Unicorns and Unicorn Hunters

Last post we talked about how Tiger Global was disrupting the venture capital industry with a new speedier investment model. Well, in venture land the big prize is still backing "unicorns"--a private company with a valuation over $1 billion. CBINSIGHTS has a list of all the current unicorns worldwide as of May 2021. The 650+ unicorns have a cumulative valuation of $2.2 trillion. Below are some charts highlighting who these companies are and who's backing them.

First, a break down of unicorns by size. Yes, some unicorns are more special than others, a decacorn is a private company with a valuation over $10 billion and a hectocorn is one worth over $100 billion. There aren't that many of them: 

And where are unicorns usually found? Mainly in the USA and China. More broadly, North America is home to 344 unicorns, Asia 214, and Europe (surprisingly?) only 79. The RoW has about 20.

Most unicorns are in fintech these days it seems (Stripe, Klarna, Nubank, Chime, Robinhood, SoFi, etc.). CB's classification is sometimes a little to hard understand, though; for example, Bytedance (Tik Tok, really) is categorized as an artificial intelligence company (?!), sure, I guess...in the same way Facebook or Twitter could be considered an AI company, but they are generally known as social media companies. 

 

And who's finding and backing these unicorns? Is Tiger "capturing" all the unicorns with its aggressive style or is still the more traditional VCs? Tiger Global and Softbank (another disruptor) are up there, but the champion unicorn hunter is still blue-chip VC-firm Sequoia Capital. Sequoia is backing 74 unicorns more than Tiger and Softbank combined. 

So, who are the biggest unicorns or decacorns or hectocorns? They would be (drum roll):

The top 10 unicorns have a collective valuation of $550 billion, roughly 25% of the cumulative value of all 650+ unicorns. Bytedance is social media! Stripe, Klarna and Nubank are fintechs, SpaceX is Star Trek, Didi is transportation and Instacart is logistics/delivery. Their backers are shown below (click to enlarge). Most will go public in the next 24-36 months. They'll no longer be "unicorns" at that point but then we'll finally be able to ride them!

Monday News Roundup

The most interesting things to start the week:

1. More vaccine good news: AstraZeneca-Oxford announced its Covid-19 vaccine was up to 90% effective at preventing the disease. It is part of the new generation of genetics-based vaccines. But unlike the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines, AstaZeneca uses DNA (rather than mRNA) as the platform for delivering genetic instructions to make parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Crucially, AstraZeneca's vaccine does not require extreme cold temperatures for storage. It can be stored in a normal refrigerator for six months, which makes distribution relatively straightforward. It is also expected to cost only $3-$4 per dose, compared to $15-$25 for the other vaccine candidates.

2. Another first for Yellen: News leaked today that Biden is expected to nominate former (and first woman) Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, to be Treasury Secretary. She would be the first woman to hold the top Treasury post. 

Markets reacted positively, welcoming back someone they know well. And someone they feel will have their back, focusing more on macroeconomics than regulation.
 

She edged out a couple of other well-regarded contenders. The backstory here:

3. Moving on...(kicking and screaming): President Trump bashed his legal team, who have lost all 22 of the lawsuits they've filed since Election Day and officially authorized the Biden transition process late today.

4. Richie Rich$$$: Elon Musk is now the world's second richest person, with a $127.9B fortune, just ahead of Bill Gate's $127.7B. (But really, what's a couple hundred million dollars? All that separates them is basically a few minutes of trading.)

5. Regrets: We all have them...even those with $14B fortunes. Softbank founder and Japan's second richest person, Masayoshi Son, regrets deeply, embarrassingly, passing up the opportunity to invest early in Amazon and Tesla.