UNICORN START-UPS BY COUNTRY

A Unicorn is a start-up with a private valuation over US$1 billion

2013, there were?43 unicorns?

October 2015 141

November 2020 the ‘unicorn club’ passed 500

October 2022 1,195 unicorn companies worth US$3,861 billion are listed by CB Insights (this list misses some Chinese and Indian unicorn start-ups). Crunch base has a similar process however the numbers do vary.

Unicorns by Country, the US and China dominate with 67%

USA – 622 or 51%

China – 184

India - 69

UK – 46

Germany – 29

France – 24

Israel – 22

Canada – 19

Brazil and Singapore – 15

Indonesia, Mexico and Sweden – 8

Australia – 7

Japan and Norway – 6

Ireland, Hong Kong and Netherlands – 5

Countries with 2- 4 – Belgium, Columbia, Finland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE

Very interesting to see which countries are doing well, while others lag badly, the list across major GDP shows this graphically

In two years since November 2020 695 Unicorns have been created by VC investors with 90% not making any profits

Chart from mid 2021 shows Unicorns by category

In 2022 new Unicorns created have fallen – only 25 created in Q3, the lowest since early 2020.

Important to note the valuation is based on investors (usually VC’s) selecting the number and agreeing on a valuation. This is all ‘in-house’ between the start-up (hardly and investors, neither are independent.

In January 2022 the top ten Unicorn List was dominated by Fintech’s ?– since then US$135 billion has been wiped off valuations of the top 12 Unicorns

Fintech changes

Stripe?had a valuation of US$95 billion in 2021, now US$74 billion

Klarna?US$46 billion, now US$6.7 billion

NuBank?US$45 billion, now a public company with US$20 billion market cap

CheckOut.com?US$40 billion unchanged

Revolut?US$33 billion unchanged

Other changes in the Top 10 Unicorns –

SHEIN – down to US$75 billion,

Canva down to US$26 billion and

Instacart down to US$24 billion (marked on chart below).

?Note orange arrow shows Klarna and NuBank departing CB Insights list.