Asian Companies Led The Way On New Unicorn Creation In January 2024

Eleven companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in January 2024 — the first double-digit monthly count in more than a year.

Six of the new unicorns are based in Asia, with three companies from China, and one each from Singapore, Hong Kong and India.

Three U.S.-based companies also joined the board last month, while in Latin America, one company joined from Mexico, and in Europe a single company from the U.K.

The 11 new January unicorns altogether added $16 billion in value to the board. They span AI, clean energy, semiconductor, quantum computing and AR, among other sectors.

Exits and delisted

Question-and-answer platform Quora was dropped from the board last month when it raised funding at a $500 million valuation, losing its unicorn status. No companies exited from the board in January.

The board now has more than 1,500 companies on it that represent a collective $5 trillion in value, though that’s based on the companies’ most recent funding values.

The new unicorn companies minted in January 2024 were:

AI

New York-based AI voice synthesis company ElevenLabs raised a Series B funding of $80 million led by Andreessen Horowitz as well as former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross from Y Combinator. The 2–year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
Bangalore-based Krutrim raised a $50 million Series A funding led by Matrix Partners India. The year-old company is building a large language model trained on local Indian languages as well as English. The company founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal was valued at $1 billion in its most recent round.

Clean energy

Guangdong, China-based Chunqing Technology, developer of electric vehicles powered by alcohol and hydrogen, raised $100 million in its first funding. The round was by Boyu Capital and Guangzhou Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund. The company is a subsidiary of Farizon Auto and was valued at $1.1 billion in this recent funding round.
Four-year-old Qiyuan Core Power Technology provides a network for electric truck battery replacement. The Shanghai-based company raised a Series B funding of $211 million and was valued at $1 billion.

Quantum

Colorado-based quantum computing company Quantinuum raised $300 million led by JP Morgan Chase. The 2–year-old company was valued at $5.3 billion. Quantinuum was created through a merger between Cambridge Quantum Computing and Honeywell Quantum Solutions in 2021.

Healthcare

Doc.com, a free telehealth platform providing basic care to the uninsured or underinsured, raised a $300 million funding led by Silver Rock. The 12-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion. Headquartered in Mexico, it has expanded to the U.S. market.

Transportation

Student transportation company Zum, based in Silicon Valley, raised $140 million in growth stage funding led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion. The service is deployed across 4,000 schools in the U.S., reducing costs for school districts, using AI for route efficiency, and providing parents with updates.

Web3

Six-year-old, Hong Kong-based crypto exchange HashKey Group raised a Series A funding of $100 million at a $1.3 billion value. The funding was led by OKX Ventures, the venture arm of crypto exchange OKX.

Semiconductor

Singapore-based chiplet design company Silicon Box raised a $200 million Series B. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion. Strategic investors include TDK Ventures, UMC Capital and Tata Electronics.

AR/VR

Ready-to-wear mixed reality glasses company Xreal — a competitor to Meta’s Quest and Apple’s Vision Pro — raised $60 million at a value of $1 billion. The Beijing-based company has raised a total of $300 million since its founding in 2017. The lead investors were not disclosed.

Media and Entertainment

Sports media holding company Minute Media, based in London, raised “tens of millions” in funding at a $1 billion valuation. After the funding, the company acquired STN Video, a sports-streaming platform from Canada.

Related Crunchbase unicorn queries

The Crunchbase Private Unicorn Company List (1,517)

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 Board.

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