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In 2023, VC investments experienced a significant 44% year-over-year decline. North America was the most affected with a 48% decline, followed by APAC (31%) and Europe (17%).
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Despite the decline, the global entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to thrive, boasting 1,262 unicorns, although the number of new unicorns fell from 258 to 87 in 2023.
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OpenAI has emerged as a leading unicorn of 2023 with a valuation of $29 billion. Artificial intelligence (AI) dominated the top five valuations, accounting for $37.1 billion (78%), and semiconductors at $5.9 billion.
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The US is expected to lead the way in creating unicorns, with more than 2,000 potential candidates, with Canada, the UK and India also showing promising prospects.
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Technology and communications, financial services, power, and pharmaceuticals and healthcare are the key sectors in the potential unicorn space, accounting for more than 80% in total. In particular, pharmaceuticals and healthcare are aiming for significant expansion.
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AI and fintech are poised to dominate future unicorn creation, with healthtech and IoT expected to show significant growth.
Macroeconomic headwinds, exacerbated by rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions like the Ukraine war, have led to a decline in VC activity over the past two years. 2023 saw a significant economic downturn, with both transaction volumes and transaction values ​​reaching their lowest levels.
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Throughout 2023, North America remained a leading region in the global venture capital (VC) investment landscape, with an impressive performance with venture deal value reaching $118.6 billion.
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The Asia Pacific (APAC) region showed impressive growth, emerging as the second most active region with venture deals totaling $77.3 billion. Within the APAC region, prominent countries such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea played a key role in driving this significant growth.
The technology industry attracts the most venture capital funding, with the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and the financial services industry receiving the second and third largest shares of venture capital investment, respectively.
Cybersecurity plays a major role in the growth of technology, media, and communications. Biotechnology and customized medicines are contributing to the expansion of the medical industry. These advances not only enhance access to higher quality services, but also reduce production costs. Mobile applications, financial inclusion, and the adoption of AI are some of the factors driving the expansion of the financial sector.
The number of unicorns in the world will reach 1,257 by the end of 2023. However, this year saw the lowest number of new unicorns in five years, with a noticeable slowdown starting in Q3 2022.
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As of December 31, 2023, 1,257 unicorns have been identified around the world, valued at approximately $2.2 trillion.
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The number of unicorns born in 2023 was significantly lower than in 2022, with only 87 new unicorns born, a 66% decrease.
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In contrast, 258 new unicorn companies were created worldwide in 2022. Of this, North America and Asia Pacific accounted for approximately 77%.
In 2023, the global startup ecosystem faced major challenges due to geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic uncertainty, creating a difficult situation for investors and entrepreneurs alike. The year saw a noticeable slowdown in fundraising as investors became more cautious, favoring companies with strong business plans and clear routes to profitability.
Despite the overall slowdown, the US remains the world leader in creating unicorns, closely followed by China. What’s interesting is that the US was the only country to witness the birth of the Decacorn in 2023, with the tech community taking note of her explosive rise in OpenAI.
Only two startups reached unicorn status in 2023, a sharp decline from the stellar performance in 2022, when India had the second-highest number of new unicorns.
The year also drew attention to the growing impact of artificial intelligence, greatly facilitated by the breakthrough success of ChatGPT. Three of his top five unicorns in 2023 are AI-focused, highlighting the growing prominence and potential of this technology. This AI-powered chatbot has had a ripple effect on the startup scene.
Looking back at 2023, it is clear that a lot has changed in the funding landscape. Specifically, investors are becoming more selective and startups need to show they can bounce back and adapt when faced with challenges. The emergence of artificial intelligence and the continued leadership of the United States and China in the unicorn race signals that exciting times are ahead, even as the global startup community struggles to adapt to a post-pandemic world. It shows.
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The industries with the highest unicorn valuations in 2023 were technology and financial services.
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AI dominated the new unicorns of the year, marking an important trend in startup innovation.
The US is poised to maintain its lead, but India is predicted to surpass China in the number of unicorns born. However, China may slow down from its current pace. Meanwhile, significant growth is expected in the UK and Germany.
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Company Profile: Perplexity provides generative AI tools that act as answer engines. We utilize large-scale language models (LLMs) to answer questions, provide real-time information, and cite relevant sources for transparency and reliability.
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Business type: Deliver a comprehensive knowledge discovery experience through conversational applications and search engine platforms
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Headquarters: united states of america
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Solution focus: AI search
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Established: 2022
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evaluation: $520 million
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Total funds: $131.1 million
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Latest funding: $73.6 million (January 2024)
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Main theme: Artificial intelligence, conversation platform
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Customer type: B2B/B2C
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Company Profile: Gecko Robotics is a startup specializing in the development of industrial inspection robots. The company’s robots are designed to climb and inspect industrial infrastructure such as tanks, boilers, and other complex structures, providing detailed data about their condition without the need for dangerous manual inspections by humans. We provide
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Business type: Gecko Robotics operates on a subscription-based business model, providing robotic inspection services to industrial customers on a contract basis. The Company typically charges customers a recurring fee for access to the robotic inspection technology and data analysis services it provides.
