Klarna has become Europe’s top unicorn for producing founders out of its former employees, with 62 startups founded by alumni from the Swedish buy now, pay later fintech.
In second place is music streaming company Spotify with 61, while online retailer Zalando takes third place with 56 startups founded by ex-employees, according to data released today by VC firm Accel and data platform Dealroom.
Klarna was the top founder factory among fintechs last year. Its current total is close to double the 32 startups identified in 2023’s report, which focused on startups across all sectors, and comes as the company is set to IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.
Alex Naughton, Klarna’s ex-head of UK, previously told Sifted: “Klarna has a fast-paced, iterative and adaptive culture that demands senior leaders be deeply embedded […] this approach taught me how to build and scale businesses with agility.” Naughton is currently CEO of buy now, pay later database startup Qlarifi, which last week raised £1.4m in funding.
London remains the top founder factory hub
None of the top three founder factories were founded London — but the city still comes out on top for the number of founder factories and the number of companies founded by alumni of those companies.
London has generated 326 companies founded by ex-employees of the 33 unicorns also founded in the capital. Berlin is second with 283 startups from 27 founder factories and Paris third with 264 spinouts from 29 unicorns.
Nelis says despite the numbers being close it’s going to take a lot for London to be knocked off its pedestal, citing the density of the city’s startup ecosystem.
“It’s the power of the flywheel,” he says. “Once they get going, it tends to accelerate, making it relatively hard to catch up.”
Europe’s flywheel of talent
Accel and Dealroom identified 1650 startups produced by 215 unicorns in Europe (the full report also includes Israel as well as Europe).
That’s even as the number of startups landing unicorn valuations dwindles. Last year, just 13 startups hit billion-dollar valuations, an improvement over the seven in 2023 but small fry compared to the 69 minted in 2021.
Nelis says Europe doesn’t need a steady stream of new startups raising at $1bn+ valuations though, as it already has enough tech companies large enough to serve as startup incubators.
Skype, for instance, founded in 2003, was the top unicorn for minting other unicorn startups — mobility company Bolt, money transfer app Wise and SaaS company Pipedrive were all founded by former Skype employees.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/klarna-founder-factory/
