Top Companies Driving The 2023 Midas List Europe

Today, Forbes launched the seventh-annual Midas List Europe, highlighting the best venture capital investors in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The company investments that helped investors make the list this year are largely consistent with last year. But unlike previous years, none of the 10 companies with the largest impact on the list went public in 2023, underscoring ongoing challenges in the market, according to an analysis by Midas data partner, TrueBridge Capital.

For the seven of the following ten companies that also appeared on last year’s list of company drivers, their enduring success has continued to help VCs earn a spot on the Midas List Europe, even as exit opportunities have been sparse. Resilient venture-backed companies like the ones detailed below have continued to grow, in part by embracing the AI wave, announcing new product features and enhancements that promise greater efficiency.

Here are the top ten companies that helped investors secure a spot on the 2023 Midas List Europe:

#1: Coupang

Earning the top spot on the drivers list, e-commerce giant Coupang had one of the biggest IPOs of 2021. Despite having minimal operations in the U.S., Coupang, the largest online marketplace in South Korea, relocated its headquarters from Seoul to Seattle to take advantage of the availability of rich local tech and e-commerce talent.

Viewed as a logistics leader, this year Coupang unveiled an AI-powered automated logistics system and rolled out an army of robots across fulfillment centers. The company offers same-day delivery, and its overall average delivery time is less than 12 hours, an extremely impressive feat that even Amazon
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has not managed to achieve.

Despite a limited footprint – Coupang only does business in South Korea and Taiwan – the company last reported a net revenue of $5.8 billion and increased its year-over-year gross profit by 32%.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Avi Eyal | Entrée Capital | #1

#2: DoorDash

As demand for delivery persists beyond the initial Covid boom, DoorDash continues to dominate the space, seeing a 24% year-over-year increase in orders as of this month. This comes as DoorDash continues to push for global expansion—the company has operations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and 27 European markets following the completion of its acquisition of Finland-based food delivery company Wolt for $8 million last year.

Since inception, DoorDash has facilitated five billion consumer orders, driven over $100 billion in sales for merchants, and helped Dashers earn over $35 billion through the platform. Earlier this summer, the delivery giant launched its largest product update in a decade. Now DoorDash customers can benefit from universal search across its platform and tabs for grocery and retail.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Rahul Mehta | DST Global | #16

#3: Roblox
RBLX

Gaming industry leader Roblox reported over 70 million active users in a recent quarterly earnings report, highlighting the longstanding strength of the gaming market and the company’s leading industry position. This summer, to expand its platform beyond its core audience of kids, Roblox introduced a new age category for customers 17 and older, featuring more mature content and adult themes. The 17- to 24-year old user group has been the fastest-growing category for Roblox, and the company wants to attract new users while allowing its community of creators to build more mature products as they themselves age.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Neil Rimer | Index Ventures | #8

#4: Gojek

Following a merger with Indonesia’s e-commerce platform Tokopedia in 2021, Gojek became a cornerstone of Indonesia’s largest tech firm, GoTo. The company made a rare 2022 public market debut, and as of this year contributes 2% annually to Indonesia’s GDP. Originally a ride-hailing platform founded in 2009, Gojek expanded into other sectors including food delivery and payments, becoming Indonesia’s largest digital ecosystem. GoTo aims for profitability this year by expanding its consumer base through sustainable incentives.

As part of the merger, Gojek Co-founder and CEO Andre Soelistyo took the helm of the combined company, but earlier this year announced his resignation. Shortly thereafter, GoTo announced the sale of its on-demand video platform GoPlay and ticketing platform Loket to Soelistyo.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Rahul Mehta | DST Global | #16

#5: UiPath

Process automation and AI-enabled robotics giant UiPath was a knockout win for early investors including Accel, Index Ventures and Seedcamp, when it made its $29 billion debut in the public markets in 2019. Despite the valuation instability of the past two years, UiPath’s early focus in the field of AI has paid off handsomely. Notably, UiPath helps companies reduce costs and operational errors by automating repetitive work-related tasks such as data entry. As companies globally push to improve efficiency and deliver profitability, UiPath has benefitted from a surge of customers.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Philippe Botteri | Accel | #3

Luciana Lixandru | Sequoia | #10

Carlos Eduardo Espinal | Seedcamp | #18

#6: Stripe

Stripe continued its run as one of the most valuable privately held companies and drivers of the Midas List Europe this year. Earlier this year, the company announced a $6.5 billion capital raise valuing the company at $50 billion, a fall from its peak valuation of $95 billion, but in line with valuations across the industry at large.