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Headquarters: united states of america
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Solution focus: robot inspection
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Established: 2013
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evaluation: $633 million
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Total funds: $229.3 million
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Latest funding: $100 million (December 2023)
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Main theme: robotics
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Customer type: B2B
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Company Profile: Celestial AI develops optical interconnect technology platforms for compute and memory, enabling optically scalable and distributed data center compute and memory for the advancement of AI. The company’s technology supports sustainable business models and is integrated into Orion™ AI accelerators, facilitating independent scalability of compute and memory with optically interconnected high-capacity HBM memory (O-HBM) To do.
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Business type: Celestial AI’s business model revolves around monetizing advanced optical interconnect technologies through various channels including technology licensing, sales, ecosystem development, and support services.
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Headquarters: united states of america
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Solution focus: optical interconnect
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Established: 2017
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evaluation: ~$300 million
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Total funds: $165 million
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Latest funding: $100 million (June 2023)
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Main theme: AI chip
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Customer type: B2B
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Company Profile: Pliops develops cloud storage processor technology to power storage processors for database applications, consolidating multiple layers into a single high-speed device. This addresses scalability issues brought about by the proliferation of cloud data and increased demand for AI and ML, enabling faster data access while reducing compute load and power usage in cloud and enterprise data centers. I’ll make it.
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Business type: Pliops generates revenue through the sale or licensing of hardware and software solutions, in addition to maintenance and support service agreements.
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Headquarters: Israel
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Solution focus: cutting edge semiconductor
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Established: 2017
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evaluation: N.A.
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Total funds: $205 million
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Latest funding: $100 million (August 2022)
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Main theme: cloud
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Customer type: B2B
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Company Profile: Yu Life is a life insurance company that integrates wellness into its products and rewards policyholders for healthy behaviors. The company is powered by a digital platform that allows users to participate in health challenges and earn rewards for healthy living, supporting mental, physical and financial well-being.
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Business type: Yu Life makes its profit from the premiums paid by life insurance policyholders. It is tracked through the app and gives policyholders an incentive to participate in healthy activities.
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Headquarters: England
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Solution focus: insurtech
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Established: 2016
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evaluation: 800 million dollars
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Total funds: $206.64 million
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Latest funding: $120 million (July 2022)
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Main theme: insurtech
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Customer type: B2B/B2C
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Company Profile: Nymbus provides modern core banking solutions. The company’s main activities include the development and delivery of cloud-native platforms that support both traditional and digital retail and business banking. Nymbus offers a wide range of products and services including online banking, onboarding, lending, labs, banking as a service (BaaS), and operations. We also provide turnkey solutions for launching digital banks.
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Business type: Subscription-based SaaS model. We provide a cloud-based core processing platform for financial institutions, with additional revenue streams from implementation services, transaction fees, customization, data analytics, partnerships, and licensing.
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Headquarters: united states of america
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Solution focus: banking platform
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Established: 2015
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evaluation: N.A.
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Total funds: $194.2 million
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Latest funding: $70 million (May 2023)
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Main theme: digital banking, cloud
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Customer type: B2B
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Company Profile: Tally Technologies (Tally) offers a mobile app that helps users reduce credit card debt by analyzing their personal financial profile and extending new credit lines at lower interest rates. Additionally, the app facilitates credit card payments and helps users avoid late fees.
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Business type: Tally’s business model revolves around earning revenue through interest charged to users who hold balances. We do not charge annual fees, balance transfer fees, late payment fees, prepayment fees, or insufficient funds fees. Instead, they generate revenue by charging a lower annual percentage rate (APR) compared to users’ existing credit cards.
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Headquarters: united states of america
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Solution focus: digital lending
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Established: 2015
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evaluation: $855 million
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Total funds: $172 million
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Latest funding: $80 million (October 2022)
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Main theme: fintech
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Customer type: B2C
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Company Profile: Addi is a digital platform that offers buy now, pay later services. This allows customers to purchase products and pay in installments. The application also allows users to track their purchases, available limits, and payment history.
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Business type: The platform generates revenue through transaction fees charged to sellers for each sale made using its platform and through interest or fees charged to consumers on certain payment plans.
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Headquarters: Columbia
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Solution focus: BNPL
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Established: 2018
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evaluation: N.A.
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Total funds: $141.3 million
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Latest funding: $75 million (September 2021)
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Main theme: fintech
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Customer type: B2C