These 16 companies just became the first unicorns of 2018 by landing valuations of $1 billion or more

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

MedMen is the largest marijuana retailer in Southern California.

Amid the tech landscape, unicorns are few and far between.

Last year, CB Insights tallied the odds of becoming a unicorn - a company valued at $1 billion or more - at under 1%.

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But already, within the first few months of 2018, a total of 16 companies have overcome those odds and crossed the billion-dollar valuation mark. These companies, which were originally rounded up in a recent report by Pitchbook, are working to transform industries like transportation, medicine, entertainment, data analysis, and farming.

While most of the companies to reach unicorn status are located within the US, China was a notable contender with four companies making the list, and Romania celebrated its first unicorn to date, a robotic automation company called UI Path.

Here's the full roundup of 2018's freshly-minted unicorns: