A unicorn is a term used to indicate a privately owned start-up that is worth more than $1 billion. Some examples of fintech unicorns include Funding Circle, Transferwise and Revolut.
In 2020, 76 new companies made unicorn status down from 120 in 2019, according to research by Tipalti, a new unicorn itself. The majority of the year’s new unicorns came from the US (62%), with 17% of these new unicorns being in the fintech industry (followed by e-commerce at 14% and internet software and services at 12%.
The most valuable of these companies which reached unicorn status this year is the National Stock Exchange of India, at a value of $6.5m, with other notable new unicorns including the learning marketplace Udemy, fitness clothing brand Gymshark, and insurance start-up Waterdrop.
The majority of the worlds unicorns comes from a small number of countries, with the US and China accounting for 72%, India 4.9%, UK 4.7% and Germany 2.4%.
The top ten most valuable companies which have reached unicorn status in 2020 according to Tipalti are:
- National Stock Exchange of India – Fintech
- Arrival – Auto & transportation
- GoPuff – E-commerce & direct-to-consumer
- HyalRoute – Mobile & telecommunications
- MessageBird – Mobile & telecommunications
- Waterdrop -Fintech
- Snyk -Cybersecurity
- Cazoo – E-commerce & direct-to-consumer
- Skydance Media – Other
- Via Transportation – Auto & transportation
