A Spiegel article worth reading aptly summarizes the state of the global startup scene. It is striking that there are more and more unicorns worldwide, i.e. startups that are valued at over a billion dollars without being listed on the stock exchange. While there were a maximum of 39 worldwide in 2013, there are currently just under 400 "unicorns" on the move, according to the consulting firm CB Insights. Not only are the unicorns becoming more commonplace, they are also getting "fatter," in other words, their valuations are rising rapidly and are now in the double-digit billions. For example, room rental company Airbnb is valued at $30 billion, Elon Musk's space company SpaceX at $18.5 billion, food delivery company DoorDash at $12.6 billion, e-cigarette maker Juul Labs at $50 billion, computer game developer Epic Games (Fortnite) at $15 billion, and office space provider WeWork at $47 billion, and so on. Incidentally, the top of the long list is led by two Chinese companies, Bytedance ($75 billion) and Didi Chuxing ($56 billion).
Read the detailed article on: Spiegel.de