Due to the COVID-19 pandemic technology adoption has rapidly grown amongst the masses leading to innovative offerings from startups, especially in areas such as EdTech and E-commerce which gained relevance during the pandemic. Thus, there was a growth in new unicorns across all the sectors in 2021 compared to the previous year. A total of 523 companies from 2021 have maintained their unicorn status, up five folds as compared to 100 unicorns from 2020.
The startup space was dominated by the technology sector, followed by financial services, retail, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals & healthcare, transport & logistics, medical equipment, construction, and media.
Of the 523 companies in the billion-dollar club, nearly 82% of these were in North America and the Asia Pacific. In H1 2022, a total of 212 new unicorns were born, with the North American region accounting for nearly 60% of the unicorns, followed by Europe with 17.5% of the total unicorns.
The startup ecosystem, which was on a unicorn creation spree in 2021, is currently facing a funding crunch as investors are looking for sustainable business models, valuations, and a path to profitability amid the volatile market conditions.
A total of 85 unicorns were created in Q2 2022 compared to 127 during the previous quarter. Despite the slowdown, 2022 remains ahead of 2020. In terms of valuation, Miro with a $17.5 billion valuation had the biggest valuation in H1 2022.
Startups to watch for in 2022
GlobalData’s unicorn prediction model analyzes deal value in each round, average investment per investor, number of top investors per round, and company sector. Out of 500+ Startups that became Unicorns in 2021, GlobalData’s AI-driven model correctly predicted 210 Unicorns. To explore the list of future unicorn startups: Disruptive Startups to Watch Out for in 2022 & Beyond.
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