Younited, a French FinTech startup specializing in instant loans for individuals, has raised €60 million from giants Bpifrance, Eurazeo and Goldman Sachs. Valued at €1.1 billion, Younited became the 27th French unicorn in December 2022, enabling France to exceed its initial goal of creating 25 unicorns by 2025.
In just four years, the number of French unicorns created has grown sixfold, going from five in 2018 to 27 in 2022. In 2022 alone, eight new unicorns were created. Examples include Exotec (France’s first industrial unicorn), which builds robotic assistants; Ecovadis, which aims to improve its customer’s corporate social responsibility performance; and Spendesk, which centralizes corporate spending. This performance far exceeds that of the European continent, which saw 31 new unicorns in 2022, compared with 105 in 2021.
According to the French Treasury Directorate’s December 2022 Attractiveness Bulletin, France saw an 18% increase in investments in its startups. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom and Germany, investments have fallen by 22% and 43%, respectively. As such, Paris has become the European Union’s leading hub for investments in startups. With €9.9 billion invested in 2022, Paris has overtaken Berlin, which obtained only €5.2 billion in 2022 (€10.9 billion in 2021).
2022 was also a record year for French mega-rounds (fundraising above €100 million). In 2021, 23 startups reached this point and by 2022, there were already 27.
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