Stripe’s cofounders, John and Patrick Collison, who have established dual headquarters for the company in San Francisco and Ireland, have long refused to comment on or commit to an IPO, and have said the most recent round of financing was not necessary to operate the business, but instead was raised to provide liquidity to employees.

The company has recently announced a number of significant partnerships, including with OpenAI to power payments for ChatGPT; Amazon to expand their partnership globally, including in Europe; and Microsoft
MSFT
to allow businesses to accept payments directly in Microsoft Teams using Stripe technology. Additionally, the company announced product updates to its optimized checkout suite, which now offers consumers access to more than 100 payment methods. With this steady string of partnership announcements and product enhancements, Stripe appears to be executing well against its goals. If the IPO market begins to thaw, the tech and financial markets will look to see how the company reacts.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Avi Eyal | Entrée Capital | #1

Tom Stafford | DST Global | #5

#7: Figma

Figma made headlines last year when Adobe
ADBE
announced its intent to acquire the leading web-first collaborative design platform for an astonishing $20 billion. The deal was subject to pushback from both Figma customers, who worried about the firm’s ability to innovate as arm of Adobe, and from Wall Street, which viewed the sticker price as possibly too high.

Adobe and Figma look to be gearing up for a fight: media have speculated that the U.S. Department of Justice may try to block the merger due to antitrust violations, while agencies in the U.K. and EU have launched their own probes.

Nevertheless, Figma has continued to grow since the acquisition was announced, adding 500 to its headcount and launching its latest product, FigJam AI, a suite of generative AI tools for its collaborative whiteboard service designed to save time for designers by providing templates for common design and planning projects.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Danny Rimer | Index Ventures | #2

#8: Confluent

Confluent, which describes itself as the central nervous system for data streaming, went public with an $11.4 billion IPO in 2021. The company was founded in 2014 by Jay Kreps, Jun Rao and Neha Narkhede, the developers of Apache Kafka, a popular open-source data streaming platform.

In 2023, Confluent has extended its flagship data streaming platform with an Apache Flink service, making it easier for customers to analyze their business information. The company also announced plans to enhance its the tool with an AI feature powered by OpenAI, giving customers better analytics tools. In tandem, the company announced the rollout of its new Confluent AI Assistant, a chatbot aimed at making Confluent Cloud easier to use.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Matt Miller | Sequoia | #17

#9: Nubank

Experiencing a remarkable run in 2023, Nubank’s stock has surged 78% year-to-date as of November. Founded by David Vélez in 2013, the Brazilian neobank is the largest fintech bank in Latin America. With 85 million customers, representing nearly half of Brazil’s adults, the company’s offerings include credit cards, digital banking and loan products.

The bank made headlines earlier this year with the launch of its cryptocurrency, Nucoin, even in the midst of a tough market for crypto, which will form the centerpiece of a loyalty program for its customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. According to the company, Nucoins will initially only be available within the Nubank ecosystem, sold only between customers. However, the company plans to expand to include other companies offering digital currencies in their loyalty programs.

Nubank’s recent success and growth amid a challenging broader environment is impressive given the overall performance of the fintech sector this year.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Tom Stafford | DST Global | #5

#10: monday.com

Israeli-based productivity software maker monday.com, founded as dapulse in 2014 by Roy Mann and Eran Zinman, helps teams track projects, assign tasks to individuals and groups and manage workflows. The company went public in June 2021, just before the tech downturn, at a valuation of approximately $7 billion.

Despite a challenging SaaS market, monday.com announced plans earlier this year to increase its workforce by 10% in 2023. As of November, the company’s stock has also risen by 18% year to date, an uncommon feat for many recently public SaaS companies.

The company also continues to make product improvements, launching its new in-house data engine mondayDB this summer. The new technology is supposed to offer improved scalability and speed to customers.

Where It Counted the Most on the Midas List Europe 2023:*

Avi Eyal | Entrée Capital | #1

*Does not include all investors in the company.