Trillion dollar companies in 2030: Forecast
Who wants to be a trillionaire?These tech companies have excelled both at crafting technology and at execution. The profits generated by their core business have been relentlessly reinvested into new products and services, as well as rapid expansion into new territories. Their leading ability to execute, consistent 60% gross margins and willingness to make big, but calculated bets of an audacity that established European tech companies would run away from, have delivered each a trillion dollar valuation in under a decade.
Both trillion-dollar companies, one headquartered in the UK and the other in the EU, have been lauded and supported by their respective governments. Spendtastic, the UK trillionaire, grew rapidly by offering new types of credit service to consumers in direct competition with traditional credit card companies. Risk assessments were based on a wide range of data points in addition to traditional measures such as employment and banking history. Daily step count, likelihood to exceed speed limits while driving and takeaway purchase behaviours were proven to be invaluable inputs which Spendtastic had the sole rights to. The company was particularly adept at identifying consumers with a propensity to repay late, along with a penalty payment.
In the latter half of the decade, Spendtastic became has world-leading at identifying and filtering out attempted inbound fraud. In 2030 it signed its one billionth subscriber to its machine-learning based anti-scam service, and claimed to have saved its customers a cumulative $100 trillion.
The other company, SuperSecurus is headquartered in continental Europe. It started off as a not-for-profit portal focused on balancing supply and demand of vaccines between every region in every EU state. This portal was subsequently awarded the contract to create a vaccine passport database and app used across the EU, which then expanded to most of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. It licensed vaccine status data to the growing proportion of companies that would only employ those with current vaccinations (by 2030, vaccines were able to cope with all forty Covid-19 variants of concern), and to the growing proportion of suppliers, from airlines to theme parks, that would only serve individuals that had the correct vaccinations.
Whilst this approach was initially divisive, it enabled companies and economies to continue trading without risk of lockdown. In the latter half of the decade, as Covid-19 mRNA vaccines became ever more personalised, the company pivoted its major focus to the offer of targeted gene-modification treatments and preventions, leveraging its vast, unique data set. These medications were used to address and suppress a growing range of major diseases, including multiple types of cancers, as well as, covertly, to extend expected lifetime. Subscriptions to SuperSecurus’ gene modifications were offered by the top employers as a perk to attract and retain staff. As of 2030, the most lucrative area the company was moving into was customised gene editing, which was being applied to target dementia.
The trillion-dollar valuations, and skyrocketing valuations of smaller European tech companies have been a boon for the region’s confidence, and been a just reward for bold but measured European entrepreneurship. However, there are distinct downsides. The dominance of the trillion dollar companies has further reset the balance of power between the private and public sector. It has also deepened the digital divide within countries and between countries. It has concentrated wealth among a few individuals. Last but not least, new startups have become wary of moving into in a new sector only for a tech giant to swallow the company or worse swoop into their space at the first signs of success.
The drivers and enablers of the who wants to be a trillionaire scenario.
Frontier technologies
Talent
Management philosophy
Availability of capital
Economic environment
Political environment
Global influences
This scenario is one of four fictionalised views of the future, each of which features made-up companies but with each narrative extrapolated from real trends, events and technologies.
Europe’s future cash cows: will they stay or go?
European companies have deployed technology effectively, enabling transformation, which has yielded greater cash flows. But Europe still lacks any global tech giants of its own.
Tech hubs in Europe: A big split in Europe's tech sector in 2030
A minority of European countries are now home to significant technology companies, and their economies are thriving. The remainder, and also the majority of countries however have failed to reap the tech dividend.
Europe’s technology sector in 2030: Technological stagnation
Europe’s economy has faltered as a result of the widespread failure to develop a tech sector at scale. Regulations have discouraged inward investment and encouraged European tech entrepreneurs to leave.
Meet our European technology sector specialists
Core team
Daan Witteveen
NSE Technology Sector Leader, Deloitte Netherlands
Ed Shedd
NSE TMT Industry Leader, Deloitte UK
Paul Lee
Global Head of Research - TMT, Deloitte UK
Selina Newstead
UK TMT Marketing Lead, Deloitte UK
Sophie Beerlage
Manager - Human Capital, Deloitte Netherlands
European team
Dr. Andreas Gentner
TMT Industry Lead – Germany
Daryl Hanberry
TMT Industry Leader – Ireland
David Halstead
TMT Industry Leader - UK
Francesca Tagliapietra
TMT Leader – Deloitte Central Mediterranean
Jan Corstens
Technology Sector Leader - Belgium
Jeffry Keulaerds
Technology Sector Leader – The Netherlands
Pedro Tavares
MT Industry Leader – Portugal, Head of Telecom Engineering Centre of Excellence
Methodology
Our in-depth research has identified the key developments and trends shaping the future of the European tech sector.
Tens of thousands of news articles and blogs about the future of the European tech sector were analyzed by Deep View, our AI tool. These include deep dives into the US-CN relationship, ecosystem and funding, and cross-industry applications.
Interviews were conducted with subject-matter experts from Deloitte, technology businesses, investors and industry bodies, covering the most crucial economic, political, socio-technological and environmental developments surrounding the European Tech Sector.
We combined two critical uncertainties - “Attractiveness of Europe for tech companies” and “Europe's technological primacy”. This resulted in four distinct futures, which were further developed considering the driving forces with low uncertainty and high impact, so called trends.
Underpinning each scenario are seven core drivers and enablers:
- Frontier technologies. The extent to which core technology, which has the greatest commercial value add, is developed in Europe.
- Talent. The availability of talent wishing to, and able to work in, the European tech sector, or a subset of it.
- Management philosophy. The approach to managing businesses, including willingness to take risk and the appetite for audacity.
- Availability of capital. The maturity of various classes of investors: funds available, risk appetite, the understanding of tech business models.
- Economic environment. Wealth levels, economic inequality within countries, wealth contribution by sector; wealth gaps between countries in Europe.
- Political environment. Attitudes towards the technological sector, including sobriety of regulation and support for wealth creation.
- Global economy. Attitudes to Europe and its tech sector from countries outside of Europe.
Each scenario is a fictionalised view of the future, featuring made-up companies, but with each narrative extrapolated from real trends, events and technologies. Whilst each outcome is possible, with some more likely than others, Deloitte has created these scenarios to foment discussion on which outcome is desirable, and what needs to happen to get there.
Future of the Tech Sector in Europe
The scenarios