A total of 31 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in January, the largest count of companies to join in a single month since June 2022. Collectively, those companies added $9.3 billion in funding and $58.5 billion in value to the board.
And underlining the pace at which some startups are now sprinting to billion-dollar-plus valuations, four of the new unicorns are less than a year old.
In exit news, 9-year-old fintech unicorn Brex was acquired by Capital One for $5.2 billion. That’s well below its January 2022 valuation of $12.3 billion but still marks a win for earlier investors seeking liquidity.
Of the 31 companies that joined the board, 23 are U.S.-based and two hail from Canada. Germany, France, Belgium, Israel, Japan and India each added one new unicorn to the board last month.
Among sectors, AI and AI infrastructure contributed the most new unicorns, totaling nine from those two areas. The next-leading sectors, with three new unicorns each, were manufacturing and security propelled by AI. AI was also a major contributor to new unicorns in the semiconductor, defense and autonomous driving sectors.
The largest funding last month for a unicorn company was $20 billion to Elon Musk’s xAI at an estimated value of $230 billion. Within a month of that funding, xAI in early February announced a merger with another Musk-led company, rocketmaker SpaceX.
11 exits
Brex’s acquisition by Capital One was the largest of the four M&A deals for unicorn-valued companies in January.
On the IPO side, seven companies went public, the most high-profile of which were MiniMax and Z.ai, both foundation AI model companies based in China.
Here are January’s newly minted unicorns.
AI
- Humans&, an AI research lab focused on human collaboration, raised a $480 million seed funding led by Georges Harik and SV Angel 1. The less than 1-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
- Flapping Airplanes, an AI scientific research lab, raised a $180 million seed round led by Google Ventures, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
- AI evaluation platform Arena raised a $150 million Series A led by Felicis Ventures 2 and UC Investments. The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
- Voice AI startup Deepgram raised a $143 million Series C led by France-based AVP. The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. As part of its announcement, Deepgram disclosed the acquisition of OfOne, a voice AI startup for restaurants and drive-thru ordering.
- LiveKit, an infrastructure company for voice AI, raised a $100 million Series C led by Index Ventures. The 5-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
AI infrastructure
- Upscale AI, an AI networking company, raised a $200 million Series A led by Premji Invest, Tiger Global Management and Xora Innovation. The 1-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
- GPU marketplace PaleBlueDot AI raised a $150 million Series B led by B Capital. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
- WebAI, for secure AI run locally on devices, raised a Series A extension funding of an undisclosed sum. The 6-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
- Cast AI, which manages a GPU marketplace, raised a Series C led by Pacific Alliance Ventures. The 6-year-old company was founded in Lithuania and is now headquartered in Miami. It was valued at $1 billion.
Manufacturing
- Hadrian, a builder of factories for defense and the aerospace industry, raised a $131 million private equity funding led by T. Rowe Price. The 5-year-old Hawthorne, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
- Tulip Interfaces, a developer of no-code applications for manufacturing, raised a $120 million Series D led by Mitsubishi Electric. The 11-year-old Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
- Montréal-based Vention, a manufacturing automation company utilizing modular robotics, raised a $90 million Series D led by Investissement Quebec. The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
Security
- Upwind Security, provider of security for cloud services in real time to protect from hackers, raised a $250 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
- Tel Aviv-based Torq, an AI security platform that integrates with existing security platforms to provide context on incidents, raised a $140 million Series D led by Merlin Ventures. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
- Belgium-based Aikido Security, a developer-oriented security platform, raised a $60 million Series B led by DST Global. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
Semiconductor
Cryptocurrency
- Stablecoin payments platform Rain raised a $250 million Series C led by Iconiq Capital. The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
- Crypto payments network Mesh raised a $75 million Series C led by Dragonfly. The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Healthcare
- Maternity healthcare provider, Pomelo Care raised a $92 million Series C led by Stripes. The 4-year-old New York-based company with plans to expand healthcare services to women and children was valued at $1.7 billion.
- Tandem, a co-ordination platform for medications across doctors, pharmacies and patients, raised a Series B led by Accel. The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Defense
- Paris-based Harmattan AI, an autonomous drone maker, raised a $200 million Series B led by aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
- Defense Unicorns, a builder of secure software for the defense industry, raised a $136 million Series B led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. The 4-year-old Colorado-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Fintech
- Tokyo-based brokerage infrastructure provider Alpaca raised a $150 million Series D led by Drive Capital. The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
- India-based Juspay, a payment infrastructure provider, raised a $50 million Series D led by WestBridge Capital. The 13-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
Fitness
- Playlist, an owner of physical fitness brands and the parent of ClassPass, raised a $785 million private equity financing led by Affinity Partners. As part of the transaction it announced a merger with Egym. The San Luis Obispo, California-based company was valued at $7.5 billion.
Autonomous Driving
- Toronto-based Waabi, a self-driving technology company, raised a $750 million Series C led by G2 Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures,valuing it at $3.8 billion. The 5-year-old company announced a partnership with Uber to support robotaxis.
Social media
- Higgsfield, an AI-powered video generation platform for social media, raised an $80 million Series A extension funding which brings its Series A funding total to $130 million. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
Education
- Online tutoring platform Preply raised a $150 million Series D led by WestCap at a $1.2 billion valuation. The 14-year-old Brookline, Massachusetts-based company was founded by Ukrainians and maintains a team in Ukraine.
Compliance
Energy
- Span, a developer of a residential energy storage device for electricity and electric vehicles, raised a $163 million funding. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:
Related reading:
Methodology
The Crunchbase Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase data. New companies are added to the Unicorn Board as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.
The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.
Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to The Exited Unicorn Board.
Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.
Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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