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 was acquired by for $5.2 billion. That鈥檚 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 鈥檚 at an . Within a month of that funding, xAI in early February announced a merger with another Musk-led company, rocketmaker .

11 exits

Brex鈥檚 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 and , both foundation AI model companies based in China.

Here are January鈥檚 newly minted unicorns.

AI

• , an AI research lab focused on human collaboration, raised a $480 million seed funding led by and 1. The less than 1-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , an AI scientific research lab, raised a $180 million seed round led by , and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• AI evaluation platform raised a $150 million Series A led by 2听补苍诲 . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
• Voice AI startup raised a $143 million Series C led by France-based . The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. As part of its announcement, Deepgram disclosed the acquisition of , a voice AI startup for restaurants and drive-thru ordering.
• , an infrastructure company for voice AI, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , an AI networking company, raised a $200 million Series A led by , and . The 1-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• GPU marketplace raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , 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.
• , which manages a GPU marketplace, raised a Series C led by . The 6-year-old company was founded in Lithuania and is now headquartered in Miami. It was valued at $1 billion.

Manufacturing

• , a builder of factories for defense and the aerospace industry, raised a $131 million private equity funding led by . The 5-year-old Hawthorne, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• , a developer of no-code applications for manufacturing, raised a $120 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• 惭辞苍迟谤茅补濒-产补蝉别诲 , a manufacturing automation company utilizing modular robotics, raised a $90 million Series D led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , provider of security for cloud services in real time to protect from hackers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Tel Aviv-based , an AI security platform that integrates with existing security platforms to provide context on incidents, raised a $140 million Series D led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Belgium-based , a developer-oriented security platform, raised a $60 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• , an AI chip developer to run transformer models, raised a reported $500 million funding led by . The 3-year-old Cupertino, California-based company was valued at $5 billion.
• , an AI chip design company, raised a $300 million Series A led by . The less than 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $4 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Stablecoin payments platform raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Crypto payments network raised a $75 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Healthcare

• Maternity healthcare provider, 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.
• , a co-ordination platform for medications across doctors, pharmacies and patients, raised a Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• Paris-based , an autonomous drone maker, raised a $200 million Series B led by aircraft manufacturer . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a builder of secure software for the defense industry, raised a $136 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old Colorado-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Fintech

• Tokyo-based brokerage infrastructure provider raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• India-based , a payment infrastructure provider, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Fitness

• , an owner of physical fitness brands and the parent of , raised a $785 million private equity financing led by . As part of the transaction it announced a merger with . The San Luis Obispo, California-based company was valued at $7.5 billion.

Autonomous Driving

• Toronto-based , a self-driving technology company, raised a $750 million Series C led by and ,valuing it at $3.8 billion. The 5-year-old company announced a partnership with to support robotaxis.

Social media

• , 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 raised a $150 million Series D led by 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

• ESG compliance software platform raised a $100 million Series C led by , a joint venture between and . The 7-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Energy

• , 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.

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• (1,684)
• (596)
• (37)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (868)
• (494)
• (226)
• (38)
• (470)

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• A Growing Share Of Seed And Series A Funding Is Going To Giant Rounds

Methodology

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on SA国际传媒 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� 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 .

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. SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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The financing builds upon the April news that Nuro had raised $106 million in the first tranche of that Series E.

The $6 billion valuation represents a decrease from the $8.6 billion Nuro was valued at in 2021 after raising a $600 million Series D led by .

In total, the Mountain View, California-based company says it has raised over $2.3 billion in funding since its 2016 inception.

Notably, the new round of funding included participation from , returning backer , and new investors , , and .

Nuro says the new capital will go toward the scaling of its 鈥淎I-first鈥� autonomous technology as well as the growth of its commercial partnerships.

In recent years, Nuro faced some major challenges, including and changing its business strategy, moving away from its delivery vehicles for packages to now licensing its autonomous driving software.

The move seems to have been a wise one so far.

In July, the company a partnership with and Uber to launch a 鈥渘ext-generation鈥� global robotaxi service.

鈥淭he closing of our Series E reinforces the strong conviction our investors and strategic partners have in Nuro鈥檚 technology, our scalable approach to commercialization, and our vision for the future of autonomy,鈥� said , Nuro鈥檚 co-founder and president, in .

