Just 12 newly minted unicorns, or privately held venture capital-backed companies with post-money valuations of at least $1 billion, entered the Morningstar PitchBook Global Unicorn Index at its latest reconstitution completed in March. This represents a sharp drop from the fourth quarter of 2022, when 21 companies achieved unicorn status.
New entrants to the unicorn index series at its most recent quarterly restack came primarily from the US & Europe (4 each), with three coming from China and one from South America. Nearly half of the new entrants specialize in the Clean Technology space.
The largest new unicorn joiners include China-based MobilityTech company Zeekr, which recently completed a $750 million Series A funding, Germany-based CleanTech company Enpal, which recently completed a $228.4 million Series D funding and US-based Life Sciences company Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences, which completed a $150 million Series A funding.
There have been six departures from the Morningstar PitchBook Global Unicorn Index so far this year. Hesai Technology, Boan Biotech and Fenbi.com were the only three companies to exit via IPO, down from 6 IPOs in the fourth quarter. The UK-based CleanTech company Britishvolt went bankrupt but was acquired just one month later. Other recent M&A exits include Europe-based Supply Chain Tech company JOKR and US-based Mobile company SMS Assist.
Sandy Beharry, Senior Product Manager, Private Market Indexes at Morningstar Indexes:
“The quarterly reconstitution and rebalancing process for the Morningstar PitchBook Global Unicorn Index allows us to gain critical insights into the dynamic private market landscape by adjusting the index makeup to ensure it accurately reflects market changes. The outcome of this quarter’s reconstitution supports the notion that the drastic decline in the growth of unicorns that we witnessed in 2022 is not over yet.”
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