There are a lot of discussions these days about so-called “unicorn” companies – startups that have achieved a valuation of $1 billion or more. But what makes a company a unicorn, and how do you go about building one? In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what makes unicorns so special, some unicorn companies’ cases, and more. So read on to learn more!
Origin of the Term “Unicorn”: When venture capitalist Aileen Lee used the word “unicorn” in 2013 to describe a company that had reached a billion-dollar valuation, she created an instant classic. The term has since been adopted by many successful startups as they strive for excellence and achieve extraordinary success through innovation – there are now over 100 unicorns worldwide!
What is a Unicorn Company?
A startup that reaches this status has achieved something extraordinary; they can raise billions of dollars from investors around the globe without even releasing any products or services yet!
A company becomes a “unicorn” when its valuation exceeds $1 billion – there’s never been an example like this before so we’re looking forward with excitement as more companies rise through these rankings… but until then? You can rest assured knowing your business will always be judged on what it does best: providing value for money while delivering results beyond expectations
Aileen Lee said: “I was trying to come up with a word that would make it easier to use over and over again. I played with different words like ‘home run,’ ‘megahit,’ and they just all sounded kind of ‘blah.’ So I put in ‘unicorn’ because they are – these are very rare companies in the sense that there are thousands of startups in tech every year, and only a handful will wind up becoming a unicorn company. They’re really rare.”
Decacorn
Decacorns are startups that have received a lot of investment and are worth more than $10 billion. They have shown a lot of growth, which is something other startups cannot imitate. These companies include some of America’s most valuable businesses. CBInsights lists 18 decacorn companies from all around the world including 10 based in our own country – the United States!
Hectocorn
The world’s most valuable companies are called “Hectocorns”. They’re tech, financial, and fintech firms with a market capitalization higher than $ 100 billion. There is another name for these corporations–they’re Super Unicorns!
Characteristics of a Unicorn Company
Most of the Unicorn Companys are all tech startups located around the Silicon Valley area near San Francisco, California–a lot can be attributed to their innovative minds and rapid growth! There’s also an increasing number who call New York or China home as well; let’s see what makes them so special…(some characteristics of a unicorn company)
Grow Fast Strategy: The “grow fast” strategy have approached by some startups that have been looking to take over their market and be different from competitors. However, this can lead to problems if the company ends up becoming trendy or enters a saturated industry where there will always be new players coming in with similar ideas as yours.
Use of Technology: Social media is a technology that companies use to try and reach unicorn status. They’ve been able to reach millions including people in investing world, has opened up a superabundance of opportunities for startups- not to mention artificial intelligence general computing e-commerce smart devices using them as well!
Buyouts: It’s no secret that startups are bought out every day. Sometimes it’s to gain access into an industry, other times they buy smaller companies and finally, there is also the possibility for larger firms with lots of profits at risk due to competition from newcomers in these industries can arrange a merger between both parties which will result in either way – win-win situation as well since value increases exponentially after such deals go through!
Available Private Capital: Private investors are funding startups at a record pace, leading to higher valuations for these businesses. The more rounds of private capital that can be raised in this way means there is an opportunity cost if you don’t take advantage and get your company onto the map before someone else does!
What Kind Of Companies Become Unicorns?
Entrepreneurs wonder about the keys to achieving success on such a grand scale, but becoming a unicorn company is a long way, some common points to identify the reason they become that kind of company are:
Social media are a powerful tool that Unicorns use to get the message across. They use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among other things for people who would like their product or services seen by others and always keep up with what is going viral on these platforms!
The customer’s experience is the center, this means engaging through every step of their journey – from before they even think about buying anything to after-sales services are complete A company can no longer just focus on one aspect or phase within these processes; instead, it must take into account all aspects so you’re sure your products match up accordingly!
Quick expansion, startups start and grow with a global mentality, so they apply many strategies to grow as quickly as possible. This kind of company has a scalable model and is open for international business.