Funding to autonomous driving tech bounced back in 2024, with 鈥檚 massive $5.6 billion round led by significantly helping the total reach $12.6 billion, per SA国际传媒 . In 2023 that number was only $5.9 billion. So far this year, funding is trending far lower than last year 鈥� with just over $2 billion flowing into autonomous driving tech startups.

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• Autonomous Driving Startup Nuro Raises $106M At $6B Valuation

During the peak of the last bull market, dozens of startups took this quick route to market, merging with publicly traded shell companies, or s, in lieu of a traditional IPO.

Looking back, most of them didn鈥檛 work out so well, in areas from to autonomous driving, and vertical farming 鈥� the list goes on. It was enough to give SPACs a bad name.

Well, maybe not quite enough. Those who thought the SPAC chapter of market history was written and done haven鈥檛 been following recent developments. Over the past few weeks, a new crop of blank-check companies have announced plans to merge with target companies in areas like crypto, autonomous vehicles and nuclear power.

Meet the new SPACs

These aren鈥檛 small deals either.

In the venture-backed startup space, the highest profile deal features , a provider of autonomous trucking technology. Two weeks ago, the Silicon Valley company plans to go public through a merger with a SPAC at a pre-money valuation around $2.5 billion.

Other noteworthy merger announcements in recent weeks include:

• Cancer therapy developer last week that it plans to carry out a merger with a biotech-focused SPAC at a pre-money equity valuation of $1.3 billion.
• , a new venture co-owned by and that is focused on accumulating Bitcoin, will merge with a blank-check acquirer at what it says will be a 鈥減ro-forma enterprise value of $3.6 billion.鈥�
• Two nuclear energy companies also announced SPAC deals. , a developer of micro-modular nuclear reactors, last week that it plans a merger at a $475 million pre-money equity valuation. A few weeks earlier, , a developer of nuclear plants using molten salt reactor technology, a deal at a $925 million pre-money equity value.

Different times

Obviously, much has changed since the last SPAC merger boom. Investors are more skeptical, having been burned before.

鈥淚t won鈥檛 be a repeat of 2021,鈥� said , founder and CEO of , a provider of news and analysis on the space. 鈥淓xpect fewer moonshots and more discipline, both in deal size and execution.鈥�

The field of SPAC sponsors has also narrowed, per Marvin. Those taking blank-check companies to market recently are generally the more seasoned players in the space, with more reputable track records, she said.

In contrast to several years ago, there鈥檚 also a much smaller supply of new technology companies on public markets. With the tech startup IPO market still largely frozen, public investors have limited opportunities to buy stakes in emerging companies in hot growth sectors.

Volatile times, too

Dealmakers are also operating in an unusually volatile market environment, with tariff uncertainty in particular driving wild swings in major indices. Of late, declines have far exceeded gains, with the tech-heavy Composite Index down about 15% from its December high.

Several high-valuation companies on the verge of going public have also hit the pause button in recent weeks. This includes buy now, pay later service and ticketing platform .

In fast-changing market environments, one potential advantage of the SPAC path to market is that it requires less time and prep work for the target company. That means there鈥檚 less risk of prepping for a particular set of conditions, only to see an entirely new variable, like new tariffs, muck up forecasts.

Even so, upstart companies going public today face an investment environment that鈥檚 prone to sharp ups and downs. Moreover, whipsaw effects are intensified for newer players who lack a track record of reasonably predictable earnings and revenue.

And while SPACs sponsors may be doing things a bit differently this time around, it鈥檚 hard to forget that the space is associated with sharp share price swings. And unfortunately, those swings have historically been more down than up.

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Per SA国际传媒 , the largest global automakers 1听补苍诲 their affiliated venture funds have joined in at least 52 startup funding rounds this year, collectively valued at close to $2.8 billion. By deal count, the pace of activity is similar to what we鈥檝e seen in the previous four years.

Automakers are also leading quite a few rounds. Per SA国际传媒 , they served as lead investors in at least a dozen deals this year, putting over $1.3 billion to work. However, that鈥檚 a bit slower than other recent years, as charted below.

Autonomous driving

As for investment themes, the autonomous driving sector claimed the largest slice of funding. The biggest investment came in June, when agreed to pump another $850 million into San Francisco-based , which is restarting self-driving programs in several cities.

