A total of 31 companies joined
The Crunchbase Unicorn Board
in January, the largest count of companies to join in a single month since June 2022. Collectively, those companies added $9.3 billion in funding and $58.5 billion in value to the board.
And underlining the pace at which some startups are now sprinting to billion-dollar-plus valuations, four of the new unicorns are less than a year old.
In exit news, 9-year-old fintech unicorn
Brex
was
acquired
by
Capital One
for $5.2 billion. That’s well below its January 2022 valuation of $12.3 billion but still marks a win for earlier investors seeking liquidity.
Of the 31 companies that joined the board, 23 are U.S.-based and two hail from Canada. Germany, France, Belgium, Israel, Japan and India each added one new unicorn to the board last month.
Among sectors, AI and AI infrastructure contributed the most new unicorns, totaling nine from those two areas. The next-leading sectors, with three new unicorns each, were manufacturing and security propelled by AI. AI was also a major contributor to new unicorns in the semiconductor, defense and autonomous driving sectors.
The largest funding last month for a unicorn company was $20 billion to
Elon Musk
’s
xAI
at an
estimated value of $230 billion
. Within a month of that funding, xAI in early February announced a merger with another Musk-led company, rocketmaker
SpaceX
.
11 exits
Brex’s acquisition by Capital One was the largest of the four M&A deals for unicorn-valued companies in January.
On the IPO side, seven companies went public, the most high-profile of which were
MiniMax
and
Z.ai
, both foundation AI model companies based in China.
Here are January’s newly minted unicorns.
AI
Humans&
, an AI research lab focused on human collaboration, raised a
$480 million seed funding
led by
Georges Harik
and
SV Angel
1
. The less than 1-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
Flapping Airplanes
, an AI scientific research lab, raised a $180 million seed round led by
Google Ventures
,
Index Ventures
and
Sequoia Capital
. The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
AI evaluation platform
Arena
raised a $150 million Series A led by
Felicis Ventures
2
and
UC Investments
. The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
Voice AI startup
Deepgram
raised a $143 million Series C led by France-based
AVP
. The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. As part of its announcement, Deepgram disclosed the acquisition of
OfOne
, a voice AI startup for restaurants and drive-thru ordering.
LiveKit
, an infrastructure company for voice AI, raised a $100 million Series C led by
Index Ventures
. The 5-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
AI infrastructure
Upscale AI
, an AI networking company, raised a $200 million Series A led by
Premji Invest
,
Tiger Global Management
and
Xora Innovation
. The 1-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
GPU marketplace
PaleBlueDot AI
raised a $150 million Series B led by
B Capital
. The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
WebAI
, for secure AI run locally on devices, raised a Series A extension funding of an undisclosed sum. The 6-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
Cast AI
, which manages a GPU marketplace, raised a Series C led by
Pacific Alliance Ventures
. The 6-year-old company was founded in Lithuania and is now headquartered in Miami. It was valued at $1 billion.
Manufacturing
Hadrian
, a builder of factories for defense and the aerospace industry, raised a $131 million private equity funding led by
T. Rowe Price
. The 5-year-old Hawthorne, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
Tulip Interfaces
, a developer of no-code applications for manufacturing, raised a $120 million Series D led by
Mitsubishi Electric
. The 11-year-old Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
Montréal-based
Vention
, a manufacturing automation company utilizing modular robotics, raised a $90 million Series D led by
Investissement Quebec
. The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
Security
Upwind Security
, provider of security for cloud services in real time to protect from hackers, raised a $250 million Series B led by
Bessemer Venture Partners
. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
Tel Aviv-based
Torq
, an AI security platform that integrates with existing security platforms to provide context on incidents, raised a $140 million Series D led by
Merlin Ventures
. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
Belgium-based
Aikido Security
, a developer-oriented security platform, raised a $60 million Series B led by
DST Global
. The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
Semiconductor
Etched.ai
, an AI chip developer to run transformer models, raised a reported $500 million funding led by
Stripes
. The 3-year-old Cupertino, California-based company was valued at $5 billion.
