This new unicorn count took place in a funding environment where the most active unicorn investor, Tiger Global, is looking to sell its stakes in private companies, and investors continue to downgrade unicorn portfolio values.

The 10 companies hailed across nine different industries, and AI topped the list with two companies. Other sectors with a single new unicorn ranged from energy, biotech, robotics, enterprise SaaS and transportation among others.

Five of the new unicorns are U.S.-based and two are from China. Canada, Indonesia and Japan each counted one new unicorn this past month.

Around $5 billion of the $22 billion in global venture funding raised in May 2023 went to unicorn companies.  That’s less than half of the $11 billion that unicorns raised in May 2022. The largest funding last month went to fast-fashion e-commerce platform Shein, which raised $2 billion in a single round at a reduced valuation of $66 billion.

Here are the new unicorns:

AI

• Toronto-based Cohere, a generative AI large language model developer for enterprises, raised $270 million in its Series C funding. The funding was led by Inovia Capital  valuing the 4-year-old company at $2.2 billion. 
• Generative video AI company Runway, based out of New York, raised a $100 million Series D led by Google. The funding valued the 5-year-old company at $1.5 billion.

Energy

• China-based Ryefield Energy, a battery energy storage company, raised $140 million led by Sparkedge Capital. The company was valued at $1.4 billion.

Agtech

• Indonesia-based eFishery, developer of an IoT feeding device for shrimp and fish, and an e-commerce platform for aquafarmers, raised a $108 million Series D led by Abu Dhabi PE fund G42 Expansion Fund. The company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Cleantech

• Massachusetts-based Gradiant helps enterprises dependent on water reduce and treat wastewater. It raised a $225 million Series D led by BoltRock Holdings and Centaurus Capital in a round which valued the company at $1 billion.

Enterprise SaaS

• Restaurant management software company Restaurant365 based in Irvine, California, raised a $135 million round which valued the company at $1 billion. The funding was led by private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and L Catterton.

Proptech

• Proptech company Avenue One provides a platform of services from brokers, contractors and property managers for buyers of rental properties. The company based in New York raised $100 million led by WestCap valuing the company at $1 billion.

Transportation

• Tokyo-based GO, the leading ride hailing app in Japan, raised a $72 million Series D led by Goldman Sachs which valued the company at $1 billion. The company is also developing software to monitor safe driving practices.

Robotics

• Humanoid robot developer Zhiyuan Robotics based in Shanghai, raised its third funding led by Baidu Capital, valuing the company at $1 billion. The amount raised was not disclosed.

Biotech

• VectorBuilder, a gene delivery technology company headquartered in Chicago, raised a funding which valued the company at $1 billion.

Unicorn queries

• Unicorn leaderboard (1,460)
• Unicorns in the U.S. (721)
• Unicorns in Asia (458)
• European unicorns (197)
• Emerging unicorn leaderboard (376)
• Exited unicorns (426)

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.

Correction: The funding round for Cohere was updated to $270 million and its valuation to $2.2 billion based on an updated funding announcement.

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The company, which was founded in 2012, provides risk performance insights in the world of logistics. It works with the various touchpoints of the supply chain system such as shipping, weather and freight routes to improve efficiency and mitigate climate issues. 

Using predictive analytics, Everstream says it tries to help companies make game-time decisions on how to reroute its supply chains to lower its carbon footprint and operational costs while delivering goods faster. 

The California-based startup says it has helped companies achieve a maximum 30% reduction in revenue losses and 70% less time invested in managing risks. 

Logistics are losing love

Logistics were largely neglected in the venture world until the pandemic.

The rise in e-commerce habits jammed supply chains during the first two years of the pandemic, forcing investors to pay attention to new opportunities that could leverage existing technologies — the cloud, predictive analytics and AI — to improve the space. Logistics saw a flood of funding in 2021, with over $21 billion invested into the space, according to Crunchbase data. 

Then funding to logistics startups fell again in 2022 with around $11 billion invested, a 48% drop year over year. 

Project44, another logistics startup, raised $80 million in November. But it’s one of the rare raises in the space as the sector sees new entrants. 

