There are more than 1,200 most valuable private companies in the world, namely unicorns, according to the latest data collected by Crunchbase News.

Turkey got its first startup valued at $1 billion or more in early 2020 after Istanbul-based Peak Games was sold to the U.S.-based giant Zynga in a deal worth $1.8 billion.

It was soon joined by rapid delivery pioneer Getir, e-commerce platforms Trendyol and Hepsiburada and another game developer Dream Games, all of which saw their valuations vault above the billion-dollar mark.

Online retail-focused Trendyol and Getir did not stop there as they soon became Turkey’s first decacorns, with their valuations exceeding the $10 billion mark.

Both are fairly young, given that they were found in the last decade – Trendyol in 2010 and Getir in 2015.

The unicorn startups around the world have collectively raised more than $700 billion in funding over their lifetimes, the Crunchbase Unicorn Board list revealed.

They managed to achieve a new milestone this year, as they saw their value top $4 trillion for the first time ever, the data showed.

It marks a doubling of the value of the global unicorns from the end of 2020, when the 650 private companies on the list were altogether valued at around $2 trillion.

Also, the number of decacorns, startups valued at $10 billion or more, has reached 59, the report said. It means their count also nearly doubled, from 31 just a year ago.

Record year

Three of these decacorns stand as the most valuable private companies in the world with a value of above $100 billion.

These include Shanghai-based TikTok owner ByteDance, valued at $180 billion, payments platform Hangzhou-based Ant Group, at $150 billion, and lastly California-based space travel company SpaceX, which is valued at $100 billion.

Around 591 startups joined the unicorn list in 2021 in an unprecedented increase. On the other hand, around 141 companies exited, either through acquisition or initial public offering (IPO).

That marked a record year on both counts, as new unicorns tallied 167, while 58 companies exited in 2020.

First unicorn

Yahoo’s $1 billion investment in Alibaba back in 2005 that valued the Chinese internet and e-commerce giant at $2.5 billion marked the first unicorn round recorded in Crunchbase.

The deal granted Yahoo 40% ownership. It still owned 22.6% by the time of Alibaba’s IPO in September 2014, and Softbank held 34.4%.

The listing brought Alibaba $21.7 billion that saw its market value hit $231 billion, which still stands as the largest IPO ever.

Some 380 companies dropped off Crunchbase's unicorn list over time, with Meta, previously known as Facebook, standing as the most valued of these exits.

New unicorns on the way

There are startups in Turkey that have not yet been officially identified but are on the brink of becoming unicorns, including sahibinden.com, one of the country’s leading online shopping sites.

Another company is also in the line. Insider, a platform that helps optimize online marketing campaigns, is also expected to become a company to reach a billion-dollar mark.

Founded by CEO Hande Çilingir and other six partners, Insider could become Turkey’s first software company to achieve this milestone.

Also, one of the financial technology, cybersecurity and biotechnology startups is also expected to join the unicorn list, particularly after the legal regulations introduced over the recent year.