In the startup world, the race to reach that unicorn status of a $1 billion valuation has become the name of the game. But which of today’s education companies reached their $1B+ valuation status the fastest?
Blitzscaling became the name of the game. This method of “high-impact entrepreneurship” involves growing as big as possible as fast as possible to squash out the competition. With low overheads and a get-big-fast strategy, digital start-ups began hitting billion-dollar valuations long before it made sense to cash in. And, in 2013, investor Aileen Lee christened these ever more common billion-dollar companies: unicorns.
A unicorn birth is when the company hits $1bn rather than when it was founded.
Only the tiniest fraction of start-ups will become unicorns. But today’s unicorns have a lot to teach about “efficiently building a viable company that is designed to attract investors and position you for a solid exit on a timetable that works for you” (according to BOSS Capital CEO Greg Shepard). So, ZenBusiness has identified the 959 companies classified as unicorns at the start of 2022 and analyzed their growth according to speed, industry, and the gender of the founding team.
Key Findings:
- The fastest unicorn in our study is AI firm Avant, which was founded in November 2012 and got a billion-dollar valuation in just one month and 16 days.
- French e-commerce start-up Veepee is the eldest continuing unicorn, reaching a billion-dollar valuation in July 2007.
- Germany is the country with the quickest average period from foundation to billion-dollar valuation (6years, 0months, 9days; not including countries with<2unicorns).
- Auto & Transportation is the sector with the fastest unicorn births: 5.25 years.
- In the U.S., the average time from founding to becoming a unicorn is 7 years, 3 months, and 13 days.
All the data compiled by ZenBusiness can be found here.
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