From WB21 to Slack, These Are the 10 Fastest Unicorns to Reach a $1 Billion Valuation These are the 10 companies which reached unicorn status faster than any others.
By Bhavik Sarkhedi •
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In the startup world, cracking a $1 billion valuation is the most coveted status of success. Due to the rarity of this event, such companies have been dubbed "unicorns" and receive the highest level of admiration among their peers.
Of these hyper-elite, who did it faster than the rest? These are the 10 companies which reached unicorn status faster than any others.
1. WB21
Time to Unicorn: 2.08 years
Latest Valuation: $2.2 billion
Total funding to date: $23.73 million
Business activities: WB21 is a digital banking platform that launched just about one year ago. Over that span, WB21 saw crazy growth, reaching over 1 million users in September.
2. DidiChuxing
Time to Unicorn: 2.43 years
Latest Valuation: $35 billion
Total funding to date: $7.44 billion
Business activities: Didi is the "Uber of China" and recently partnered with Uber when the ride-hailing startup decided to withdraw from its costly battle with Didi over the Asian market.
3. Twitter
Time to Unicorn: 2.32 years
Latest Valuation: $13.34 billion
Total funding to date: Public
Business activities: As one of the top 10 largest websites and social networks in the world, Twitter has suffered a decrease in traction, valuation, and usership in recent years. Jack Dorsey, the founder and CEO, was brought back into the company to try to solve these problems.
4. Yello Mobile
Time to Unicorn: 2.28 years
Latest Valuation: $4 billion
Total funding to date: $202 million
Business activities: This conglomeration of over 70 startups which has raised $100 million from Formation 8, aims to acquire small startups in order to grow in market size.
5. Pinterest
Time to Unicorn: 2.46 years
Latest Valuation: $11 billion
Total funding to date: $1.3 billion
Business activities: Pinterest is the niche social media site with over 50 million active users in the United States alone. The network allows users to "pin" pictures and is predominantly used for fashion, design, travel pictures, and recipes.
6. Calient Technologies
Time to Unicorn: 2.02 years
Latest Valuation: $247 million
Total funding to date: $428 million
Business activities: Calient produces hardware for data centers. They saw exponential growth in the late 1990's reaching unicorn status, but in the following decade lost about 75% of their valuation.
7. Xiaomi
Time to Unicorn: 1.71 years
Latest Valuation: $45 billion
Total funding to date: $1.4 billion
Business activities: Xiaomi is a Chinese consumer technology company producing a majority of the Chinese smartphone market. They are sometimes referred to as the Apple of China due to the mass appeal and sleek design.
8. Akami Technologies
Time to Unicorn: 1.58 years
Latest Valuation: $11.28 billion
Total funding to date: Public
Business activities: Akami Technologies went public in 1999 and reportedly manages 30% of internet connections, which equates to around 2 trillion daily connections.
9. Groupon
Time to Unicorn: 1.46 years
Latest Valuation: $2.19 billion
Total funding to date: Public
Business activities: Groupon is a social platform for ecommerce, touting over 45 million active users and reported revenue over $3 billion annually.
10. Slack
Time to Unicorn: 1.25 years
Latest Valuation: $3.8 billion
Total funding to date: $540 million
Business activities: Slack is a B2B communication platform. The software allows companies to divide group messages into pertinent clusters and includes features to keep organizations talking effectively.
