A decade after Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures coined the term 'unicorn', the landscape of billion-dollar startups has expanded from 39 to 532, with a prediction of a future increase to 1,000 in the US over the next decade. Despite the growth, reports indicate a shift in the tech industry from consumer to enterprise, with 78% of unicorns now in the B2B sector. Funding for North American startups fell to $144.3 billion in Q4 2023, a 37% decrease from the previous year, as reported by Crunchbase. Europe's VC market experienced a disappointing year in 2023, with venture dealmaking falling significantly, though it remained above the 10-year average. However, European private equity showed resilience with strong deal activity and fundraising. The majority of unicorns are 'papercorns', and 60% are 'ZIRPicorns', suggesting their valuations are inflated by low-interest rates. Additionally, startups in South and Central America saw a dramatic 84% decline in investment to $2.9 billion in 2023 from the peak in 2021.
📊Founders & investors: by mid-Nov 2023, there were 720 active unicorns, but we're bracing for a drop in 2024. It's a wake-up call: time for founders to chase sustainable growth over hype, and investors to tweak those valuation models. h/t @PitchBook https://t.co/6Qa2xc3JWn
"Investors would have been better off investing in public superunicorns like Salesforce, Amazon,and Microsoft, up 8x, 9x, and 9x respectively in the decade, than in many companies in our current unicorn herd." https://t.co/vt6gl4P36y
While the public markets don't seem to appreciate FinTech, LOVE to see the resiliency and deal activity happening in private markets, specifically in late stage rounds. NA & APAC remain resilient, while LatAM and EMEA have been the worst hit https://t.co/6p24SwWwoN https://t.co/gen2SSaijZ
best read of the day is @aileenlee's 10yr retro on startup unicorns. there's two forward looking nuggets: 1) short term pain left, about 35% of remaining unicorns will be culled 2) the number of unicorns will soar to 1400, with 1000 (!) in US 🇺🇲 https://t.co/8G06zAB0eb https://t.co/QtBC1azGyM
The unicorns among us: https://t.co/ezZ74NirtP by TechCrunch #infosec #cybersecurity #technology #news
78% of tech unicorns now in enterprise is a call for more top founders to build in consumer. Bullish consumer tech in the next 5 yrs https://t.co/YBjsp96rIY
In 2023, Climate Innovation & Adaptation programs encompassed 70% of our entrepreneur-focused initiatives spanning Europe, LatAm, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the US. Learn more in our 2023 Impact Report: https://t.co/QeaFLKi7I7 https://t.co/nFzTNy6PBb
All Raise co-founder @aileenlee & @allegra_v2 of @CowboyVC have dropped a new panoptic analysis of the past 10 yrs since the creation of the term "Unicorn" (coined by Aileen). What was once tens is now hundreds on its way to thousands! Dive into this love letter to #Unicorns.🦄 https://t.co/NWTshbW76S
Could OpenAI become the first $100B “superunicorn” of the decade? 10 years since @aileenlee coined the term for $1B startups, we’re looking back at how unicorns have changed and what the future holds. Read more: https://t.co/w0dh5yNuVf https://t.co/8YxadijLbE
The other side of AI hype: https://t.co/qdwxJsMEQE by TechCrunch #infosec #cybersecurity #technology #news
OpenAI in Davos…Looking Back on 10 Years of Unicorns With Aileen Lee...Stripe and SpaceX’s Secondary Pricing @maddierenbarger https://t.co/q7OTG8WL7P
Incredible new unicorn report by @aileenlee and @allegra_v2 with so many insights: 🦄 unicorns ballooned from 39 in 2013 to 532 in 2023 🦄 VC funding tripled in a decade, reaching $580 billion more between 2013-2021, with low interest rates and a growing number of investors… https://t.co/ZNxGOcbzO0
Startups in South and Central America pulled in an estimated $2.9B in seed through growth stage investment in 2023, Crunchbase data shows. That’s an 84% decline from 2021, when investment hit record-setting levels. https://t.co/CEc3pXLUuc
40% of VC-funded US unicorns valued below $1 billion in secondary markets Aileen Lee, cofounder of seed venture capital firm Cowboy Ventures said more startups are likely to join the club where unicorn valuations will trade lower. https://t.co/gbF5pbFlbU
