Startups are essentially ideas that are put to test in the real world. Success ratio is pretty slim, with around 9 out of 10 startups failing to meet desired targets. And among the ones that do succeed, only a few go on to achieve the coveted 'Unicorn' tag. It's when the valuation of the startup exceeds $1 billion.
In most cases, achieving Unicorn status can take several years. But there have been companies that have done it much faster. Some startups have achieved Unicorn status so fast that it almost seems impossible. For evidence, here's a look at some of the world's fastest unicorns of all time.
Pacaso - Founded in 2020, Pacaso is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company was founded by Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff. The company offers a unique service wherein a consortium of buyers can purchase single-family homes. This allows them to earn steady income, as generated through rentals. Buyers can also sell their share after 12 months of ownership. With its strong business potential, Pacaso achieved Unicorn status in 5 months 23 days of its launch.
iCarbonX - Founded in 2015, iCarbonX is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. The company was founded by Jun Wang, a Chinese genomicist who earlier worked as CEO of Beijing Genomic Institute (BGI). The company helps people optimize their health through recommendations sourced via a combination of factors such as genomics, lifestyle choices, bacteria and metabolites. iCarbonX achieved Unicorn status in 5 months 16 days of its launch.
ClickHouse - Founded in 2021, ClickHouse is headquartered in Portola Valley, California. The company was founded by Aaron Katz, Alexey Milovidov and Yury Izrailevsky. ClickHouse is essentially an open-source column-oriented DBMS (columnar database management system) that is used for online analytical processing (OLAP). It enables users to generate analytical reports with the help of SQL queries in real-time. ClickHouse achieved the Unicorn status in 2 months and 17 days of its launch.
NuCom Group - Based out of Unterföhring, Germany, NuCom Group was founded in 2018. It focuses on empowering digital consumer internet companies through a range of content, marketing and e-commerce solutions. NuCom Group is among the fastest to achieve the Unicorn status. It achieved that in just 1 month and 21 days of commencing operations. The company is valued at more than $2.2 million.
Avant - Based out of Chicago, Illinois, Avant operates in the financial technology industry. It was founded by Albert "Al" Goldstein, John Sun, and Paul Zhang. Avant uses advanced tech to offer customized loan solutions to customers. The company has a fully online process of sanctioning loans, which has made the entire experience a hassle-free affair for customers.
With no documents to be checked, the company has been able to function without the need for physical branches. Apart from United States, Avant also serves customers in Canada and the United Kingdom. Avant is the fastest to reach Unicorn status, in just 1 month and 16 days' time. It had commenced operations in 2012.
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