and McKinsey reveals that four tech sub-sectors have driven 95 per cent of high-value Australian companies over the past two decades. These are: business-to-consumer and business-to-business software, life sciences and health, and fintech.“But no one is telling that story,” Ms Denholm said. “In fact, it’s more common to hear myths such as Canva, Atlassian and Afterpay being exceptions to the main way we create value in Australia.
A unicorn is a technology company with a valuation over $1 billion. She said this represented 2.2 per cent of the world’s highly valued technology companies, and outperforms our global GDP contribution at 1.6 per cent.“That success may not be as visible as someone standing on a dais holding a gold medal,” Ms Denholm said. “But the thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars of value and exports these companies are creating, are generating very real benefits for Australians.
“Technology unlike other industries is both a vertical, as in, there are standalone technology companies, and it is also a horizontal, enabling other industries,” she said.