Which Firms Back the Most Unicorns?

The question here is simple – which financial firms have the largest exposure to unicorn companies?  Take a guess, because the answer follows shortly.  But, before getting into the list, a review of the top unicorn companies follows.

The List of Unicorns

First, what is a unicorn?  A unicorn is a company with a private value of at least $1 billion.  These are some of the world’s most well-known companies, as well as companies you’ve probably never heard of.  Here’s the list.

On top of the list is Uber Technolgies, with the amount of venture capital raised in the past 18 months at over $6.6 billion.  Uber is followed by WeWork, which has raised about $1.8 billion over the past 18 months.

Other highly valued private companies that have raised lots of cash over the past year-and-a-half include according to Pitchbook’s most recent venture capital report include (amount raised over the past 18 months in parentheses) Airbnb ($1.0 billion), Pivotal Software ($653 million), Outcome Health ($610 million), Lyft ($600 million), Unity ($581 million), Wish ($500 million), Intarcia Therapeutics ($476 million), Moderna ($474 million), Domo ($473 million), SoFi ($453 million), Instacart ($449 million), Oscar ($400 million) and Houzz ($400 million).  The list gets quite large when considering companies that have raised less than $400 million in the past 18 months.

Source: Pitchbook

How many unicorns are there?  According the the private equity data aggregator Pitchbook, the number of unicorn companies has exploded in recent years, going from 1 in 2004 to 128 as of August 11, 2017.  Interestingly, growth has tapered off recently, with only 7 new unicorns in 2017.  In 2016, the world saw 10 companies enter the unicorn realm.

Source: Pitchbook

The Investment Firms Backing the Most Unicorns

Now the question at hand – which firms have backed the most unicorns?  Take your guess, because the answer follows.

Interestingly, the top backer of private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more is Fidelity.  Fidelity owns a stake in 34 unicorn companies.

The list of firms with investments in at least 20 unicorn companies includes (number of unicorn companies in which a firm has a investment in parentheses) Sequoia Capital (30), Andreessen Horrowitz (30), SV Angel (29), T. Rowe Price (27), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (27), GV (23), The Goldman Sachs Group (22), New Enterprise Associates (22), IVP (22), SharesPost (21), Tiger Global Management (21), Wellington Management (21), and Khosla Ventures (21).

The list gets much larger when considering all the firms with a stake in at least 1 unicorn company.

Source: Pitchbook

Conclusion

In a review of Pitchbook’s most recent unicorn report, some interesting findings emerge.  Among the most intriguing is the list of companies that back the most unicorns.  Interestingly, the top 6 backers include Fidelity at 34, Sequoia Capital at 30, Andreessen Horowitz at 30, SV Angel at 29, T. Rowe Price at 27, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers at 27.  Must be a good time to be a financial backer of some of the world’s most valuable companies.