Lucky 13: A Baker’s Dozen Join Unicorn List In July

New unicorn counts jumped in July, as 13 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board.

Nine of the new herd came from the U.S., while two healthcare companies joined from the U.K., a green energy company from China, and a bike taxi startup from India.

Four of the new unicorns this past month were under 3 years old at the time they were valued at or above $1 billion with one — a foundation model developer for robotics — launching out of stealth.

Healthcare/biotech companies took the lead with three companies that joined the board from this sector. Other industries each counted a single newly minted unicorn in July.

Who invested?

Across this group of companies a few investors have more than one portfolio company, which is impressive given the small count. While active investors were largely Silicon Valley-based, only two of the new unicorns are headquartered in Northern California.

Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and SV Angel 1 each invested in three portfolio companies across this batch. Sequoia invested in the most rounds with seven across its three portfolio companies.

Google Ventures, US Innovative Technology Fund, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital and angel investor Elad Gil each have two portfolio companies across this cohort.

Here are the new unicorns in July by sector.

VR AR

• Infinite Reality, a creator of 3D immersive environments, raised a $350 million funding at a $5.1 billion valuation from an undisclosed multifamily office. The 5-year-old Connecticut-based company acquired London-based LandVault, an in-game monetization platform, for $450 million.

Healthcare and biotech

• Element Biosciences, a DNA sequencing biotech company enabling genetic analysis, raised a $277 million Series D led by Wellington Management. The 7-year-old San Diego-based company was valued at $1 billion. Its customers include academia, biotech, cancer research and agriculture according to the announcement.
• London-based Flo Health, a women’s health app, raised a $201 million Series C led by General Atlantic. The 8-year-old company was valued at $1 billion. Flo has 70 million monthly active users and 5 million paid subscribers.
• London-based Huma, a remote patient-monitoring healthcare service, raised an $80 million Series D. It launched the Huma Cloud Platform, with regulatory approval to allow other services to provide digital monitoring and data collection. The 13-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Robotics

• Skild AI, came out of stealth with a foundation model for robotics. It closed on a $300 million Series A led by Bezos Expeditions, Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners and SoftBank. Investors participating include Felicis 2, Sequoia Capital, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, CRV, SV Angel, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and the Amazon Alexa Fund. The Pittsburgh-based company is a year old and was valued at $1.5 billion.

Professional Services

• AI native legal tech service Harvey raised a $100 million Series C led by Google Ventures. The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion. The company has raised seed through Series C funding in under two years with seed through Series B led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, respectively.

Energy

• China-based LONGi Hydrogen Energy, a green hydrogen company, raised a $138 million Series A funding. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.

Privacy and security

Media

• Cosm, an event venue entertainment company based in Los Angeles, raised $250 million from private equity and family offices. The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Logistics

• Supply chain management company Altana raised a $200 million Series C led by US Innovative Technology Fund. Its customers are governments and enterprises required to keep up to date with trade restrictions and enable procurement. The New York-based 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Fintech

• Burlingame, California-based Aven, a credit card that provides rates tied to home equity lines of credit, raised a $142 million Series D led by General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense tech

Transportation

• Bangalore-based Rapido, a bike taxi company raised a Series E of $119 million led by Westbridge Capital. The 8-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Methodology

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

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — 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 The Exited Unicorn Board.

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. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman