San Francisco, CA – Over the past decade, Crunchbase has meticulously documented the rise of unicorn companies, which are private startups valued at $1 billion or more. These unicorns are indicative of the flow of venture capital and market enthusiasm, and their numbers have surged dramatically. The early 2010s saw the initial emergence of these firms, but by 2021, the creation of new unicorns had tripled year over year. Today, despite a steady increase in unicorn numbers, exits have not kept pace, resulting in a significant backlog on the Crunchbase Unicorn Board.
Currently, the board hosts more than 1,500 companies, collectively valued at $6 trillion, although many have not disclosed a new valuation in over three years. The growth of the board continues, albeit at a slower rate, as private market dynamics evolve. This trend reflects accumulated capital, value, and expectations over the years.
The 2020 and earlier cohorts on the board are notable for having the highest exit proportion and representing a majority of the board's value. An analysis reveals that of the 953 companies that joined before 2021, approximately 46% have exited, predominantly through public offerings rather than mergers and acquisitions. The remaining 470-plus companies from this era account for over half of the board's current value, amounting to $3.2 trillion. These companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance, Shein, Stripe, and Databricks, are among the most highly valued businesses on the board.
The rapid rise of unicorns in 2021 and 2022 saw 54% of the current board's companies joining within this period. These 854 companies are collectively valued at $2 trillion, constituting one-third of the board's total value. Among them, Anthropic stands out as the most highly valued, at $61.5 billion.
Since 2023, the unicorn addition rate has slowed, with 257 companies joining the board, adding half a trillion in value. The most valuable among these include AI labs xAI, valued at $50 billion, and Safe Superintelligence at $32 billion. Despite a slowdown, the board is nearing 1,600 companies, with a total value close to $6 trillion and $1 trillion in funding raised.
However, over 60% of the companies on the board have not raised new funding with a disclosed value for more than three years, highlighting an ongoing challenge. While some valuations have been internally revised downwards by funds, the quest for returns persists amid a global market marked by uncertainty and a slow pace of exits. As this trend continues, the Crunchbase Unicorn Board is poised for further growth.
