Unicorns are no longer easy to find.
The ZIRP-era gave us many things, but one of the most obvious in startup world was a glut of companies valued over $1 billion.
333 companies hit that mark in 2021 alone, completely obliterating the prior record of 96 set in 2020.
Today, unicorn valuations have returned to their former rarity. An average of 21 companies per quarter (US only, Carta customers) achieved a $1B+ valuation in H1 2024.
Today's unicorns differ in significant respects from the unicorns minted in 2021. They tend to be later-stage (there was a influx of Series B and ever Series A unicorns in the boom times - no longer). They are slightly more distributed across industry lines, with SaaS taking up a little less share then in prior years. And they are geographically remain West Coast dominated.
The real question (need to do this analysis in the future): what happened to the 2021 unicorns? Where are they now?
A significant portion of them have yet to raise another priced round, though many have also taken down rounds since they hit the billion-dollar mark.
Will be interesting to track eventual outcomes from that cohort specifically 🤓
#startups #unicorns #fundraising #founders #valuations
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