Ricursive Intelligence
, an AI chip design company, raised a
$300 million Series A
led by
Lightspeed Venture Partners
. The less than 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $4 billion.
Cryptocurrency
Stablecoin payments platform
Rain
raised a
$250 million Series C
led by
Iconiq Capital
. The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
Crypto payments network
Mesh
raised a $75 million Series C led by
Dragonfly
. The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Healthcare
Maternity healthcare provider,
Pomelo Care
raised a $92 million Series C led by Stripes. The 4-year-old New York-based company with plans to expand healthcare services to women and children was valued at $1.7 billion.
Tandem
, a co-ordination platform for medications across doctors, pharmacies and patients, raised a Series B led by
Accel
. The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Defense
Paris-based
Harmattan AI
, an autonomous drone maker, raised a $200 million Series B led by aircraft manufacturer
Dassault Aviation
. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
Defense Unicorns
, a builder of secure software for the defense industry, raised a $136 million Series B led by
Bain Capital Tech Opportunities
. The 4-year-old Colorado-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Fintech
Tokyo-based brokerage infrastructure provider
Alpaca
raised a $150 million Series D led by
Drive Capital
. The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
India-based
Juspay
, a payment infrastructure provider, raised a $50 million Series D led by
WestBridge Capital
. The 13-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
Fitness
Playlist
, an owner of physical fitness brands and the parent of
ClassPass
, raised a $785 million private equity financing led by
Affinity Partners
. As part of the transaction it announced a merger with
Egym
. The San Luis Obispo, California-based company was valued at $7.5 billion.
Autonomous Driving
Toronto-based
Waabi
, a self-driving technology company, raised a $750 million Series C led by
G2 Venture Partners
and
Khosla Ventures
,valuing it at $3.8 billion. The 5-year-old company announced a partnership with
Uber
to support robotaxis.
Social media
Higgsfield
, an AI-powered video generation platform for social media, raised an $80 million Series A extension funding which brings its Series A funding total to $130 million. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
Education
Online tutoring platform
Preply
raised a $150 million Series D led by
WestCap
at a $1.2 billion valuation. The 14-year-old Brookline, Massachusetts-based company was founded by Ukrainians and maintains a team in Ukraine.
Compliance
ESG compliance software platform
Osapiens
raised a $100 million Series C led by
Decarbonization Partners
, a joint venture between
Temasek Holdings
and
BlackRock
. The 7-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.
Energy
Span
, a developer of a residential energy storage device for electricity and electric vehicles, raised a $163 million funding. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:
The Crunchbase Private Unicorn Company List
(1,684)
Exited unicorns
(596)
New unicorns in 2026
(37)
New unicorns in 2025
(186)
New unicorns in 2024
(115)
New unicorns in 2023
(102)
Unicorns in the U.S.
(868)
Unicorns in Asia
(494)
European unicorns
(226)
Unicorns from LatAm
(38)
Emerging unicorn leaderboard
(470)
Related reading:
High-Spending Investors Give 2026 An Active Start
In The Era Of Unicorn Valuation Escalation, A Trillion Dollars Isn’t What It Used To Be
Global VC Investment Surged In January, With U.S. Dominating Funding, But A Pair Of AI Model IPOs In China
A Growing Share Of Seed And Series A Funding Is Going To Giant Rounds
Methodology
The Crunchbase Unicorn Board
is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase data. New companies are
added to the Unicorn Board
as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.
The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.
Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to
The Exited Unicorn Board
.
Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.
Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.
Illustration:
Dom Guzman
SV Angel is an investor in Crunchbase. They have no say in our editorial process. For more,
head here
.
↩
Felicis Vantures is an investor in Crunchbase. They have no say in our editorial process. For more,
head here
.
↩
— Source: Crunchbase News (https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/ai-leads-unicorn-board-count-january-2026/)