Ten years for the reason that time period “unicorn” was coined, issues have virtually come full circle

Ten years in the past At the moment, Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures wrote a column for TechCrunch that coined the time period “unicorn.”

Outlined on the time as “US-based software program firms began since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion by public or non-public market buyers,” the time period has since been expanded to incorporate all non-public startups valued at $1 billion or extra.

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Lee’s column helped the world categorize startups in a brand new manner, however it was additionally an indication of issues to return, because the world quickly noticed a dramatic acceleration within the variety of billion-dollar startups rooted in international expertise entrepreneurial hubs. In a follow-up to her 2015 column, Lee famous that since her unique column, her workforce discovered a “beautiful 115% improve” within the variety of unicorns price a complete of “$327 billion – 2.4x our final evaluation.” Fb unnoticed for apparent causes.

We did not know but what awaited us. The tempo at which startups reached valuations of $1 billion or extra accelerated in 2020 and 2021, and shortly thereafter the variety of firms within the international unicorn membership surpassed 1,000. At the moment, Crunchbase counts 1,483 unicorns which have raised $905 billion and is collectively price $5 trillion, whereas CB Insights counts 1,220 international unicorns which might be collectively price $3.83 trillion.