A complete of six companies joined the Crunchbase Unicorn Board in May, up from 10 recent unicorns in April and eight in May 2023. The AI and Web3 companies each had two, and five of the six recent unicorns are based in USA.
The biggest recent entrant was xAIwhich raised $6 billion and officially joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in May 2024. The company was valued at $24 billion.
About 50 so far this 12 months recent unicorns joined the management board, increasing the value by nearly USD 100 billion.
Additionally, several companies that have already priced unicorns have raised billions in funding rounds at higher valuations. It comprises CoreWeave, AI scales, Wizard AND Wayve. CoreWeave was valued at $19 billion, almost 8 times its 2023 valuation of $2.4 billion, on account of demand for AI-powered data center infrastructure.
The unicorn comes out
Most unicorn market exits last month were below recent private values.
Based in Hangzhou Zeekrelectric vehicle company went public NYSE value $5.2 billion. Zeekr was last valued at $13 billion in 2023. And a Bengaluru-based insurer Digital insurance listed on the stock exchange for $3 billion BSE AND NSE on Indian stock exchanges, $1 billion below its 2022 valuation.
Global investor Permira acquired a majority stake in the Israeli unicorn BioCatch, a biometric intelligence company, for $1.3 billion. It was the only exit above the last private valuation, a secondary financing in 2023 that valued BioCatch at $1 billion.
API security company Noname securitybased in Palo Alto, California, was acquired by a public cloud security company Akamai Technologies for $450 million, well below its 2021 valuation of $1 billion. And the Israeli parking app Black acquired a London-based ride-hailing app Ghetto for $175 million, a significant reduction from its 2018 value of $1.5 billion.
Here are the recent unicorns in May by sector.
artificial intelligence
- Elon Musk‘S xAI, a year-old modeling company based in Burlingame, California, raised $6 billion in Series B financing at a $24 billion valuation. The round participants include: Valor Equity Partners, You, capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Capital of Sequoia, faithfulnessPrince Alwaleed Bin Talal AND Kingdom Holding Co. among others.
- Based in the Bay Area WEKAa data platform for artificial intelligence applications, has raised Series E funds from existing investors in the amount of $140 million. Valor Equity Partners led the financing of the 10-year-old company that valued WEKA at $1.6 billion.
Web3
- Based in Los Angeles Farcastera decentralized social network built on Ethereum, raised $150 million Series A. The financing of the 3-year-old company was led by a cryptocurrency investor Paradigmwith participation from a16z cryptocurrency, Haun’s ventures AND Projects at Plac Unii among other things, valuing the company at $1 billion.
- Humanity Protocolunique blockchain-based identity platform powered by biometrics, raised $30 million in seed funding led by The capital of Kingsway. The company, founded lower than a 12 months ago, was valued at $1 billion.
Financial services
- Based in Los Angeles Altruistdigital wealth management service for wealth advisors, raised $169 million in Series E, led by Iconiq development. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
Data and analytics
Methodology
The Crunchbase Unicorn Board is a curated list of personal unicorn companies with a post-money valuation of at least $1 billion, based on Crunchbase data. There are recent companies added to the Unicorn Board after it reached $1 billion in funding round.
The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations – corresponding to those determined through the 409a process for worker stock options – because they are different from the valued financing round and will most definitely be lower. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor write-downs, which change quarterly, because different investors is not going to value the same company consistently in the same quarter.
Unicorn company financing includes all private financing of companies designated as unicorns, in addition to those who have since transformed into Coming out unicorn board.
The exits analyzed here include only the firm’s first exit.
Please note that each one financing amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currency echange to U.S. dollars at the spot rate in effect on the date financing rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if these events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, currency transactions are converted at the historical spot price.