New Unicorn Shuffle Thins Herd In Final Month Of 2022

More unicorn companies left The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in December than joined. In the final month of 2022, three companies joined the board whilst four dropped off and four exited.

Three unicorns in the crypto space faced bankruptcy in December 2022; FTX, BlockFi and Celsius Network. And door-to-door delivery service Oda, based in Norway, left the board with a valuation below its prior billion-dollar value.

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We estimate that many more companies will drop off the board, if given a new valuation in 2023. Half of the 1,400-plus companies currently on the board are valued at $1.5 billion and under.

So which companies are garnering fundings at high valuations?

The new unicorns

The three companies that joined in December 2022 include:

Shenzhen-based hydrogen fuel cell vehicle company SFCC raised $647.5 million in a Series B funding valued at $1.9 billion. Founded in 2016, the company was incubated by SPIC (State Power Investment Corp.), one of the largest energy groups in China. It aims to support the ecosystem of developing hydrogen fuel cells, vehicles and refueling stations.
Salt Lake City-based lifesciences quality and manufacturing solution MasterControl raised a Series A funding of $150 million led by Sixth Street. The funding valued the company at $1.3 billion. The company has grown to $100 million ARR without raising prior funding and is over three decades old.
London-based talent engagement platform Beamery raised $50 million in a Series D funding valued at $1 billion. Teachers’ Ventures Growth led the round. This is part of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which led the Series C funding in June 2021 that valued the company at $800 million. Beamery counts General Motors and Johnson & Johnson amongst its customers, “with net retention for Fortune 500 customers at 135%+” according to its latest funding announcement.

Four exits

Four companies left the current unicorn board and joined the exited unicorn list. These include Berlin-based delivery startup Gorillas, which was acquired by Turkey-based Getir for $1.2 billion. Gorillas was last valued in 2021 at $3.1 billion in a Series C funding.

And on the public markets side, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car sharing company Getaround was valued at $1.2 billion in its NYSE listing.

Two companies from China exited. Hangzhou-based Ecarx, an automation computing technology integrated into cars, went public on Nasdaq via a SPAC merger which valued the company at $3.8 billion. And Henan-based snack food brand Weilong Foods went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange valued close to $3 billion.

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Unicorn queries

Methodology

The Crunchbase Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase data. New companies are added to the Unicorn Board as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to the exited unicorn list.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration: Dom Guzman