The billion-dollar tech unicorn is becoming rare again

27 octobre 2022 Tech

The hot social media network BeReal — which is gaining steam with young people as a casual alternative to Instagram — recently raised money, a key milestone on the path of any successful start-up.

It had all the elements of a buzzy start-up, like Snapchat, Clubhouse and Pinterest before it. It was popular with college students and even beat out social media video rival TikTok on Apple’s App Store. But when a report this month confirmed how investors valued the company, it was reportedly worth in the ballpark of $600 million — far short of the “unicorn” status of more than $1 billion many of its predecessors earned in frothier times.

A billion dollars may seem to be a big bet, but unicorn status for years has helped young companies attract employees and media attention, as well as offer founders runway to pursue new ideas and cachet with potential partners. Many now-established start-ups such as Airbnb and Uber that have shaken up long-standing industries depended on deep-pocketed investors to cover losses while they struggled to compete.