Analysis: 142 startups, including 78 from the US and 22 from China, became unicorns in 2019, down from 158 in 2018; unicorns raised $85.1B vs. $139B in 2018
In 2019, unicorns were far from mythical and Crunchbase followed them every step of the way. This year (as of Dec. 25, 2019) …
Context & Ripple Effects
This year-end Crunchbase tally lands at the bottom of a cycle: after global unicorn funding was on track to surpass 2017's record through mid-2018, 2019 delivered a pullback on both counts — 142 new unicorns versus 158, and $85.1B raised against $139B. The steeper break is geographic: China minted 97 unicorns in 2018 alone, but only 22 in 2019.
The later coverage frames how temporary that trough was — 166 new unicorns had already been created by May 2021, more than all of 2020 — but with the mix inverted: CB Insights put the US at over two-thirds of new unicorns since October 2020 while China added just nine, so 2019 reads less as a plateau than as the hinge point where unicorn creation recentred on the US.
First-order effects
- Founders chasing the milestone faced a tighter market in 2019: fewer companies crossed $1B (142 vs. 158) on roughly 39% less unicorn-stage capital ($85.1B vs. $139B), making the round that confers the valuation harder to close.
- China's pipeline collapsed relative to its own prior year — 22 new unicorns against 97 in 2018 — leaving Chinese startups and their backers with far fewer fresh entries into the club.
Second-order effects
- With fewer but still-large rounds, capital concentrated at the top of the market: only five startups reached $10B-plus valuations in 2019, a base the 2021 coverage shows exploding to thirty decacorns once funding reopened.
- US investors captured a larger share of the shrinking pool, a lead that compounded — by mid-2021 the US accounted for 154 of the newest unicorns while Europe added 25 and India 11, suggesting 2019's contraction accelerated a reallocation rather than pausing it evenly.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, unicorn status stops functioning as a scarcity signal: annual cohorts now swing between roughly 140 and 160-plus even in a down year, pushing investor attention up the valuation ladder toward decacorn thresholds.
- The US-China split in unicorn formation points toward venture outcomes being decided increasingly by where late-stage capital is domiciled, with China's share of new global private-market winners structurally smaller than its 2018 peak implied.
The trend: Unicorn creation moves in cycles tied to late-stage funding availability — contracting in 2019, then surging past prior records by 2021 — while its geographic centre shifts decisively toward the US and away from China.