Apr 21, 2023
By: Bharghavi NagarajuThere are 1,361 unicorns in the world this year and a third of the founders on this list are serial entrepreneurs, or people who have started many businesses in a row, as per The Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2023. Unicorns are startups with a valuation of $1 billion and above.
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A remarkable 71 unicorns were only founded since Covid began. This shows the super-fast value creation generated by industries like Web3, AI and cyber security, while also being a testament to the impact of serial entrepreneurs, the report said.
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“Serial entrepreneurs is a new trend that investors and governments are looking to, since these founders have the experience of running a business, building a team, attracting investors and thinking big. It is critical to a thriving startup ecosystem to encourage these people to live there,” Hurun said.
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Here are some of the more popular serial entrepreneurs whose companies have made it on to Hurun’s top Unicorns list this year.
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The co-founder of Tesla, recent owner of Twitter and the world’s second-richest person Musk co-founded three unicorns on this year’s list: SpaceX, OpenAI and The Boring Company.
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Rocket and satellite maker SpaceX overtook Ant Group to become the second-most valuable Unicorn in the world with a valuation of $137 billion, up $37 billion over last year. SpaceX is developing Starship, a super heavy lift-launch vehicle designed to be a fully reusable transportation system to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit and beyond.
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Musk co-founded ChatGPT owner OpenAI in 2015 but stepped down from the company’s board in 2018. OpenAI was one of the best-performing unicorns in the world in the past year. Valued at $20 billion, it jumped from 272th place to 17th in the Hurun list.
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With a valuation of $5.7 billion, The Boring Company is 131st on the Hurun list of top unicorns. The American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company was co-founded by Elon Musk in 2016.
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The co-founder of ride-hailing app Uber founded food delivery business turnkey operator CloudKitchens in 2017. With a valuation of $15 billion, CloudKitchens is 23rd on the Hurun list.
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Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba has another company on this list. With a valuation of $120 billion, Hangzhou-based Ant Group dropped one place to third in the Hurun list. It was the most valuable unicorn in the world, until ByteDance overtook it in 2021 after its high-profile failed IPO. In January, Ma relinquished control of the fintech giant.
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The Israeli-American billionaire businessman and investor co-founded co-working startup WeWork in 2010. He founded Flow, an American residential real estate company last year. With a valuation of $1 billion, it is ranked 1039 on Hurun’s list.
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Zeekr, an electric vehicle brand of Chinese billionaire Li Shufu’s Geely Holding Group, is ranked 30th on the list with a valuation of $13 billion.
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