Compliance is becoming an increasingly sticky issue in the world of logistics. Various countries have supply chain regulations that tax or ban companies that use logistics services involved in forced labor (like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act). The European Union also expects any imports or exports to meet its carbon reporting requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.  

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding rounds here.

Huge rounds were the theme of the week, as we saw six rounds of $100 million or more — including two of a half-billion dollars or more. What’s interesting is all the rounds came from different sectors — although one could argue two were in cybersecurity. While AI is dominating the headlines, investors placed bets in several other areas too this week.

1. Dreamscape, $850M, real estate: One of the difficult aspects of creating this list is trying to figure out what is debt and what is actually growth equity in many of these larger rounds. (This will come up again further down the list.) New York-based Dreamscape, a real estate development and investment firm, completed an $850 million capital raise this week. However, it’s unclear what was debt and what was equity. We do know Wells Fargo led the debt syndicate and Raymond James led the equity private placement, but that’s about it. We don’t know how much of that $850 million was equity. Regardless, it is a big raise. The firm will use the proceeds to create two new platforms: Dreamscape Entertainment Properties and Dreamscape Entertainment Integrated Resorts, both involving  gaming, hospitality and entertainment.

2. SandboxAQ, $500M, AI: Nearly a year after spinning out of tech giant Alphabet, AI and quantum computing startup SandboxAQ finally announced more funding details this week, saying it had raised a $500 million round. SandboxAQ is examining the related effects of both AI and quantum — which is where the company gets “AQ” — to develop commercial products for telecom, financial services, health care, security and other computationally intensive sectors. One aspect of security the startup is looking at is how companies and the government can replace current public-key cryptography algorithms with algorithms that are resistant to quantum computer-based attacks. Quantum computing is a level of compute much faster and at a level superior to classical computers that examines quantum states to perform computation. Investors named included Breyer Capital, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Thomas Tull, First Light Capital Group, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Guggenheim Investments, Time Ventures, Section 32, Parkway Venture Capital and other funds and investors.

3. Deepwatch, $180M, cybersecurity: Cybersecurity funding has proven resilient, even in this down market. Managed detection and response company Deepwatch is the latest in the sector to close a big round — locking in a $180 million round of “equity investments and strategic financing.” The financing comes from a handful of investors, including Vista Credit Partners — Vista Equity Partners’ “credit-investing strategy offering flexible, customized debt and structured equity financing,” per its website. However, the company declined to offer a breakdown of the round pertaining to equity investment and debt/credit. The Tampa, Florida-based startup reported 100% sales growth in 2022 while announcing the funding. Founded in 2019, the company has now raised $256 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Juniper Square, $133M, financial services: Ever wonder how GPs and LPs communicate? Well, one way is through San Francisco-based Juniper Square’s platform, which allows GPs and LPs to connect and manage their partnerships. The company announced a $133 million growth capital round this week led by Owl Rock. According to the company, more than 1,800 GPs use Juniper Square to help support more than 32,000 investment partnerships and $700 billion in LP capital. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $241 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.

5. Via, $110M, transportation: Nearly everyone has changed the way they travel and commute in the last several years. New York-based transit company Via locked up a $110 million round to help cities and agencies better traverse that changing landscape of transportation. The new round values the company at $3.5 billion and was led by 83North. The company ended 2022 with an annualized revenue run-rate of over $200 million, more than doubling since the previous financing round — a $130 million Series G in November 2021. Via plans to use the money to further expand its line of products that help cities and transit agencies improve the efficiency of their transportation systems. Founded in 2012, Via has now raised around $900 million, per Crunchbase.

6. R-Zero, $105M, biotech: Salt Lake City-based biosafety technology startup R-Zero closed a $105 million funding round led by the global investment firm CDPQ. Founded in 2020, the company has now raised more than $170 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Hexagon Bio, $77M, biotech: Menlo Park, California-based Hexagon Bio, a biopharmaceutical company focused on medicines encoded in the global metagenome, raised a $77.3 million Series B. New investors in the round include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Founded in 2016, the company has now raised nearly $271 million, according to Crunchbase.

8. NanoGraf, $65M, batteries: Chicago-based battery materials company NanoGraf raised a $65 million Series B led by Volta Energy Technologies and CC Industries. Founded in 2012, the company has raised nearly $90 million, per Crunchbase.

