AI Unicorns Landscape
Meet the 140+ AI unicorns, the characteristics behind them and where we go from here.
Hey Readers 👋
Welcome back to another edition of New Economies, a regular newsletter exploring the latest technology trends shaping our world. In this edition, we discover the latest AI unicorns and the characteristics behind them. Additionally, we uncover and spotlight over 500 early-stage AI startups that should be on your radar.
Let’s get started!
Over the past year, AI has really hit its stride. What was once a buzzword is now a crucial part of business strategies across various industries. AI is not just another tech trend; it's transforming healthcare, finance, education, and shaping the future of work and daily life.
The Startup Landscape
The number of AI startups is surging as more founders seize one of the most promising opportunities of our time. If we look at the startups featured in our recent market maps covering AI Agents & Generative AI, most of them did not even exist a few years ago.
The Startup Fundraising Landscape (Q2 2024)
Funding to companies in AI more than doubled quarter over quarter to $24 billion — representing 30% of all dollars invested, the largest quarter for AI funding in recent years.
Five out of six billion-dollar funding rounds went to AI companies. Elon Musk’s xAI raised $6 billion, and AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave raised $1.1 billion. Automated driving company Wayve, data preparation company Scale AI and AI biotech company Xaira Therapeutics each raised billion-dollar rounds.
Aside from AI, global startup funding picked up in the second quarter, reaching $79 billion — rising 16% quarter over quarter and 12% from the $71 billion invested in Q2 2023. Mega-rounds — fundings $100 million and above — accounted for much of the increase this past quarter.
Meet the 140+ AI unicorns
Meet the 144 unicorn companies working in AI.
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When were these AI unicorns founded?
Since 2000, our data reveals that over 140 unicorns have emerged in the AI ecosystem. Notably, 28 of the AI startups founded in 2016 have already reached unicorn status.
As the startup ecosystem has matured, the number of unicorns has significantly increased in recent years.
Which universities did some of these unicorn founders attend?
Stanford University (USA): A leader in tech entrepreneurship, with founders from companies like OpenAI, Databricks, Inflection AI, PonyAI, and Anthropic.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT (USA): Known for innovation, with connections to founders of Scale AI.
University of California, Berkeley (USA): A hub for tech startups, including those like Databricks.
Harvard University (USA): Renowned for leadership and innovation, with alumni involved in companies like DeepMind.
University of Oxford (UK): A launchpad for tech founders, including alumni from Cohere and, ElevenLabs.
Carnegie Mellon University (USA): Specialises in AI and robotics, contributing to founders in the AI industry like those from Shield AI.
University of Cambridge (UK): Has a history of innovation, with connections to AI startups and companies like DeepMind and, ElevenLabs.
Where are these unicorns headquartered?
Based on the 144 unicorns featured in the market map, 64% are based in the U.S, followed by 14% in China and 4% in the U.K.
Insights:
The French AI ecosystem is gaining momentum, with companies like Mistral—OpenAI's rival—recently joining the ranks of unicorns. See here.
The U.K. has a robust tech ecosystem and is increasingly becoming a go-to destination for both local and international founders launching startups. Not only are a third of AI unicorns headquartered there, but many of the most reputable VCs also have a strong presence in the region.
AI Startup Valuations
In 2023, early-stage AI startups saw valuations that were over 20% higher compared to other companies securing fresh funding.
Valuations for early-stage AI companies in 2023 were significantly higher than those of non-AI startups. This trend extends to mid-stage companies as well — AI startups raising Series B rounds achieved valuations that were more than 1.5 times higher than their peers.
AI Investors
Among the AI unicorns listed, the following investors have the most frequent appearances, each having invested in at least one AI unicorn.
Looking for your next investor?
Looking to raise or interested in knowing who is investing in AI? Access our exclusive data room made up of 2,000+ active investors investing in AI used by hundreds of founders.
So, where do we potentially go from here?
AI startups focus on revenue
How many leaders can there be in each category within AI? From speaking to a number of investors for this piece, many are now focusing their efforts on ensuring their AI portfolio starts generating revenue if they are not already.
India will have 100 AI unicorns in the next decade
With $20 billion dry powder, India's AI startup ecosystem is definitely foreseeing unicorns. Read more here.
AI Agents
AI Agents have been around for a while, however, they are quickly evolving. These agents are like digital helpers. They're computer programs designed to do things for us, like playing games, answering questions, creating a sales pipeline or even performing our daily tasks that we don’t have time to do. Read how we will use them in the near future.
Climate
AI is rapidly becoming a critical tool in the fight against climate change. As the global community strives to mitigate the impacts of global warming, AI is playing an increasingly significant role in modelling climate patterns, optimising energy consumption, enhancing renewable energy sources, and driving sustainability initiatives across industries.
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