The next-biggest was South Korea-based , which describes itself as an 鈥淎I mobility company,鈥� with a focus on technology enabling autonomous vehicles. The company picked up $183 million in a – and -led round in June.

These large automaker-led financings come amid a broader upsurge in funding around self-driving vehicles. It鈥檚 an area that, despite producing its share of flameouts, continues to tantalize with the vision that, some day, autonomous vehicles will safely shuttle along our streets en masse.

Autonomy was one of a few themes that captured automakers’ interest. To illustrate, below we used SA国际传媒 to assemble a list of seven recipients of the largest automaker-led rounds this year.

EVs and supply chain sustainability

With electric vehicle adoption still gradually on the rise, automakers are also investing in startups offering more sustainable approaches to producing batteries and sourcing materials to make them.

On this front, Oakland, California-based , which develops ion exchange technology for lithium extraction, is one of this year鈥檚 larger fundraises. The company secured $145 million in a February round that included among its backers, and plans to extract lithium from the Great Salt Lake.

Also this year, , a German company developing environmentally friendly liquid fuel from CO鈧� and hydrogen, raised $129 million in a financing round from backers including .

Automakers who were particularly active

SA国际传媒 data shows that some automakers are much more active than others in startup dealmaking.

So far this year, has been one of the standouts, participating in 10 startup financings, mostly deals by its venture arm, . Its activity skews early stage, backing rounds from seed to Series B. Most recently, Toyota Ventures participated in a $31 million Series A for , an energy storage technology developer.

and its VC arm, , have also been active, with eight startup investments, including Cruise.聽 Most recently, General Motors Ventures participated in a $39 million July Series B for , a U.K. startup focused on improving battery efficiency.

has also kept up the pace of dealmaking through its BMW i Ventures investment arm, with seven deals this year. Most recently, it participated in a Series A for , a cloud simulation company.

Challenging times

Automakers鈥� startup investments this year come amid a challenging period for the industry, with higher rates pushing up purchasing costs and continued hurdles associated with the long transition to electric vehicles.

That said, staying competitive means there’s still a vested interest to take stakes in and keep up with startups technologies associated with popular themes like autonomous driving and sustainable EV production.

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Other investors participating in the round include 1, , and .

The Austin, Texas-based startup designs and manufactures autonomous surface vehicles 鈥� basically drones for the that move along the water surface. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $245 million, .

“We are creating an entirely new capability for the maritime domain, one that delivers naval power without the costs and delays of a shipyard,” said CEO in a . “As the future of naval warfare will rely on manned and unmanned teaming, we must build solutions that easily integrate into the existing fleet and can be produced at scale to meet any emerging threat.鈥�

Defense tech feels the heat

Saronic鈥檚 new round comes just about a week after Germany-based , which develops artificial intelligence software for defense, raised approximately $489 million in funding led by that valued the company at $5.4 billion. The startup designs software that helps boost weapons capabilities in drones and jet fighters, and improves battlefield decision-making.

With the new rounds, global venture dollars in defense tech so far this year has now passed $1 billion, per SA国际传媒 .

That is still behind last year鈥檚 pace, when such funding hit nearly $2 billion for all of 2023.

However, as we have said in the past, it only takes one big fundraise in this sector to get back to last year鈥檚 pace.

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It鈥檚 a sad ending to the startup that emerged in 2017 armed with $1 billion led by Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker Ford. That same year saw a burst of autonomous vehicle startups, and venture funding in the space jumped from $1.1 billion to $5.2 billion between 2016 and 2017, according to SA国际传媒 data. The number of funding deals also increased by 39%.

But it looks like that love is starting to fade. Ford said in a third-quarter earnings call Wednesday that Argo AI wasn鈥檛 able to attract new investors. (Argo AI raised an unknown amount of corporate financing led by back in 2021, per SA国际传媒.) So Ford was shifting gears and allocating fewer resources to autonomous vehicles.聽

A rocky road for AV

So far in 2022, we鈥檝e seen around $4.7 billion in venture investment for autonomous vehicles 鈥� the lowest since 2017. In fact, funding in 2022 is still more than 10% lower than 2017.聽

It鈥檚 too early to tell, however, if investors are pumping the brakes on self-driving technology. Funding decreased between 2019 and 2020, but saw a massive uptick in 2021 (which I鈥檓 going to call an outlier, given how much money was pumped into every sector that year). And 2022鈥檚 less-than-favorable numbers could be attributed to the economic situation that followed.聽

Ford says it will likely buy autonomous-vehicle technology down the road. , Argo AI鈥檚 other backer, pulled out of the company and will continue working with its in-house autonomous-vehicle developer and expand its partnership with , 鈥檚 autonomous-driving software that went public earlier this year.聽

Mobileye was valued at a little more than a quarter , and . Perhaps predictable: Earlier in October, SA国际传媒 News found that self-driving vehicle companies have lost a combined $41 billion in stock market valuation since 2020.