9. Checkerspot, $55M, advanced materials: Alameda, California-based Checkerspot, which designs materials used for outdoor recreational products, closed a $55 million Series C led by ArrowMark Partners. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $109 million, according to Crunchbase. 

10. Descope, $53M, software: Los Altos, California-based Descope raised a $53 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and GGV Capital and emerged from stealth. The company has launched a new authentication and user management platform for developers.

Big global deals

U.S.-based startups were not the only ones to raise rounds of a half-billion dollars or more this week.

• China-based Zeekr, which develops and manufactures electric vehicles, raised a $750 million Series A.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Feb. 11 to 17. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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These companies have raised $3.8 billion total in funding with 62% of that amount raised in September 2022. 

Six companies are U.S. headquartered. Two hail from India and one each from China, Thailand, Italy and Switzerland.  The majority of these companies were founded since 2018, while companies more than a decade old include Molbio Diagnostics and Wealthfront.

Here are the new unicorn companies:

Health care

• India-based Molbio Diagnostics, a molecular diagnostics company that builds portable devices to detect TB, HIV and Malaria as well as real-time PCR tests amongst other diseases. The company raised $85 million led by Temasek Holdings which valued the company at $1.6 billion. 
• New York-based Redesign Health invests in and incubates health care startups. It raised $65 million led by General Catalyst which valued the company at $1.7 billion. 
• India-based online medicine ordering company 1mg raised a $40 million funding led by Tata Digital which had acquired a majority stake in the company in 2021. The company is valued at $1.2 billion. 

Transportation

• EV charging infrastructure company TeraWatt Infrastructure, based in San Francisco, raised a $1 billion Series A funding led by Vision Ridge Capital Partners. The company operates charging stations for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. 
• China-based Lotus Technology, a subsidiary of Lotus Group, is a developer of electric vehicles, battery and self-driving technologies. It raised funding at a valuation of $4.5 billion.  

E-commerce

• Bangkok-based on-demand delivery startup LINE MAN Wongnai raised a $265 million Series B that valued it at $1 billion. The funding was led by GIC and LINE Plus Corp.
• E-commerce technology company Swiftly, based out of Seattle, helps retailers compete with e-commerce leaders. It raised a $100 million Series B extension funding led by BRV Capital Management valuing the company at $1 billion. Earlier this year in March it raised $100 million led by Wormhole Capital.

Financial services

• Milan-based Satispay raised a Series D funding of over $310 million led by New York-based Addition valuing the company at $1 billion. The company counts 3 million users that can bypass credit cards for payments to merchants as well as offering peer-to-peer payments. 
• San Francisco-based wealth management company Wealthfront mutually terminated a merger agreement with UBS and instead raised a convertible note of $69.7 million from UBS at a $1.4 billion valuation. 

Web3

• Silicon Valley-based Mysten Labs, founded by former Meta executives, raised a $300 million financing led by FTX Ventures which valued the company at more than $2 billion. The company was founded in 2021 and had the highest count of investors in this round with many active in blockchain including a16z, Coinbase Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners among others. 
• Switzerland-based 21.co, builder of cryptocurrency products, raised $25 million at a value of $2 billion. The funding was led by London-based investment firm Marshall Wace.

Cloud services

• Boston-based cloud storage company Wasabi Technologies raised a Series D funding of $125 million funding led by L2 Point which valued the company at $1.1 billion.  The company also raised the same amount in debt in order to invest in its infrastructure.

Three exits 

Three companies exited the board this past month. 

Figma was the single acquisition of a unicorn company in September 2022. Acquired by Adobe for $20 billion, it represents the largest amount paid for a private venture-backed company. 

Two life sciences companies from China exited the board via the public markets. MGI Tech builds genomic sequencing machines. It raised $516 million on its IPO on the Shanghai STAR Market. And biopharmaceutical company Biocytogen, which develops gene editing technologies for drug development, raised $60 million on its IPO. 

Crunchbase Pro queries listed for this article

All Crunchbase Pro queries are dynamic, with results updating over time. They can be adapted by location and/or timeframe for analysis.