With an extensive team, these companies benefit from very mixed professional profiles and this diversity is one of their strengths when it comes to creating disruptive ideas. Moreover, they are young organizations that value talent & creativity
The Most Valuable Unicorn Companies
- Bytedance
ByteDance is a Chinese multinational internet technology company founded to become the market leader in developing and operating content platforms.
Valuation: $140.00B - SpaceX
SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer, provider of space transportation services, space technology, design of rockets and spacecraft, founded in 2002.
Valuation: $100.30B - Stripe
Stripe is an Irish-American financial service and software company, that offers a powerful credit card processor that helps companies of all sizes to accept online payments easily.
Valuation: $95.00B - Klarna
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services provides short-term, point-of-sale loans for online and in-store purchases, so shoppers can buy now and pay later, combining the simplicity of shopping with the speed of online payment.
Valuation: $45.60B - Epic Games
Epic Games, is an American video game developer, that offers full-featured game engine technology, giving developers everything they need to bring their creative visions to life.
Valuation: $42.00B - Checkout.com
Checkout.com, a company based in London, processes payments for big clients like H&M, Farfetch, Klarna, and more, helping the business to offer more payment methods and currencies, to more customers.
Valuation: $40.00B - Grammarly
Grammarly is a Ukrainian American-headquartered, is typing assistant that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other apps
Valuation: $13.0B - Instacart
Instacart is a grocery delivery service that operates in the United States and Canada. The company offers its services via the website, app, or text notification for customers who have ordered from participating retailers to be delivered straight home by personal shoppers.
Valuation: $39.00B - Databricks
Databricks is an American company that has developed an innovative cloud computing platform to power modern data services. Their web-based software enables users of Spark – the future engine behind all things artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Valuation: $38.00B
The Last Unicorn Company´s
They say that a company needs to be innovative and creative for them to succeed, well these companies have been doing just that! They all share the same trait-they’re tech-savvy. If you don’t know about these unicorn startups then I’m sure as heck telling on ya 😉
Valuation in October 2021
- Shein is a Chinese retailer and has become one of the most popular fashion e-outlets thanks to the wide variety of garments it offers at affordable prices, Valuation: $15.0B
- Canva, the latest startup unicorn from Australia, is an online design and publishing tool to create visual content, everyone can design and publish everywhere. Valuation: $40.0B
- Nubank is a Brazilian neobank and the largest fintech bank in Latin America that focuses on solving financial problems for populations that traditionally could not access the principals banks of the country. Valuation: $30.0B
- Juul is an American company, that makes electronic cigarettes, atomizing nicotine salts derived from tobacco supplied by one-time-use cartridges. Valuation: $12.0B
Latin American Unicorns
In Latin American are unicorn companies such as Mercado Libre, Despegar and Rappi. These enterprises have also been created in the region which means that a unicorn company can be anywhere!
Pink Unicorns
Pink unicorns are those companies that were founded by women.The unicorn race is now even more female-heavy. So far this year, 10 out of 100 or so new unicorns have at least one woman as a cofounder!
The data shows that only 2% of venture capital investment goes to female entrepreneurs, and 0.4% is spent on startups led by Latin American women-which means they’re drastically underrepresented in this industry.
The Latin company Transparent Business, founded by Argentinian Silvina Moschini, became a unicorn after a valuation estimated at more than 1 billion US dollars, driven by the coronavirus pandemic. The company offers a solution to managing talent remotely, and it increased its value after the adoption of home office working policies in various parts of the world because of the pandemic.
Latin company Transparent Business, founded by Argentinian Silvina Moschini became a unicorn after a valuation estimated at more than 1 billion US dollars. The firm offers a solution to manage talent remotely and increased its value due to the adoption of home office working policies in various parts across the world because the coronavirus pandemic caused many companies worldwide to adopt this practice which increase productivity as well employee retention rate
There are many successful companies founded by women. Woman-owned businesses make up a large and growing percentage of the United States economy, and they are key drivers of job creation and innovation. Some US unicorn companies that have been founded by women are:
- Deel is a privately-held payroll and compliance provider based in San Francisco, California, founded by Shuo Wang in 2018. The company provides hiring and payments services for companies hiring international employees and contractors.
