CBInsights has updated its 2020 summary, showing that 76 private startups achieved unicorn status (a unicorn is a private company that has a valuation of more than $1 billion) last year, including six from the UK:

• Sportswear label Gymshark;
• Food delivery service Gousto;
• Used car marketplace Cazoo;
• Electric vehicle developer Arrival;
• Cybersecurity firm Snyk; and
• Events software provider Hopin.

Other interesting statistics on this rare part of the private capital economy:

• A total of 76 companies achieved the milestone from around the world, with 62% of the new entrants being based in the US.
• COVID-19 apparently slowed down this part of the economy since 122 new unicorns appeared in 2019 and 126 in 2018.
• Fintech is the industry with the largest portion of unicorn value.
• The highest valued unicorn of 2020 is the National Stock Exchange of India (the largest of all time is still China’s ByteDance. CBInsights reports the current value of this tech firm at about £110 billion).
• There are currently (at least at the moment!) 528 unicorn companies globally with a total value of £1.35 trillion.
• The largest UK unicorn comes from the class of 2019: Checkout.com.

CBInsights maintains its current list of the world’s unicorns here.