified
this during the enforced lockdowns. Without Zoom, Google
Classrooms, Amazon, Netflix, Fortnite (adopting the role of
parenting millions of children), Ocado, etc., many would have
experienced greater isolation and challenges.
This pandemic has also compressed innovation cycles. We
believe the rates of tech adoption have been accelerated by
five years in a matter of months and will leave the landscape
ripe for more record innovation. This is a very exciting time for
entrepreneurs founding new businesses, and scaling existing
ones even faster.
For M&A, while many other sectors are struggling, tech
companies are on a buying streak. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple,
Facebook and Microsoft held $560bn in cash at the end of
Q1 2020, and announced 19 deals this year, representing the
fastest pace of acquisitions to date since 2015 (1). In our view,
tech is the sector most likely to avoid a deep recession.
In Europe, the proliferation of success stories across newer
geographies continues and the list of countries creating their
first unicorn continues to expand. The Baltics delivered year-on-
year, with Lithuania n