The fourth-annual Midas List Europe, produced by Forbes in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, has arrived, and we’re excited to share the top companies that drove the portfolios of this year’s top European venture capitalists.
The fourth-annual Midas List Europe, produced by Forbes in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, has arrived, and we’re excited to share the top companies that drove the portfolios of this year’s top European venture capitalists. The outlook for the European venture market may have been cloudy at the beginning of the global pandemic as recessionary cutbacks loomed and the IPO window narrowed, but European startups and investors have since bounced back. A wide variety of tech-based startups have been able to ride the tailwinds of the crisis, with new areas of everyday life benefitting from the transition to a technology-driven environment. Evidentially, investors remain clear-eyed and eager to invest in growth and innovation on either side of the pond with European VC deal value – and potentially fundraising – on pace to set new annual records. Here are the top ten companies that acted as key drivers behind this year’s Midas List Europe: Spotify It’s been a boom year for Stockholm-based Spotify, which is making its third consecutive appearance as the #1 driver on the Midas List Europe and fourth appearance overall. Since announcing plans in late 2019 to double down on podcasting, Spotify has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in content and technology to attract engaged listeners, including a $100 million deal for exclusive streaming rights to Joe Rogan’s programming, new shows from DC Comics, and the acquisition of sports content studio The Ringer. Over the past year, Spotify has also launched new ad tech tools for podcasts and purchased the publishing platform Megaphone to capitalize on advertiser interest in reaching Spotify’s large and growing global audience. What’s more, as of July, Spotify now has long-term agreements in place with all three of the major record companies – Sony, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music – and concrete plans to begin offering new marketing tools to artists and labels. Spotify’s strategy has resonated with investors and propelled the stock up more than 100% year-to-date, with a clear inflection point in March as people turned to music, podcasts, and other forms of digital media for entertainment while stay-at-home orders persisted. Early concerns that listening time would drop without users’ workday commutes have since evaporated – streaming on the platform is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels and Spotify continues to report strong growth in both ad-supported and premium listeners. As the company’s success continues, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has committed to reinvesting €1 billion of wealth back into the European startup ecosystem. Where It Counted The Most On The Midas List Europe 2020*: · Sonali De Rycker, Accel (#2) · Fredrik Cassel, Creandum (#4) · Klaus Hommels, Lakestar (#6) · Pär-Jörgen Pärson, Northzone (#7) Stripe Online payment processing company Stripe continues to be a key holding for European investors, notching its third appearance on the driver list on the heels of recent reporting that it is in talks to raise private funding at a valuation of $70 – $100 billion. The potential financing follows Stripe’s $600 million Series G extension round in April, which propelled the company to a $36 billion valuation. Since then, Stripe is believed to have experienced the same surge in e-commerce and online payment volumes during the pandemic that has fueled tremendous appreciation in the stock prices of rivals PayPal (up 100% since March) and Square (up 120% over the same time frame). Stripe’s marquee customers include notable pandemic beneficiaries such as Zoom, Shopify, Slack, Salesforce, and Amazon. Stripe’s co-founders John and Patrick Collison, who are Irish citizens, have repeatedly waived off rumors of an upcoming IPO, but that hasn’t staunched the speculation. The company’s string of C-suite hires in August, which brought executives from General Motors and Amazon Web Services on board to serve as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, respectively, revived reports that a public listing could be on the near horizon. Meanwhile, the company says it continues to focus on product innovation and geographic expansion, including in Africa where it recently acquired Lagos-based payments company Paystack. Where It Counted The Most On The Midas List Europe 2020*: · Tom Stafford, DST Global (#5) · Avi Eyal, Entrée Capital (#10) · Hiro Tamura, Atomico (#15) Peloton has been one of the most obvious winners of life in isolation as gym closures and stay-at-home restrictions prompted millions to invest in at-home exercise equipment and classes, resulting in demand for the company’s stationary bikes and treadmills that has at times stretched supply chains beyond capacity. Peloton’s stock has risen meteorically since its public listing on the Nasdaq in September 2019, up nearly 350% at the time of writing.
