Seven startups hit a valuation of $1 billion or more in 2010. By 2019, four of them have gone out of business or seen their valuations crumble.

Megan Hernbroth

Nov 26, 2019, 23:09 IST

Seven startups hit a valuation of $1 billion or more in 2010. By 2019, four of them have gone out of business or seen their valuations crumble.

REUTERS/Mike Blake

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live (WSJDLive) conference at the Montage hotel in Laguna Beach, California, October 21, 2015.

Some of the hottest startups from 2010 are struggling to get by or have gone out of business altogether, according to Pitchbook data.
Groupon, Theranos, and Better Place were three of the 7 startups that closed funding rounds in 2010 that helped them achieve unicorn status with a valuation at or above $1 billion.
Although funding rounds and subsequent valuations have increased in the years since, the data shows that not every high-flying startup can be a long-term winner.
SpaceX and AutoTrader were two smash hits in 2010 that have increased valuations over the last 9 years. According to Pitchbook, SpaceX was valued at almost $33 billion, and AutoTrader is valued at $7.2 billion, and both have remained private.
Groupon was the only unicorn of this cohort that went public, but has seen its market cap tumble from an IPO valuation of $12 billion to some $1.6 billion today.
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This last decade saw Facebook go from scrappy startup to global power; Uber from a car-ride concept to a verb. But the 2010s weren't especially kind to every single high-flying startup.

Looking back, the decade that is quickly coming to a close may mark a sea-change in Silicon Valley. The tech industry shifted from "Web 2.0" and social networking, to reinventing logistics and the workforce with self-driving cars and robotic pizza assembly lines. It was a dizzying pace of technological change, even in a region known for it.

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That change did, however, leave some behind.

Of the seven companies that achieved a valuation of $1 billion or more in 2010, four are valued at far less than they were at their peaks, or otherwise completely out of business, according to data from Pitchbook reviewed by Business Insider.

The most extreme example is Theranos, the blood testing startup helmed by the now-infamous founder Elizabeth Holmes. The most extreme case study in what has happened to Silicon Valley since 2010 is The company's rapid rise and chaotic downfall has inspired book deals, documentaries, a feature film, and Halloween costumes.

In 2010, Theranos raised $45 million at a $1.12 billion valuation, in its fourth outside round of funding. By 2014, the company had achieved its peak valuation of $9 billion - but went out of business in 2018, following a string of scandals and charges of "massive fraud" brought against Holmes.

There are some success stories from the unicorn class of 2010: Elon Musk's SpaceX and AutoTrader have so far stood out as breakout successes. But even those billion-dollar startups that survived through 2019 have hit some rough patches, with some like Groupon or Better Place, struggling to keep pace with the vision set almost ten years ago.

Here are the seven companies that hit the $1 billion valuation mark in 2010, and how they've fared since: