701 Unicorns: All Around the World

June 9, 2021

Recent updates from the startup ecosystem are surprisingly encouraging for those striving to reach a billion-dollar valuation worldwide. The number of unicorns is increasing each day, with more than 600 private companies from 15 different categories. According to CB Insights, the $1B+ Market Map's total number of unicorn companies is 701, and the total cumulative valuation is ~ $2,254 B. The changes and expansion rate of the map is a valuable benchmark for the ecosystem.

According to Paul Graham's research, "By 2020, the biggest source of new wealth was what is sometimes called "tech" companies. Of the 73 new fortunes, about 30 derive from such companies. These are particularly common among the richest of the rich: 8 of the top 10 fortunes in 2020 were new fortunes of this type." This shows that from now on, it is the time of startups and venture capitalists.

Categories of unicorns are;

Artificial Intelligence, Auto-transportation, Cybersecurity, Consumer & Retail, Data Management & Analytics


E-Commerce & Direct-to-consumer, Edtech, Fintech, Hardware

Health, Internet Software & Services, Mobile & Telecommunication

Supply chain, logistics & Delivery, Travel, Other (renewable energy, space tech, ad tech, and more)

The top-5 companies from the list of unicorns are from China and the United States. The world's most valuable private company is China-based ByteDance, known from TikTok and Toutiao, in the artificial intelligence category. ByteDance reached a $140B valuation. After ByteDance, payment processor Stripe, valued at $95; aerospace manufacturer SpaceX at $74B, ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing took 4th place at $62B; and grocery delivery platform Instacart $39B round out the top 5 most valuable private companies.


Investments are rapidly increasing, and according to Crunchbase data, in the first quarter of 2021, global venture investments reached $125 billion. This comes out to a fifty percent increase from the last quarter and a whopping 94 percent increase since the previous year. 

The most impressive acquisition from the first quarter of 2021 was San Jose-based GlobalLogic's acquisition by Hitachi for $9.6 billion. The second and third went to Seattle-based identity management platform Auth0's acquisition by Okta for $6.5 billion and Shanghai-based video game publisher Moonton's purchase by Nuverse for $4 billion. 


The given data are directly from Crunbase Data, which was announced on 6 April 2021.


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