WHY ARE UNICORNS CALLED UNICORN?
Arun ?????? Pudur
Advisor. Entrepreneur. Futurist. Investor. Keynote Speaker. Philanthropist. Group President Celframe & Pudur Corp.
The term of Unicorns has been known only for several years, but is already one of the most used word in the tech world. So why is that? Apart from that, we will also take a look at the most well-known & the most valuable Tech Unicorns of 2017, and see the predictions for the year 2018.
In the business world, Unicorns are those private companies or startups with an estimated valuation of more than $1 billion. Several years ago it could be named as a myth to be a startup company with a billion dollars profit, but now it is more and more common.
Firstly, the term was used by Aileen Lee, venture capitalist and founder of CowboyVC, a seed stage venture capital fond that is based in Palo Alto, California. In her article, “Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups“, she watched tech startups founded in the previous decade and settled the boundary lines for “Unicorn Club” members.
Moreover, she has determined that on that time, 3 years ago, in the exclusive Unicorn club were included only 39 members,” the top .o7 % that ever reached $1 billion valuation: Dropbox, Tumblr, Facebook, Youtube, Palo Alto Networks, Yelp, FireEye, Groupon, ServiceNow, Linkedin, Gilt, etc.
However, according to Techcrunch, the total number of Unicorn companies, for today, is already more than 267.
Another exciting term for your lexicon that is related to Unicorns – Decacorns, companies that achieved a $10 billion valuation and automatically moved to the new level.
Let’s start our list with top and most promising tech unicorns:
Top 10 tech unicorns of 2017
1. Stripe
San Francisco, California, United States
Financial services
Valuation: $9 billion
2. Spotify
Stockholm, Sweden
Consumer internet, music
Valuation: $8 billion
3. Zhong An
Shanghai, China
Financial services
Valuation: $8 billion
4. Dji
Shenzhen, China
Financial services
Valuation: $8 billion
5. Koubei
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Search Engine
Valuation: $8 billion
Shenzhen, China
Financial services
Valuation: $8 billion
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Transportation
Valuation: $7 billion
8. Lyft
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Transportation
Valuation: $7 billion
9. Jiedaibao
Beijing, Beijing, China
Financial services
Valuation: $7 billion
10. JD Finance
Beijing, Beijing, China
Financial services
Valuation: $7 billion
Top 10 tech decacorns of 2017
Take a look at the main decacorns of 2017 according to Techcrunch:
1. Uber
San Francisco, California
Transportation Services
Valuation: $62 billion
Xihu District, Hangzhou, China
Financial services
Valuation: $60 billion
3. Didi Chuxing
Beijing, China
Consumer Internet
Valuation: $50 billion
4. Xiaomi
Beijing, China
Hardware
Valuation: $45 billion
5. Airbnb
San Francisco
Lodging Services
Valuation: $31 billion
6. SpaceX
Howthorne, California
Aerospace and defence
Valuation: $21 billion
7. Palantir
Palo Alto, California
Data Analytics Software
Valuation: $20 billion
8. Toutiao
Beijing, China
Consumer internet
Valuation: $20 billion
9. Wework
New York City, New York, United States
Real Estate
Valuation: $20 billion
10. Lufax
Shanghai, China
Financial services
Valuation: $18 billion
..and many-many others from all over the world.
Thank you for the share