The dataset included companies with a valuation over $1 billion as of March 2022, including each company's current valuation, funding, country of origin, industry, select investors, and the years they were founded and became unicorns.

Introduction

A unicorn company is a privately held startup that has a valuation of over $1 billion and is not listed on the stock market. The term was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to represent the rarity of such successful businesses, using the mythical animal as a metaphor.

1062

Companies

15

Industries

40+

Countries

The data was subdivided into 4 groups to analyze different questions and angles.

I. Industries Positioned for Success

II. Success amongst Investment Funds

III. Geographic Overview of the Private Corp Scene

IV. Companies that standout in a Sea of Giants

Methodology

Data Source: The data was sourced from Maven Analytics. The dataset included companies with a valuation over $1 billion as of March 2022, including each company's current valuation, funding, country of origin, industry, select investors, and the years they were founded and became unicorns.

Analytical Tools: The tools used for this project were SQL to clean, query, and separate the data into new sheets. Excel/Sheets to further clean and organize the data, and Tableau to Aggregate, and create Visuals for the data.

Data Cleaning: The data was cleaned in Excel. Simple formatting changes for dates and Valuations and Funding amounts were formatted into numerical values from strings.

To isolate the Investors, they were split from the one singular column [select Investors], to multiple columns via text split. For the Analysis of the Investors, I had to restructure of the data to have the investors as the primary focus instead of the companies.

For Industry, Geographic, and Company based analysis the original dataset remained the focus.

I. Industries Positioned for Success

There are 1062 private companies that are valued at at least $1 Billion in valuation. All of those 1062 companies fall into one of 15 Industries.

1062

15

Companies

Industries

Which Industries have been the most successful and why?

We'll take a look at which Investment Funds have been successful.

The Countries that are leaders in these special companies.

What companies success standout amongst the Unicorns

40.1%

of all Unicorn companies are in the Fintech or Software Services Industries.

Fintech

(222 Companies | 20.9%)

$1,473B

Aggregated Value between the two

Industries

Artificial Intelligence

Auto & Transportation

Consumer & Retail

Cyber Security

Data Management & Analytics

Ecommerce & D2C

Edtech

Fintech

Hardware

Health

Internet & Software Services

Mobile & Communications

Other

Supply Chain & Logistics

Travel

How do Unicorn Differ across the Industries?

• Which Industries have the most companies with >$5B and >$10BValuations.

• Are there Industries that have a higher ceiling, and what factors might lead to that?

3. Are there any Industries that standout in terms of Valuation/Funding?

2. Does funding differ amongst the industries?

• Do certain Industries receive higher funding than others. If so is there a standout reason for this to be the case?

• When analyzing companies with higher valuations across each industry, how does the disparity between funding differ. Is there a trend in relation to certain industries need more funding than others in order to thrive and become larger companies?

Dashboard1. Industry Statistics. Top 5 Industries, Distribution of Industries across dataset.

Primary Parameter: Industry Valuation of All companies or (>= $1B), >=$5B, >=$10B, >=$20B.

Secondary Parameter: Distribution of Geography based on Industry. (Also takes into account the Primary Parameter). Only affects the Geo heat map.

1. What industries are most prevalent in the Unicorn Criteria?

Internet & Software Services

(203 Companies | 19.1%)

All companies

Companies >=$5 Billion in valuation

Companies >=$10 Billion in valuation

Fintech

(35 Companies | 27.3%)

Internet & Software Services

(21 Companies | 16.4%)

Fintech

(11 Companies | 23.9%)

Internet & Services Industries

(6 Companies | 13.1%)

2. Does funding differ amongst the industries?

The Auto & Transportation Industry:

This Industry receives the highest amount of funding per company, with a median funding amount of $828M, which was represent a clear reason for the lower number of Unicorns in the industry.

Edtech

The upper 90th percentile of the Edtech industry (in terms of funding), has the highest at $2.3B, however it only has a median funding of 353.5M.

The Fintech and Internet & Software Services Industries:

These industries combine for the most companies and for the highest percentage of successful companies, yet the necessary funding is relatively low with respect to all of the industries.

The conclusion to be drawn would this would play a major factor as to why there are so many successful companies in this realm.

• They are solving a problem using a digital solution

• The cost of overhead to start is minimal

• More feasible to start small and rapidly build with lower up front cost.

