Top 10 Valuable Startups of 2021
Photo: Mika Baumeister / Unsplsah
Entrepreneurs when start their startup journey, their only focus would be to have a successful impact in the society by having the problems solved from the idea the startup was born. Very few of the entrepreneurs would have thought that one day their startup will be among the most valuable startups in the world, surpassing hundred billion dollars in valuation.
Here are few of those startups that made it to the billion dollar club.
Bytedance ($250 billion)
With $250 billion valuation, Bytedance tops the list of most valued private startups of 2021. Bytedance, which is based in China, owns the most popular video app platform, TikTok, which recently passed one billion monthly active users, becoming the only Chinese app to do so. Bytedance is also behind the development of news aggregator app, Toutiao, which is mostly used in China.
Bytedance has a market share of 21% in China’s online advertising market and reported $58 billion in revenue for the year 2021, according to Reuters.
Alipay ($190 billion)
Owned by outspoken billionaire, Jack Ma, Alipay is a fintech company, which was forced, by Chinese regulators, to pull its record breaking $35 billion IPO. At its peak, Alipay was valued at more than $300 billion. The company was also forced to restructure its business payment business and loan business and also share the consumers’ credit data with state regulators.
One of the big investors of Alipay, Warburg Pincus, after Alipay IPO was pulled from the market, lowered the Alipay’s valuation by 2/3 to $190 billion, Reuters reported.
SpaceX ($100 billion)
SpaceX is an American aerospace company owned by larger than life billionaire Elon Musk. The company is credited with reviving the American leadership in the space industry as it becomes the first private company to send a spacecraft and astronauts to International Space Station and to develop a reusable rocket. In addition to spacecraft, SpaceX is also developing the satellite based internet service, Starlink, for which the company has launched more than 2,000 satellites.
SpaceX was once a nearly bankrupt company with 3 back to back launch failures. The company was eventually saved by the NASA’s contract, which was awarded after the successful launch in its 4th attempt.
Stripe ($95 billion)
Founded in 2009 by Collison brother, John and Patrick Collison, Stripe is a payment processing company, which helps businesses and startups from 120 countries to manage their payment activity. Stripe in its last fund raising round, which took in March 2021, raised $600 million at a valuation of $95 billion.
Klarna ($45.6 billion)
Klarna is a mix of both payment and e-commerce company. The Swedish company, founded in 2005, is mostly known for its Buy Now, Pay Later service. Klarna lets its users to divide the purchase in four equal interest free payment and earn reward point in every purchase made via Klarna. In addition to its more than 250,000 retailers, Klarna also operates shopping app where consumers can enjoy its Buy Now, Pay Later service.
In June 2021, the company raised $639 million from marquee investors including Soft Bank at a valuation of $45.6 billion.
Canva ($40 billion)
Canva is an Australian based design graphic platform, which is on a mission to empower the world to simplify the design process regardless of the background. Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, is the key person behind Canva, making it the only female founded startup in the list. Canva offers free as well as paid version of its services, enabling users to create designs for personal and business purposes.
Canva, according to TechCrunch, has raised more than $570 million till date and is valued at $40 billion.
Instacart ($39 billion)
Instacart is an American on-demand delivery service company founded in 2012. Instacart started as a grocery delivery company but has expanded to include prescription medicines, electronics and many more categories. Instacart was among the few companies that saw a massive jump in the valuation during the coronavirus pandemic.
The company is backed by multiple investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia capital and has raised $265 million in March 2021 at a valuation of $39 billion.
Databricks ($38 billion)
Founded in 2013, Databricks is the world’s first lakehouse platform in the cloud that help companies build data lakehouse across multiple cloud platform such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google. In August, 2021, the company raised eye-popping $1.6 billion at valuation of $38 billion and counts Andreessen Horowitz, and BlackRock among its investors.
Revolut ($33 billion)
Revolut is a London based fintech company founded in 2015 by a Russian and Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Revolut is a one stop solution for banking services, stock trading, crypto and currency exchanges. The company raised, in July 2021, $800 million from SoftBank Group and Tiger Global Management at a $33 billion valuation. The July funding round saw the Revolut’s valuation increased by 6 times from $5.5 billion to $33 billion in a single year, making Revolut as one of the most valued fintech company in Europe.
Epic Games ($28.7 billion)
The maker of popular video game, Fortnite, Epic Games is valued at $28.7 billion. Besides game, the company also runs game engine, Unreal Engine, which is used by game developers to develop video games. Epic games was recently in news for filing a lawsuit against Apple and Google, arguing that the both companies as a gatekeeper in the app business engaged in monopolistic business behavior by not allowing app developers to provide alternative channel of in-app purchase payment.
I bet these companies were never started with billion dollar valuation dream. The common thread behind all these startups was a solution to a problem which the founders of these companies challenged. And billion dollars valuation is a reward for the years of hard work, perseverance and the risk taken in the early days of the company.