We don鈥檛 know what the future holds for autonomous vehicles. For now, Argo AI will be dismantled for parts and shared between Ford and Volkswagen.聽

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Then, the SPAC and IPO boom of 2020-2021 arrived. All of a sudden, companies in scores of sectors once confined to venture capital portfolios were widely available on public markets. Developers of technologies tied to self-driving vehicles were particularly well-represented, launching market debuts with collective initial valuations of over $50 billion.聽

But investors鈥� love affair with the space didn鈥檛 last. A SA国际传媒 analysis of 14 companies developing technologies tied to self-driving vehicles 1that went public in the past couple of years shows an average post-debut decline of more than 80%.

The worst performers鈥攁 list that includes autonomous truck developer and LiDAR technology companies and 鈥攁re down over 95% or more. Both Quanery and Embark also completed reverse stock splits this year to lower the danger of delisting, only to see further valuation declines.

For a full rundown of how these 14 companies have performed, we put together a chart, seen below, showing valuations at time of debut compared to now:

VCs are still investing

Given the public market鈥檚 rapidly decelerating interest in the space, one might expect to see venture investors put the brakes on big rounds for private companies tied to autonomous driving. That hasn鈥檛 entirely been the case.

We鈥檙e still seeing some big rounds this year. For instance, London-based , developer of what it describes as a 鈥渘ext generation鈥� autonomous vehicle technology driven by machine learning, pulled in $200 million in a Series B, bringing total investment to over $450 million. (It should be noted that this was in January, before public markets posted their most severe declines).

Meanwhile, , a developer of advanced roadways tailored for connected and autonomous vehicles, pulled in $130 million in an April Series A co-led by . Several China-based companies have also secured big rounds, including , a developer of autonomous vehicles, and , which focused on automating vehicle safety features.

Still, things are way down from 2021, particularly for large, later-stage rounds. We aren鈥檛 seeing financings similar in stage or size to last year鈥檚 biggest round in the space, a $600 million Series D for , which makes self-driving electric vehicles for local deliveries. Obviously, pre-IPO rounds aren鈥檛 happening either, given both the state of the IPO market and the condition of already public companies in this industry.

It鈥檚 not about profits

As we ponder the causes of the great 2022 sell-off of stocks related to LiDAR and self-driving vehicles, one possibility can immediately be stricken from the list.

No one is dumping shares in these companies because profits are down. They never had profits in the first place.聽

It鈥檚 also unclear to what extent revenues might be a driver. Those that have sales are by-and-large early in their scaling, while others are still pre-revenue. This was never a bet on present earnings but rather on the future potential of a massive technological shift.

If we look at valuations of the worst performers on our list, it appears investors have mostly given up.聽

Take Embark Technology, which develops software to power self-driving trucks. The San Francisco-based company was valued around $5.2 billion when it went public in November through a SPAC merger. It had raised over $117 million as a private company, pulled in another $614 million for its public offering, and counted and among its lead backers.

Just a year after its debut, Embark is valued at less than the cash reserves it had at the end of its last quarter. Shares are down a whopping 97% from their debut price.聽

So, just to put it in perspective: This would be like if the price of your $1 million California house went down in a few months to just $30,000. It鈥檚 pretty catastrophic.

For Embark, which is pre-revenue, it鈥檚 tough to say what could be the catalyst for such a cataclysmic decline. By the same token, it鈥檚 also difficult to surmise what supported that $5.2 billion valuation just 11 months ago. Investors just aren鈥檛 paying what they used to for this kind of thing.

In coming quarters, it鈥檒l be interesting to see which companies that went public during the 2020-21 window of opportunity have regained investors鈥� favor. For now, it鈥檚 looking like pretty much the whole autonomous driving unicorn herd has headed downhill fast.

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