• More scalable as the services provided can help on a global scale without a physical asset.

3. Valuation/Funding Ratios

All Companies included

All Companies with $5 Billion or more in Value

All Companies with $10 Billion or more in Value

• The Internet and Software Industry stands out again, as the lost cost of entry and close to unlimited business problems to form a service around enables a strong market position and scalable strategy.

• Although there are only 3 Hardware Companies on the list, it should be noted that there is a tremendous room for return on Investment for companies that succeed in the market.

• The Fintech Industry stands out for the larger and more successful companies in its industry. With a median funding of $2 Billion for larger (>=$10B) companies in the industry, there is an average V/F ratio of 19.3, suggesting there is an unlimited track for growth in the industry regardless of the amount of competition.

Conclusion: Across the Industries

Fintech and Internet & Software Services industries are the most Successful Industries

The Fintech and Internet & Software Services industries have the highest number of successful companies due to their digital solutions, minimal overhead costs, and scalability. These industries can start small and grow rapidly with low upfront investments, offering global reach without physical assets.

How funding comes into play across the industries

In contrast to the Internet & Software Services and Fintech Industries, the Auto & Transportation industry, has a very high median funding of $828M per company, and has fewer unicorns due to high entry barriers. Hard assets require significantly more financing.

The Edtech industry shows a significant funding disparity, with a very high upper 90th percentile at $2.3B and a median of $353.5M, indicating both potential and challenges. The business model itself may require substantial funding on the marketing side, which may be a significant road block in the ability to secure funding. Unlike Fintech, and Software Service this business model is helping consumers that desire a specific outcome but may not need it.

The amount of funding secured varies significantly across industries. Companies outside of digital solutions often rely on increased funding, and those that are not established market leaders in these industries may struggle to secure it consistently.

Industries that offer the highest return on Investment (V/F ratio)

The Internet and Software Industry has the best ROI, as it benefits from low entry costs and a broad range of problems to address, enabling strong market positions and scalable strategies.

Fintech stands out with larger, more successful companies, a median funding of $2B for firms valued over $10B, and an average V/F ratio of 19.3, suggesting unlimited growth potential despite competition. These factors underscore the unique dynamics and success factors in each industry.

Though few in number, hardware companies present high ROI potential for Market leaders in the industry.

II. Success amongst Investment Companies

Which Investors stand out in terms of Unicorns invested in, total and average valuation of all the unicorns they invested in?

Companies whom funded the most Unicorn Companies:

1. Accel

2. Sequoia Capital China

3. Andreessen Horowitz

4. Tiger Global

5. Insight Partners

Highest Average Valuation per Company Invested In

1. Sequoia Capital China

2. Khosia Ventures

3. Founders Fund

4. DST Global

5. Tiger Global Management

Dashboard 2. Investor Parameters (Investor Parameter Isolates Individual Investment Funds to analyze their holdings.

A lot of these investment funds have wide range of companies invested in. Some funds may have some of their average values slightly skewed as it only takes one $100 Billion dollar company that they invested in, to complete reform their average for this data. With that being said, this was created for you to mess around with and judge for yourself.

Although are a variety of metrics to analyze the success of the investment funds the sole leader in the space is Sequoia Capital China. They have successful struck gold across multiple industries, from ByteDance, SHEIN, CANVA, Bitmain, and Genki Forest. Each of these companies has strong hold on their market position and no ceiling on the future. They have a keen ability to find companies who not only succeed but more than 15X the original Funding for the companies

Sequoia Capital China Key Investments

$100B Valuation | ECommerce & D2C | 50.0 V/F Ratio

$100B Valuation | Artificial Intelligence | 22.5 V/F Ratio

$180B Valuation | Internet & Software | 69.9 V/F Ratio

$12B Valuation | Hardware | 15.7 V/F Ratio

$15B Valuation | Consumer & Retail | 20.8 V/F Ratio

Unicorns Companies by Locality

Which Industries have been the most successful and why?

We'll take a look at which Investment Funds have been successful.

The Countries that are leaders in these special companies.

What companies success standout amongst the Unicorns

Key Question to Analyze

3. Are there any Industries that are highly successful in certain Countries?

1. Which Countries are leaders in terms of quantity of these companies?

2. Are there any Cities that stand out in terms of quantity of these special companies?

3. Are there any Industries that are highly successful in certain Countries? ( More than 5 companies with >= $5B in valuation.)

