The word “Unicorn” was coined by Aileen Lee, founder of cowboy venture in a post of TechCrunch in 2013.
At that time only a few companies have the valuation of more than 1 Billion Dollar, therefore due to their rareness, these companies were termes as “Unicorns”.
Unicorns and the world
Today, Unicorn Leaderboard list down about 452 companies, which have collectively raised $345 billion and represent a cumulative valuation of $1.6 trillion.(according to Techcrunch)
151 new unicorns joined the list in 2018 (compared to 96 in 2017), and investors poured more than $135 billion into those companies
The unicorn leaders are the U.S. with 196 companies, China with 165, India with about 26 and the U.K. with 12.
Forty-two new unicorns were born in in the US alone in 2014, 43 in 2015, 22 in 2016, and another 34 in 2017. The point is that unicorns are supposed to be rare. But the “unicorns” of Silicon Valley USA no longer rare.
Most valuable companies:
The most valuable company in the Internet Software & Services category is enterprise software company Infor ($10B valuation), while online hospitality marketplace Airbnb ($29.3B) is the most valuable e-commerce unicorn. Payments startups Stripe ($22.5B) is the most valuable private company within Fintech.
On-Demand is another noteworthy category, with 23 unicorns accounting for over $210B in combined valuation. This includes the second and third most valuable companies on my map: ride-hailing startups Uber of USA($72B) and Didi Chuxing of China ($56B).
The world’s most valuable private company is China’s Bytedance (aka Toutiao), in the Media category. The company reached a $75B valuation following an investment by SoftBank in November 2018.
Following Bytedance, Uber ($72B), Didi Chuxing ($56B), co-working company WeWork ($47B), and e-cigarette maker JUUL Labs ($38B) round out the top 5 most valuable private companies.
Interesting Facts:
- United States Steel Corporation was the world’s first company to surpass the market capitalization mark of $1 billion dollars and It was founded by J. P. Morgan and Elbert H. Gary in 1901.
- Also, a USA based electric-scooter company Bird because the fastest startup ever to achieve unicorn status, reaching a $1 billion valuation in a little more than a year after it was founded.
