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The purpose of this study is to explore the exogenous and endogenous drivers of the high-growth of Unicorn start-ups along their life cycle, with a particular focus on Unicorns in the fintech industry.

The study employs an explorative longitudinal analysis with a matched-pair of two cases of Unicorns start-ups with similar antecedent features to understand holistically drivers over the longer term.

High-growth patterns over the longer term are the result of a combined industry- and company-life cycle perspective. Drivers and growth patterns vary significantly according to the time of entry in the industry and its development status. The findings are systematised within a set of propositions to be tested in future research.

The limitations lie in empirical evidence, as the analysis is limited to one-matched-pair. The revealed Unicorns' drivers for long-term growth might encourage future research to further investigate these drivers on a larger scale.

The study offers practical recommendations for start-ups with high-growth ambitions and advice to policy makers regarding the development of tailor-made support programs.

The study significantly extends extant work on growth and high-growth by examining endogenous and exogenous triggers over time and by linking the Unicorn-life cycle to the industry life cycle, an approach which has, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, not yet been applied.

The current changes and relevance of female entrepreneurship at the national and international level for economic growth, social impact and environmental degradation highlight the need for more analysis of female entrepreneurial typologies and value creations.

This chapter aims to contribute to the field of female entrepreneurship literature. It provides theoretical evidence about the main internal (personal characteristic and motivation, network) and external (women migration, crises, digitalization) drivers that trigger women entrepreneurs to undertake entrepreneurial actions in national and international contexts. Besides, this chapter conceptualizes a new untapped context of multiple value-creating entrepreneurial systems in the female entrepreneurship literature by uncovering a blended form of value creation encompassing several social, economic and environmental levels.