1. Which Countries are leaders in terms of quantity of these companies?

The Top 5 Countries are the United States, China, India, the U.K, and Germany. The two Countries that clearly stand out are the United States and China.

1. United States

   - 550 companies, 52.26% of Worldwide companies meeting this criteria

Companies that have >= 50 Unicorns:

• San Francisco

• New York City

• Beijing

United States

555 Companies

52.26% of World Wide Unicorns

2. China

   - 170 companies, 16.01% of Worldwide companies meeting this criteria

2. Are there any Cities that stand out in terms of quantity of these special companies.

**In order to narrow in on cities that truly stood out I filtered out all cities that had less than 50

3.1 ( More than 5 companies with >= $5B in valuation.)

China also making an appearance is no surprise . They are global leaders in the Ecommerce & direct to Consumer market and in the Hardware Industry.

The United Kingdom plays a major role in the Fintech Industry as well which seems to represent a trend.

The United States dominates in overall quantity of companies, so its hard to see a solidified trend in (>= $5B ) companies for a particular industries. However it does seem as though they have a significant hold on the Fintech and Internet and software Services industries.

3.2 In order to further analyze the United States Impact the Fintech and Internet and software Services industries I found there percentage of total companies in each industry Individually.

Fintech

United States: 53.60%

Internet & Software Services

United States: 72.41%

4. Bonus: To better understand how the statistics stack up for each country I created this dashboard to analyze the important KPIs for Individual Countries:

• Valuations

• Company Count

• Average Valuation

• Average Funding

• Count of Super Companies ( $8B+ in valuation and >= 20:1 Value/Funding Ratio)

Conclusion:

The United States is very dominant in almost every area.

IV. Companies that standout in a Sea of Giants

Which Industries have been the most successful and why?

We'll take a look at which Investment Funds have been successful.

The Countries that are leaders in these special companies.

What companies success standout amongst the Unicorns?

Looking at the Top 5- 10 highest valuation Companies

Highest Valued Companies

Moderately High Valued and High ROI

Companies that have a moderate valuation in relation to the rest of the unicorn companies, and also have a high Valuation to Funding Ratio.

Companies who were highly successful (>$12B Valuation) and beat the odds with relatively low funding ( >$1Bin funding).

Companies who beat the odds

I looked at a variety of factors from Valuation, Country, Industry, return on funding, and the companies that stood out in one way or another amongst those with similar variables.

Companies that really stand out

Highest Valued Companies

Companies that Beat the Odds

Canva and Zapier stand out like a sore thumb.

They gave users a user friendly, low-to-no cost design alternative. They make there software usable for any size business or any type of person. They provide collaboration tools, and an extensive library of resources creating a need for the product without there users even knowing.

Over the years, Canva has created features that help their users make money. Utilizing Canva is no longer just a skill; it has become a means to democratize the ability for anyone to earn through creativity. They have capitalized on this and, because of their market position, there is no ceiling on what new ventures they can enter into, from AI to videography.

Because of this new world of Software service, Zapier was able to scale from $1million in funding to a $4Billion dollar Venture.

While Canva's got a strong position on a market, you can argue Zapier's business model is on another planet. The ability to automate workflows and connect a vast array of apps, catering to the increasing demand for efficiency and productivity in this new digital age.

By offering a freemium model, Zapier attracts a large user base with its basic features while generating revenue from premium plans that provide advanced capabilities and higher usage limits. Its user-friendly, no-code interface allows even non-technical users to create custom automations, broadening its appeal.

Additionally, Zapier's continuous integration of new apps and services ensures it remains versatile and indispensable, driving long-term user retention and market growth.

$572M $40B

$1M $4B

Funding Valuation

Funding Valuation

Moderately High Valued and High ROI (Super Companies)

Super Companies

Bytedance

ZongMu Technology

Shein

Dunamu

Stripe

DJI Innovations

Canva

Miro

Figma

I highlighted companies with valuations over $8 billion and a Value/Funding (V/F) ratio above 20 for their impressive efficiency in turning investments into substantial market value. These companies stand out for their scalability and profitability, achieving significant growth and market presence with relatively lower funding. Their ability to maximize returns on investment reflects strategic management, innovative business models, and strong market demand for their solutions. This efficiency not only positions them as leaders in their industries but also underscores their potential for sustained long-term success despite competitive pressures.

