Sign up for the Daily Newsletter, sent exclusively to our premium subscribers. We break down the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community. Get the newsletter in your inbox everyday with a premium subscription.
Hi readers,
Once upon a time, in a magical forest, there lived a beautiful creature called a unicorn. Its coat sparkled like a rainbow, and it had a long, twisted horn on its head.
The unicorn danced through the forest, its hooves barely touching the ground. Its mane and tail flowed in the wind like waterfalls.
It was a symbol of beauty, magic, and wonder.
And then came Aileen Lee, a venture capitalist at Cowboy Ventures. Over a decade ago, she named the startups valued at US$1 billion or more as unicorns, thereby turning one of the most lively words in internet history into a not-as-exciting investment term.
In 2021, there was an impressive growth in the number of unicorns (the boring ones) in Southeast Asia. From five the previous year, the total count climbed to 26.
The timing was perfect; it was one of the most optimistic years for the region. But recently, many of those unicorns have lost the title upon reevaluation.
Startups like the crypto exchange Bitkub and the game developer Sky Mavis saw their valuations plummet, while others chose to go public, losing the status of unicorns as a result.
Since we began tracking unicorns in 2021, the count has decreased from 51 to 38. In 2023, only one new unicorn emerged, and in the first two months of 2024, another one, Silicon Box, was identified.
Now that the investing scene is becoming interesting again, it’d be fun to watch how the population of unicorns grows.
— Lokesh Choudhary, journalist at Tech in Asia
Top stories this week
Image credit: Timmy Loen
1️. A list of SEA’s unicorns and their early investors (Updated)
Silicon Box reaching billion-dollar status brings a glimmer of hope after Southeast Asia’s unicorn count dwindled from 2022 to 2023.
Hear it straight from the man who catapulted companies like Dropbox to phenomenal success
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