• Unicorn leaderboard (1,413)
• Unicorns in the U.S. (706)
• Unicorns in Asia (436)
• European unicorns (194)
• Emerging unicorn leaderboard (353)
• Exited unicorns (406)
• Unicorn fundings in 2022 ($1101B)

Methodology

Funding rounds included in this report are seed, angel, venture, corporate-venture and private-equity rounds in venture-backed companies. This reflects data in Crunchbase as of Oct. 15, 2022. 

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. 

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

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That number remains the lowest count since August 2020, when nine unicorns joined the board. The 12 new unicorns added $19 billion in value to the board in August, which is still down from July when 14 new companies added $26 billion in value.

China brought two transportation unicorns to the board with a new electric vehicle company and a robo taxi service. Other overseas unicorns include an e-commerce wholesaler from Korea, a delivery platform in India, and a fintech application from Indonesia. The seven new unicorns from the U.S. focus on healthtech, blockchain, energy and entertainment. 

Of the new unicorns, SeatGeek enjoys the highest number of investors, with 44 including Accel and TCV. And Shiprocket counts 31 investors including Bertelsmann India Investments and Tribe Capital. 

Transport

• Shanghai-based electric vehicle company Zhiji Auto raised a Series A funding of $444 million valued at $4.4 billion. The company was jointly created by the SAIC Group and Alibaba.
• Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC’s autonomous taxi service arm SAIC Mobility raised $193 million at a value of around $1 billion. Based in Shanghai, SAIC Mobility is partnering with autonomous vehicle provider Momenta to develop the service. 

E-commerce and logistics

• South Korea-based Tridge, a wholesaler for buyers and sellers of agricultural produce, raised a $37 million Series D at a value of $2.7 billion led by DS Asset Management. It last raised a $60 million funding a year ago led by Forest Partners.
• New Delhi-based e-commerce logistics platform for shipping Shiprocket raised $33 million at a value of $1.3 billion. The funding was led by existing investors Lightrock and Temasek Holdings.

Health care

• Nurse recruitment platform Incredible Health, based in San Francisco, raised an $80 million Series B led by Base10 Partners and New York-based Stardust Equity. The company was valued at $1.7 billion. The company also announced it’s signing up more than 10,000 nurses every week and has reduced the average time to hire from 82 days to 14.
• Cambridge-based biotech Orna Therapeutics raised $221 million at a $1.5 billion valuation led by Merck. The company is developing RNA therapeutics to treat cancer, infectious diseases and genetic disorders. 

Web3

• Northern California-based Paystand, a blockchain billing and payments platform for business- to-business transactions, acquired Mexico-based Yaydoo, reaching a unicorn valuation through the transaction. Together, the companies have processed $5 billion in payments and connected 500,000 businesses.
• San Francisco-based Zebec raised $8.5 million, which valued the company at $1 billion. Zebec is built on the Solana blockchain, and its first product allows users to receive their payroll in USDC or stablecoins. Shima Capital, Resolute Ventures and Circle Ventures invested in the funding. 

Entertainment

• New York-based ticketing platform SeatGeek raised a $238 million Series E valued at $1.2 billion, led by Accel, which also led its Series B. The company raised funding as it pulled back on a SPAC deal. 

Energy

• Washington state-based nuclear energy company TerraPower raised $750 million in funding led by Bill Gates, its founder and chairman, and South Korea-based SK Group. TerraPower is a developer of nuclear energy solutions as well as nuclear medicine. 

Fintech

• Indonesia-based DANA Wallet, a digital wallet application, has raised $555 million, some of it in a secondary financing. Now valued at more than $1 billion, the company is part owned by Ant Financial. The funding was led by Lazada Group and Sinar Mas Group. The company says it has 115 million users in Indonesia for its fintech application. 

Real Estate

• Residential real estate company Flow, founded by Adam Neumann, raised $350 million in an initial funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $1 billion. The company is based in New York and is seeking to build a new service model for renters and homeownership. 

Methodology

Funding rounds included in this report are seed, angel, venture, corporate-venture and private-equity rounds in venture-backed companies. This reflects data in Crunchbase as of Sept. 7, 2022. 

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. 

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.

Update: Paystand acquired Yaydoo

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