DIGITALEUROPE unveils the 10 European scale-ups nominated for its 2024 Future Unicorn Award
Today, DIGITALEUROPE unveiled its shortlist of nominees for the DIGITALEUROPE Future Unicorn Award, which showcases Europe’s most promising scale-ups every year.
The 10 nominees – which include innovative companies in AI, green tech, and cybersecurity – hail from all corners of our continent and show the diversity of Europe’s innovation landscape.
The winner will be announced by Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, at DIGITALEUROPE’s flagship annual conference Masters of Digital on 21 February in Brussels.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, said:
“Today, only 9 per cent of the world’s unicorns are from Europe and only 4.5% from the EU. This is far from enough, at a time when Europe seeks to assert its global competitive edge and become a digital powerhouse.
But this year’s impressive shortlist of the most brilliant scale-ups clearly reflects the power of European innovators to deliver solutions and face Europe’s most burning challenges.
We think these companies have got what it takes to become Europe’s next tech giant.”
The scale-ups nominated for the 2024 Future Unicorn Award
- Aerospacelab from Belgium: a New Space scale-up that specializes in designing, manufacturing and operating small satellite systems.
- Commsignia from Hungary: it provides improved safety, equality and efficiency for road users by connecting vehicles with each other
- Circu Li-ion from Luxembourg: it has developed an automated battery upcycling solution, enabling an economical and ecological reuse and recycling of batteries.
- DayTrip from the Czech Republic: it connects travellers with local drivers who not only transport them between major cities and tourist spots, but who also serve as local experts.
- LightOn from France: it has already built more than 12 Large Language Models (LLMs) from scratch, sizing up to 180 billion parameters and ranking among the top open-source LLM Leaderboards.
- Multiverse Computing from Spain: Its innovative approach unleashes unprecedented computational power, enabling it to deliver breakthrough solutions in multiple industries.
- Nvisionist from Greece: It harnesses the transformative power of artificial vision technologies to address global challenges like climate change and energy transition.
- Saga Robotics from Norway: it empowers growers to maximise yield with the autonomous platform Thorvald—a leading provider of UV-C treatment for powdery mildew control in strawberry and grapevine production
- Sofascore from Croatia: a sports data company that offers live score services and turns complex data into instant, easily comprehensible statistics for fans of every sport, everywhere.
- Veo Technologies from Denmark: they have developed an intelligent sports camera that enables sports teams of all levels to record and automatically live-stream matches.
About the Future Unicorn Award
The Future Unicorn Award is a collaboration between the 41 national trade associations affiliated with DIGITALEUROPE. Each of them nominates one small company from their country that has the potential to become Europe’s next tech giant.
2024 edition features a 5-member jury consisting of venture capital, innovation and investment experts:
- Hilary Mine: DIGITALEUROPE’s President and VP Strategy & Technology, Nokia
- Kadi Silde: Chief of Staff, Head of the Transition, DIANA, NATO
- Eric de Montgolfier: Chief Executive Officer, Invest Europe
- Stephane Ouaki: Head of Department, European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)
- Indrek Heinloo: COO of Veriff
The Award is being held for the seventh year in a row and is a testimony of the vital importance of SMEs in Europe and the wider digital ecosystem.
The winner will be announced at Masters of Digital, DIGITALEUROPE’s flagship annual conference, on 21 February in Brussels. The event has already top EU leaders as confirmed speakers, including Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander de Croo or European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
- Watch the video explaining how the winner is chosen
- Check out our manifesto on making Europe a digital powerhouse by 2030.
- Find out more about Masters of Digital, the conference themes, and how to register at mastersofdigital.org
