Fewer startups in North America are hitting the fabled “unicorn” valuation of a billion dollars in 2016, new data shows.
A new report from KPMG International and CB Insights suggests five companies became unicorns in the first quarter of 2016, a much smaller number than any quarter last year.
Funding is down, too—8% globally over the prior quarter.
Experts suggest there has been a “correction” in the market, particularly in Silicon Valley, and that we will now see lower valuations overall as investors tread with more reason.
“Skepticism of sky-high startup valuations, a non-existent IPO market, public market uncertainty, and larger macro-economic concerns resulted in a continued slowdown for investment and deals into venture capital-backed companies,” the report reads. “As existing unicorns battled negative press, downrounds and markdowns, only five new VC-backed Unicorns were minted in Q1’16.”