Conclusion: Companies that truly stand out

This last section is rather subjective in companies that I found to have an underlying factor that positioned them as a unique and successful across their Industry, Country, or any variables that seemed polarizing. One may look through the dashboards and take interest in other companies for a one reason or another.

SpaceX stands out for a variety of reasons. Their ambitious goals, Innovation and Tech advancements, and sole leader in space exploration. With Elon Musk as their leader, their success has been inevitable as they had an endless source of funding and innovation.

ByteDance true success lies in its flagship product, TikTok. The real reason for their success is their advance algorithm, which provides highly personalized content through massive user engagement and growth. The global reach and popularity amongst their app and their ability to integrate Advanced AI and Machine learning to further monetize their entity has positioned them for future success as well.

Shein has become a major player in the fast fashion industry by leveraging a highly efficient supply chain and direct-to-consumer model. By utilizing data analytics to predict fashion trends and streamline production, Shein can rapidly introduce new styles to its global customer base. Their competitive pricing, extensive product variety, and strong online presence have also contributed to their rapid growth and popularity among fashion-conscious consumers.

Canva is special for many reasons, but outside of being the only significant private company in Australia, Canva has revolutionized the graphic design industry by making professional-quality design accessible to everyone, regardless of skill level. Their intuitive, user-friendly interface, combined with a vast library of templates and design elements, enables users to create stunning visuals effortlessly. Canva’s freemium business model attracts a wide user base, while premium features generate significant revenue, contributing to their sustained growth and market leadership.

Zapier’s success in the automation and integration software industry stems from its ability to connect a vast array of apps and automate workflows without requiring any coding knowledge. By offering a freemium model, Zapier attracts a broad user base and generates revenue through premium plans that unlock advanced features. Its user-friendly interface and continuous addition of new app integrations have made Zapier an indispensable tool for businesses seeking to enhance productivity and streamline operations.

Zongmu Technology has emerged as a leader in the autonomous driving and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) industry by developing cutting-edge, AI-powered solutions. Their focus on innovation and safety has enabled them to create reliable, high-performance products that meet the stringent demands of the automotive industry. Strategic collaborations with major car manufacturers and continuous advancements in technology have driven Zongmu’s success and prominence in the market.

Genki Forest has achieved success in the beverage industry by focusing on healthier, natural drink alternatives with low sugar and no artificial additives. Their innovative branding and targeted marketing appeal to health-conscious consumers, particularly younger demographics. Leveraging effective e-commerce strategies, Genki Forest has expanded from China to international markets, maintaining agility through continuous product innovation and strategic partnerships. This approach has solidified their position as a leading player in the competitive beverage market.

Biosplice (formerly Samumed) has succeeded in the biotechnology industry by focusing on the development of regenerative therapeutics targeting tissue-level regeneration and disease-modifying treatments. Their proprietary small-molecule technology platform has shown promise in addressing a range of conditions, from osteoarthritis to cancer. Strategic partnerships, strong scientific research, and a robust pipeline of potential therapies have positioned Biosplice as a pioneering company in regenerative medicine, attracting significant investment and industry attention.

Giant Companies

Low Funding Industry Disruptors

Visionaries in normally underwhelming Industries

Conclusion

The Fintech and Software & Service Industries are clear leaders in $1B+ Private companies.

They have highest number of successful companies, (>40% of this dataset) due to their range of digital solutions, minimal overhead costs, and scalability.

Sequoia Capital China

As far as Investors go they are unmatched in their success. They have investments in some of the top companies across a variety of industries.

The United States if my far the leader in this space, and China is a distant 2nd.

The United States has more than 50% of the private $1B+ companies in the world as of March 2022. They have more than 72% of the successful software and Service Industries in this criteria.

The cities of San Francisco and New York City have more Unicorns than 90% of the Countries in the world.

SHEIN, Canva, Stripe, ByteDance, and SpaceX

These companies are giants with respect to all companies not just private. They have solidified their share of their market and have become market leaders. Outside of SpaceX, they all seamlessly monetize their ability to reach a global audience. SpaceX has Elon Musk and has aspirations unlike any other company that has come before them.

Zapier

Zapier has turned $1.2 million in funding to an unreal $4 Billion dollar company.

Thanks for reading.

Let me know what you think and message me for any questions about the dashboards or the findings.