Seven of Crunchbase's 38 September Unicorns Are Valued at About $1 Billion

Crunchbase counted 38 companies joining its Unicorn Board in September, adding about $71 billion in value, but its own list shows how thin the evidence behind the headline can be. Seven of the 38 are valued at about $1 billion, four more are listed only as "over $1 billion", and one, The Exploration Company, is shown at $2 billion although a report on its round states no valuation.

Crunchbase News published the tally on Oct. 14, written by Gené Teare. It puts 2026 at 311 new unicorns through September, on track to be the second-highest year after 2021, when the count topped 600. The same article carries a related list headed 321 for the year, a discrepancy it does not explain.

What the 38 are, by sector and country

Semiconductors led with five companies, followed by financial services and space technology with four each. Twenty-one of the 38 are headquartered in the United States, six in China and three in the U.K., with one each from eight other countries. The average valuation implied by the article's totals is about $1.9 billion.

1. United States21 companies
2. China6 companies
3. United Kingdom3 companies
4. Eight other countries, one each8 companies

Source: Crunchbase News, Oct. 14, 2026

September's 38 compares with an average of about 34.6 a month for the nine months, which is 311 divided by nine. That is above the monthly pace but not by a margin that suggests a turn.

Seven companies at the threshold

Crunchbase defines the board as private companies valued at $1 billion or more on a post-money basis, meaning the value after the new money goes in. Seven entries sit at $1 billion or about $1 billion: Micronano Core, Open Cosmos, EnduroSat, Biossil, Precision Neuroscience, Thatch and TAR. Verda, Kahua, Covenant and Arcee AI are listed as "over $1 billion" with no figure.

That is 11 of 38 companies, 29 percent, whose valuation is at or one unspecified step above the line that puts them on the board. A round priced at exactly $1 billion is a round priced to the label. It tells a reader what the investors and founders agreed to call the company, and it does not show what a buyer would pay.

Four space companies, and the stake each sold

Space technology supplied four entrants. Set the round against the valuation and the stake sold in the round comes out between 12 and 35 percent, an upper bound because it assumes the quoted value is post-money for the whole round.

Company	Round	Valuation	Round as share of valuation
The Exploration Company	$450 million Series C	$2 billion	22.5%
Hubble Network	$200 million Series C	$1.6 billion	12.5%
Open Cosmos	$346 million	$1 billion	34.6%
EnduroSat	$205 million	$1 billion	20.5%

Open Cosmos therefore sold up to roughly a third of itself to clear the bar. For The Exploration Company, Vestbee's report of the Sept. 9 round lists Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico and the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, as co-leads, about $680 million raised to date and no valuation. Deutsche-Startups wrote that the valuation was likely in the billions and cited an earlier report that the company aimed for $2 billion. Crunchbase's $2 billion may well be right. It is a reported target, not a number the company confirmed.

Entries where the arithmetic does not close

Crunchbase's own list holds a few lines that do not reconcile, and each is a reason to treat the board as a count of reported valuations rather than priced rounds.

• NIO Power: Geely Auto takes 30 percent for $95 million, and the company is valued at about $2.4 billion. Thirty percent for $95 million implies about $317 million.
• Félix: $200 million in total, of which $87 million is a Series C at $1.4 billion and $113 million is debt from General Catalyst.
• OG: valued at $5 billion on a Robinhood partnership with an equity stake of undisclosed size.
• AfterQuery: valued at $3.2 billion, with neither amount nor lead disclosed.

Debt, a partnership stake and a secondary sale, such as the $400 million secondary alongside Angle Health's $200 million Series C, can each carry a valuation, but none is a new equity cheque of the size the headline implies. A valuation can also stay standing while the company underneath struggles: Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 with a $20 million bid as the opening offer, and Mind Robotics, which has raised over $1 billion without showing a robot.

What would confirm the count

The unicorn label ages badly because it records a price at one moment. Two checks will say more than the September tally: whether The Exploration Company or its investors state the valuation, and whether any of the seven $1 billion entrants prices its next round above the line. Crunchbase's next monthly tally will show whether 38 was a peak or a pace.