While the number of companies that attained unicorn status decreased in 2023, there was a rise in traffic to the Crunchbase Unicorn Board as exits became more scarce.
In 2023, fewer firms achieved unicorn status, but as exits grew increasingly rare, the Crunchbase Unicorn Board also saw an increase in traffic.
This indicates that there are currently over 1,500 unicorn firms worldwide, with a combined worth of over $5 trillion based on their most recent financing deal valuations, ten years after the word "unicorn" was first used to describe those private startups valued at $1 billion or more.
An analysis of Crunchbase data reveals that, overall; less than 100 companies joined the Unicorn Board in 2023 — the lowest number in more than five years.
AI was the top industry among the 95 businesses that joined the board in 2023, creating 20 new unicorns in just one sector. Fintech (with 14 startups), cleantech (12 firms), and semiconductors (nine) were the other top unicorn sectors in 2023.
An examination of Crunchbase data indicates that in 2023, 24 Chinese companies and 41 American companies entered the Unicorn Board. The number of new unicorns in other nations was in the single digits: India and the UK each had three, and Germany had four. The Crunchbase board of current private unicorns has achieved new heights as fewer companies left the board in 2023, despite the slower rate of new unicorn formation.
