The financial sector ascribes a moniker to privately held startups achieving a valuation exceeding $1 billion - that of a ‘unicorn’. This phrase was initially introduced by Aileen Lee, creator of Cowboy Ventures, who employed it to depict the scarce and remarkable 39 startups that had reached this milestone.
Nowadays, over 1,200 of these prestigious companies globally have attained this benchmark, collectively estimated to be worth a mind-blowing $3,921 billion. Among these esteemed ventures, some capitalised on budding technologies sooner than others and had sizeable backing, granting them an advantage to develop extensively in more nuanced territories and amass colossal clientele worldwide. Yet others followed a grassroots strategy, ingeniously serving limited but keen audiences to incrementally construct pivotal partnerships. All traverse divergent paths to attain brilliant success, benchmarking unbelievable worth.
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List of 10 Top Unicorn Companies in the World 2024
Notable examples of companies that have graduated from the unicorn club include Airbnb, Facebook, and Google, which have all gone on to achieve even greater success. Here is the complete list:
| Company | Valuation ($B) | Date Joined | Country | City | Industry | Select Investors | |
| 1 | ByteDance | $225.00 | 4/7/2017 | China | Beijing | Media & Entertainment | Sequoia Capital China, SIG Asia Investments, Sina Weibo, SoftBank Group |
| 2 | SpaceX | $150.00 | 12/1/2012 | United States | Hawthorne | Industrials | Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Rothenberg Ventures |
| 3 | OpenAI | $80.00 | 7/22/2019 | United States | San Francisco | Enterprise Tech | Khosla Ventures |
| 4 | Stripe | $70.00 | 1/23/2014 | United States | San Francisco | Financial Services | Khosla Ventures, LowercaseCapital, capitalG |
| 5 | SHEIN | $66.00 | 7/3/2018 | Singapore | Consumer & Retail | Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital China, Shunwei Capital Partners | |
| 6 | Databricks | $43.00 | 2/5/2019 | United States | San Francisco | Enterprise Tech | Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Battery Ventures |
| 7 | Revolut | $33.00 | 4/26/2018 | United Kingdom | London | Financial Services | Index Ventures, DST Global, Ribbit Capital |
| 8 | Fanatics | $31.00 | 6/6/2012 | United States | Jacksonville | Consumer & Retail | SoftBank Group, Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek Holdings |
| 9 | Canva | $25.40 | 1/8/2018 | Australia | Surry Hills | Enterprise Tech | Sequoia Capital China, Blackbird Ventures, Matrix Partners |
| 10 | Chime | $25.00 | 3/5/2019 | United States | San Francisco | Financial Services | Forerunner Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Homebrew |
Therefore, in a unique twist of fate, Canada now has its moniker for unicorn status: the "narwhal." Narwhal refers to companies which are both based in Canada and have an over $1 billion valuation. Hootsuite and Wattpad are two Canadian examples. A range of other terms have emerged to describe startups at various stages of development and valuation. They include:
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Minicorn: Startup businesses whose valuations are more than $1 million, with the potential to grow fast.
Soonicorn: Trying hard to be a unicorn. It is young and up presents in many ways.
Centicorn: Startups that were given a $100 billion-plus valuation.
The data is sourced from CBInsight's tracker list, which provides a comprehensive overview of the global unicorn landscape. As of the latest update, CBInsight reports that there are 1,242 unicorn companies worldwide, boasting a staggering cumulative valuation of $3.9 trillion.
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