January already feels like a long year, and it has brought five new European unicorns. From Belgium to Ukraine, several tech startups have raised funding at valuations above the symbolic one-billion-dollar threshold.
Before we examine who joined the club, two important notes. First, this count includes startups that may be incorporated elsewhere but have their roots or a large part of their team in Europe. Until a pan-European corporate structure exists, this split remains common. For example, Lovable is incorporated in Delaware but is inseparable from Stockholm’s startup scene.
Second, valuation does not equal commercial success. It is too early to tell whether all these companies will follow a path like Lovable, which recently crossed three hundred million dollars in annual recurring revenue. However, in the current climate, the fact that venture capitalists were willing to invest at unicorn valuations is a strong signal of market appetite.
With these caveats out of the way, let’s dive in.
AIKIDO
Belgium-based cybersecurity startup Aikido Security reached unicorn status with a sixty-million-dollar Series B round, valuing the company at one billion dollars. The round was led by DST Global, with participation from PSG Equity, Singular, Notion Capital, and others. According to a press release, the funding will help Aikido enhance its platform, built to unify security across the entire software lifecycle and already used by more than one hundred thousand teams globally. The Series B follows a year of rapid growth for the company, including five-times revenue growth and nearly three-times customer growth. In a blog post, the startup celebrated this milestone, stating that in an industry dominated by Palo Alto and Tel Aviv heavyweights, Aikido shows Europe can build a world-class software security company and win globally.
CAST AI
Cloud optimization company Cast AI is headquartered in Florida but has Lithuanian roots and an important office in Vilnius, which explains why many consider it Lithuania’s fifth unicorn. The company’s valuation now exceeds one billion dollars following a strategic investment from Pacific Alliance Ventures, the U.S.-based corporate venture arm of Korean conglomerate Shinsegae Group. In April 2025, Cast AI had raised a one-hundred-eight-million-dollar Series C that reportedly put the company in near unicorn territory. Alongside its latest funding, the company introduced OMNI Compute for AI, which aims to help users deploy more AI workloads on fewer GPUs and remove regional capacity constraints.
HARMATTAN AI
French defense tech company Harmattan AI was only founded in 2024 but is already worth one point four billion dollars, according to its latest funding round. The two-hundred-million-dollar Series B was led by Dassault Aviation, maker of the Rafale fighter jets, and ties into a broader partnership. Before securing this partner, Harmattan AI had already signed agreements with the French and British ministries of defense and with Ukrainian drone maker Skyeton, amid growing appetite for autonomous defense aircraft.
OSAPIENS
German ESG software firm Osapiens raised a one-hundred-million-dollar Series C led by Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek, valuing the company at over one point one billion dollars. Founded in Mannheim in 2018, Osapiens now has more than twenty-four hundred customers worldwide, including large multinational companies that rely on its platforms and tools for sustainability reporting, data compliance, and mitigating supply chain risks.
PREPLY
Fourteen-year-old language learning marketplace Preply is now a unicorn valued at one point two billion dollars, a milestone that also embodies Ukrainian resilience. The edtech company was founded in the United States, but its founders are Ukrainian and supporters of their home country, where Preply has a team of one hundred fifty employees. According to its CEO, Kirill Bigai, who believes in AI-amplified learning, proceeds from the one-hundred-fifty-million-dollar Series D round will help the startup hire more AI talent across its four offices in Barcelona, London, New York, and Kyiv.