Sonata Software Surpasses Expectations With 133 Revenue Growth Amid Market Volatility
Sonata Software’s Resilient Performance Amidst Market Pressures
In a recent update on its …
28. July 2025
Unicorns Take Center Stage: A Decade Of Billion-Dollar Startups
The Evolution of Unicorn Companies: A Decade of Growth and Uncertainty
Over the past decade, the number of unicorn companies — private startups valued at $1 billion or more — has skyrocketed. In 2010, the first unicorns emerged, with companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon joining the ranks. By 2021, valuations had surged, and new unicorns joined the board at a record pace.
Today, the Crunchbase Unicorn Board hosts over 1,500 companies, collectively valued at $6 trillion — most of which have not raised at a disclosed valuation in over three years. To understand this evolution, we separated out cohorts from 2020 and earlier, the COVID growth years of 2021 that bled into 2022, and the slowdown of the past two and a half years.
2020 and Earlier Cohorts
The 2020 and earlier cohorts have the highest exit proportion and currently represent the majority of the board’s value. These companies benefited from the boom year of 2021, when a record stream of companies went public. Of the 953 companies that joined the unicorn board before 2021, 46% have since exited, with the majority — by a factor of three — as public debuts vs. M&A exits.
Remaining on the board are some 470-plus still-private companies from this era, which account for more than half of the board’s current value at $3.2 trillion. These companies, which have had a longer time to grow, make up many of the most highly valued companies on the board and include SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance, Shein, Stripe, and Databricks.
The youngest of these valued above $60 billion is GenAI giant OpenAI, which will be a decade old by the end of this year, while the oldest is 25-year-old space exploration company SpaceX. Companies like Anthropic, part of the 2022 cohort of new unicorns, currently valued at $61.5 billion, are also among the most highly valued.
Rapid Rise in 2021
The 2021 and 2022 cohort of new unicorns account for 54% of the companies currently on the board and showed a massive increase in companies that joined in a short period of time. These 854 still-private companies are collectively valued at $2 trillion — a third of the current board’s value.
The most highly valued is Anthropic, followed by other AI labs like xAI, valued at $50 billion, and Safe Superintelligence at $32 billion. Many of the 2023 through May 2025 cohort of companies experienced an increase in value due to the AI wave.
Slowed Since 2023
In 2023 and through May 2025, 257 unicorn companies have joined the board, adding a half-trillion in value. The most valuable of this cohort are companies like xAI, valued at $50 billion, and Safe Superintelligence at $32 billion.
Companies that have joined the board since 2023 match annual counts of earlier years, 2015 through 2017 — with around 100-plus companies per annum. However, only a small count of companies have dropped off the board through a lowered valuation or closure — around 40 since 2022.
Unicorn Overhang
The Crunchbase Unicorn Board is close to reaching 1,600 companies, approaching $6 trillion in value, with $1 trillion in funding raised. Only a small percentage of companies on the board have not raised funding with a disclosed value in more than three years — around 60% as of June 2025.
Funds continue to look for returns, but in a more uncertain global market and with a slow pace of exits, the board is poised to keep growing. Despite this, the board’s growth has been impacted by the uncertainty, with companies experiencing slower valuations and fewer exits.