Talent 昀氀ywheel accelerating with unicorn alumni The story of Skype is far from unique in Europe today. In fact, the European tech ecosystem has witnessed an industry-wide surge in the number of new companies launched by individuals that have spun out of Europe’s billion-dollar companies. In doing so, they bene昀椀t signi昀椀cantly from the established knowledge and networks they take with them. Remarkably, more than 9,000 companies have been initiated by alumni of European exited unicorns that were founded during the 2000s. To put this into perspective, it is nearly a staggering 50% increase compared to the unicorns founded in the 1990s. It is not di昀케cult to imagine how this network effect will signi昀椀cantly in昀氀uence Europe’s path in the next ten years. Number of new 1st and 2nd generation founders spun out from exited European unicorns, by unicorn founding decade and years since founding 2010s 2000s 10k 1990s 8k t u o n 6k u p s s r e d n u o f 4k f o # 2k 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 Years since $B+ company founding Notes: Sources: Powered by Based on founders attributes and the date they indicated starting their company. | 182