Publication

Unicorns

2025

Abstract

Unicorns are private companies with post-money valuations of at least $1 billion, where the valuation is calculated by multiplying the per share price of the most recent financing round with the fully diluted number of common shares (with convertible preferred shares and both issued and unissued stock options counted). Unicorns are a recent phenomenon; venture capitalist Aileen Lee coined the term only in 2013 (Lee 2013). When she introduced it, such$ 1 billion companies were very rare, hence the name unicorn. However, the startup world experienced the creation of an unprecedented number of unicorns in the decade leading up to 2022. This chapter provides some summary statistics on unicorns and describes changes in funding markets and startups’ business models that can help explain their existence.

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/7e995365-4865-46c3-8990-efc1cb1889e7

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2025

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/7e995365-4865-46c3-8990-efc1cb1889e7

About this result

Related concepts (29)

Preferred stock

Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt instrument, and is generally considered a hybrid instrument. Preferred stocks are senior (i.e., higher ranking) to common stock but subordinate to bonds in terms of claim (or rights to their share of the assets of the company, given that such assets are payable to the returnee stock bond) and may have priority over common stock (ordinary shares) in the payment of dividends and upon liquidation.

Financial market

A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial markets as commodities. The term "market" is sometimes used for what are more strictly exchanges, organizations that facilitate the trade in financial securities, e.g., a stock exchange or commodity exchange.

Stock

Stock (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the total number of shares. This typically entitles the shareholder (stockholder) to that fraction of the company's earnings, proceeds from liquidation of assets (after discharge of all senior claims such as secured and unsecured debt), or voting power, often dividing these up in proportion to the amount of money each stockholder has invested.