8% of VC investments came from Microsoft, AWS, Nvidia, and Google last year. More than 2x any other time in the last 15 years. (h/t @BayAreaTimes, @apoorv03) https://t.co/nDewvCERkY
#news in @ProfFinanza 🇮🇹 📰 Private equity advances towards 2024 It was a difficult year for private equity in 2023, with @InvestEuropeEU data showing a 60% decline in fundraising and a 54% decrease in investment in the first half of the year. https://t.co/rrzFBDtlgF… https://t.co/LXwukRV7qc
First Step in AI/ML Security is Finding Them: https://t.co/hspamxHjLz by darkreading #infosec #cybersecurity #technology #news
Analysis: the total number of US startups with a $1B+ valuation grew 14x from 39 in 2013 to 532 in 2023, 78% today are B2B, 93% are privately valued, and more (TechCrunch) https://t.co/mgKBnqn2WG 📫 Subscribe: https://t.co/OyWeKSRpIM https://t.co/9D0EFHDjxG
Catch @aileenlee on @CNBC tearing down 14x growth in unicorns over the decade, including many like @GuildEducation and @DrataHQ in new geographic hubs 🦄 https://t.co/HeR3SsYWJL
If you invested in a venture fund in 2013 and it didn’t produce 8x net, then it underperformed a portfolio concentrated in: - Amazon - Microsoft - Salesforce Crazy how much appreciation was generated in large, liquid tech stocks over the last decade.
This report is absolutely mindblowing, especially this "In other words, investors would have been better off investing in public superunicorns like Salesforce, Amazon,and Microsoft, up 8x, 9x, and 9x respectively in the decade, than in many companies in our current unicorn… https://t.co/eqsly4B7ct
The number of unicorns over the past decade has ballooned 14x to over 500 companies today. But: - 93% are ‘papercorns’ & 60% are ‘ZIRPicorns” - very few exits - only 7% (35 companies) vs. 66% a decade ago. More interesting charts from @CowboyVC : https://t.co/zy8se1SFrm
Whoa this unicorn report from @aileenlee @allegra_v2 is packed w/ tons of sparkly nuggets. The # of unicorns has ballooned from 39 to 532 in the last 10 yrs. They predict that drops to 350… but grows to 1000 in the US in the next decade ✨🦄 Worth grabbing your 🍿 to read to… https://t.co/Xopeaack0g
It's been 10 years since @CowboyVC Founder @aileenlee coined the term 'unicorn.' But is the $1B mark still the bar for prestige today? "Given that multiples have shrunk so much from 2021, I think the $1B is pretty great to achieve in 10 years...it's pretty special." https://t.co/LGXOfa038e
European PE ended 2023 stronger than expected 📈 Resilient deal activity and a bumper year for fundraising mean European private equity had a better 2023 than many were expecting. But it remains a market of haves and have-nots, per our 2023 Annual European PE Breakdown.
Back in the Unicorn Club with Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee: https://t.co/IbviOii9yX by TechCrunch #infosec #cybersecurity #technology #news
2023 was marked by disappointment for Europe’s VC market. European venture dealmaking fell significantly in 2023 compared with the prior two years but still landed above the 10-year average. Learn more in our latest European Venture report here 👇 https://t.co/LY7p7jXSqb
👀 Must read analysis by @aileenlee, who came up with the term unicorn 10 years ago for companies worth $1B on paper. Her team looked at 2013 unicorns now, and more unicorns today. New word: ZIRP-icorns. Companies only worth a billion dollars only because of the… https://t.co/DaWABqTElY
Crunchbase reported North American startups experienced a dip in funding in Q4 2023, registering only $144.3B, a dip of 37% from the prior year. Learn more about the funding dip: https://t.co/w9c7VD7Rar #invest #investing #startupinvesting #preipo #venturecapital #privateequity https://t.co/qGm2BCaInP
It’s been 10 years since the original unicorn analysis (when we accidentally coined the term)🦄 So, our @CowboyVC team dug into new data. The tech industry has changed a TON! ✨ From 39 to 532 unicorns ✨ Pendulum swung HARD from consumer to enterprise ✨ Business types,… https://t.co/Sfk8uPCp7T
Consumer tech is bound for a comeback among unicorns, but maybe not just yet: https://t.co/R6eh5pcvL4 by TechCrunch #infosec #cybersecurity #technology #news