More than 10 European startups became unicorns this year

Funding season is about to restart in Europe after the summer lull, and if all goes well, it will be counting new unicorns in dozens — plural. While mega-rounds are less common than they were in 2021, this hasn’t prevented 12 European startups from raising rounds at valuations of more than $1 billion during the first half of 2025.

As the usual caveat goes, past performance is not indicative of future results, but this bodes well for the rest of the year. Either way, this is also a good indication of the sectors that are hot among investors, from biotech and defense tech to AI, AI, and AI.

Here are the new European unicorns of 2025:

Fast-growing Swedish AI vibe coding startup Lovable became a unicorn in record time. In July, only eight months after its launch, it raised a $200 million Series A led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation. One note: Lovable Labs Inc. is registered in Delaware, but most of the startup’s team members and open roles are based in Stockholm.

Fuse Energy, a British renewable energy company founded in 2022 by two former Revolut executives, raised a funding round that is thought to have valued the company at more than $1 billion, The Times reported in July.

Film-streaming service Mubi raised a $100 million round led by Sequoia Capital in June, valuing the company at $1 billion and making it a unicorn. Founded in 2007 as a curated platform, this indie Netflix rival now also produces and distributes movies.

French startup Zama raised a $57 million Series B that brought its valuation to north of $1 billion. The company develops homomorphic encryption, a technique that uses cryptographic algorithms to keep data secure.

German space startup Isar Aerospace became a unicorn in June after reaching an agreement with Eldridge Industries for a convertible bond of €150 million (approximately $173 million). The launch company spun off from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), which now claims 22 unicorns.

Tekever, a dual-use drone startup out of Portugal, raised a funding round in May that it said confirmed its more than £1 billion valuation, which hadn’t been previously announced.

It’s backed by Ventura Capital, Baillie Gifford, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Iberis Capital, and Crescent Cove, and is set to fund the company’s plans to invest £400 million into a U.K. development plan spanning over five years.

German dual-use startup Quantum Systems became a unicorn in May 2025, according to PitchBook, upon raising a €160M Series C (approximately $172 million) to accelerate its global expansion, scale production, and advance its autonomous drone systems, software, and AI.

The round was led by Balderton Capital, with participation from Hensoldt, Airbus Defense and Space, Bullhound Capital, LP&E AG and existing investors, including HV Capital, Project A, Peter Thiel, DTCP, Omnes Capital, Airbus Ventures, Porsche SE, and Notion.

Parloa, a German startup offering a conversational AI platform for customer service, secured $120 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1 billion in May 2025, less than a year after its $66 million Series B and two years after its $21 million Series A. The Series C was led by Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital, and General Catalyst.

Isomorphic Labs, a London-based AI drug-discovery platform that spun out of Google’s DeepMind in 2021, raised external capital for the first time in March 2025 with a $600 million round led by Thrive Capital, with participation from GV and Alphabet. The valuation wasn’t disclosed, but the round size firmly places the British spinoff within unicorn territory.

Dublin-based Tines, a startup focused on AI-powered workflows, became a unicorn in February 2025 after raising a $125 million Series C from new and existing investors at a valuation of $1.125 billion.

The Irish startup started out in security workflow automation, but has seen adoption across other parts of the tech stack, with applications in infrastructure, engineering, and product. Upon raising its Series C, the company said it was now performing over a billion automated actions on behalf of its customers every week.

Less than one year after its launch, London-based biotech Verdiva Bio raised a massive $410 million Series A in January 2025 as its first announced round of funding. This instantly made a unicorn out of the company, whose pipeline includes an oral-based GLP-1 drug similar to Ozempic and Wegovy.

Neko Health, the preventative health startup co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek, raised a $260 million Series B at a $1.8 billion valuation in January 2025. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst, O.G. Venture Partners, Rosello, Lakestar, and Atomico.

The Swedish company offers full-body scans, with the goal of helping people stay healthy through early detection. According to its CEO and co-founder Hjalmar Nilsonne, the funding will accelerate Neko’s global expansion of locations beyond Stockholm and London to include the U.S., as well as investments in R&D.