- 6sense is an Account Engagement Platform that helps B2B organizations to reconstruct their journey and growth by putting the power of AI, big data, and machine learning. The founder is Latane Conant.
- Savage X Fenty is an inclusive lingerie brand founded by Barbadian singer Rihanna. The line emphasizes confidence and inclusivity, for all genders sizes backgrounds! Along with the beautiful bras (and underwear)
- Laura Behrens started Shippo in 2012 with one goal: to help e-commerce businesses ship their goods. The company has since grown significantly and now offers an API that allows other companies to access shipping rates from all major carriers as well as a web application where users can view information about shipments including tracking numbers.
- Katherine Ryder, a mother, and entrepreneur founded Maven Clinic in 2014 to improve the health outcomes for women. The company offers fertility clinics as well other important services like pregnancy counseling or pediatric care that help companies retain diverse talent while improving employees’ overall wellness levels with its virtual clinic service from anywhere.
- Jennifer Bisceglie, the founder of Interos is a supply chain expert who has spent her career developing innovative solutions to help companies improve their resilience. The company believes that technology can be used as an empowering tool for businesses and workers in all aspects of business operations by providing transparency across departments so they know what needs attention before anything goes wrong.
Lessons from Unicorn Companies
We learn from all! and now we can learn some lessons from extraordinary unicorns:
Identify a problem and solve it
While it’s true that great business ideas come from solving personal problems, in this case, the founders of Airbnb didn’t start their own company to make money. They had an epiphany while they were struggling with where to stay when there are no hotels nearby for friends visiting from out of state or abroad; so instead renting out space became another way to generate income after having tested different market possibilities on themselves first by building websites and seeing what worked best before taking steps towards becoming unicorns!
Build a mission-driven company culture
WeWork is a private company valued at $20 billion, which offers shared workspaces in 20 US cities and other countries. The mission of this business speaks to entrepreneurs because they value what it stands for: doing something you love!
Make well-calculated moves
Atlassian has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, acquiring several companies that make enterprise software. In 2017 they spent $425 million to buy Trello which built excellent project management tools for them. This purchase made sense because the existing product from this competitor was better so it’s no wonder why Atlassians would want access!
The market is extensive and can accommodate multiple disruptive startups
The case of Lyft and Uber shows that even though one company was established before yours, it remains to be a big opportunity. It can be difficult when we’re faced with problems but if you want something solved don’t give up!
Find a target
The small-scale industries of today often face high competition from other companies in their same niche and with similar products as well; however, there’s no limit on how large an enterprise can grow if they’re willing to push themselves past any obstacles that come up along the way. Desktop Metal is a unicorn startup that found success in 3D printing and aerospace. They had ambitious goals but were able to find a niche market with some customers who needed their services very specifically.
World-changing initiative
An innovative idea can work, but now people are looking for a company or organization that changes the world, has a good purpose, and shows it through its mission. Such is the case of Tesla, its mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition towards sustainable energy”, and today it is a company valued at more than US$80 billion.
The unicorn companies we’ve looked at are big examples, but they can still teach us a lot about how to be successful in business. We’ve seen that the market is extensive and can accommodate multiple disruptive startups. We’ve also learned that it’s important to find a target, build a mission-driven company culture, identify a problem and solve them. If you keep these things in mind as you start your own business, you have a good chance of success. Are there any other lessons from the unicorn companies that you think are valuable?
The unicorn company is a new and exciting development in the business world, but it’s important to remember that your business will always be judged on what it does best. At The Digital Haus, we are committed to helping our clients grow their businesses by providing value for money while delivering results beyond expectations. If you’re looking for help in reaching your business goals, contact us today – we would be happy to discuss how we can assist you.
