Meet Europe’s 2025 Unicorn Founders: Still the Same (Surprising) Profile

Europe’s startup ecosystem keeps maturing — and 2025 proved it again. This year, 16 new unicorns emerged across the continent, led by 27 founders who share some striking similarities.

Here’s what defines Europe’s newest billion-dollar founders

As in the previous years, the main features remains the same: millennials, highly educated, with > 50% of them owning a PHD/Master, with previous experience in top blue chip companies.

- average age: 32 years old;

- 92% of them owning an university degree;

- over half of them hold a PhD or master’s degree;

- 0 female founders;

- 16% of unicorn founders studied at Oxford University, 12% at KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm and an additional 12% studied at the Instituto Superiore Tecnico Lisbon;

- 10 different nationalities, including a Chinese founder (Nothing);

- 22% of the founders are from Germany;

- 4 unicorn founders come from Academia without previous business experience (the founders of Oxford Ionics and Organ Ox);

- Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Docusign and Adobe were the companies that minted the majority of unicorn founders in 2025;

- 4 solo founders (Tide, n8n, Sana and Nothing);

- 1 second time unicorn founder (Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, also founded Neko Health);

- with the exception of Tide, the CEO role in the unicorns is still held by a founder.

The data shows Europe’s unicorn founders are still largely academic, male, and highly educated. Will AI and decentralization change that profile in the next few years?