Unicorns have added $1 trillion in value over past year

Less than two weeks ago, we published an article with the headline “2021 is a unicorn frenzy.” At that point, there had been 199 new unicorns (private companies worth $1+ billion) created in 2021, per Crunchbase—up from 163 last year and already the most in a decade.

Unicorn update: Crunchbase now reports that 250 new $1 billion companies have sprouted up in 2021. That’s 51 more than in late June and 40% more than the previous annual record of 178, set in 2018.

• The biggest beneficiaries of the unicorn frenzy are health care, financial services, and privacy/security startups.

Dan McCarthy

Crunchbase counts 879 total unicorns worldwide, which are now collectively valued at just under $3 trillion. Since June 2020, these 879 unicorns have added $1 trillion in value, Gené Teare, senior data journalist at Crunchbase, told Emerging Tech Brew.

Uh, what’s goin’ on?

A few things:

• Pent-up demand from 2020
• 2020’s society-level digital transformation, which created opportunities for new companies
• More private equity and hedge fund involvement
• A low interest rate environment that means lots of $$$ looking for somewhere to go

Big picture: It’s not just the SPACs and tech IPOs. Both the public and the private markets for tech companies are scorching hot. Teare said every stage of dealmaking—from seed to late-stage—is experiencing growth, and that she expects a strong pace of IPOs across the latter half of 2021.—DM