This Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage Unicorns
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Joanna Glasner jglasner 0 Shares Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn As global venture funding kicks off this year at record-setting levels, startup investors are also minting new early-stage unicorns at an unprecedented clip. A total of 47 seed- and early-stage companies joined the unicorn ranks in the first quarter of this year, per Crunchbase data. Barring a major slowdown, that puts 2026 on track to deliver the largest cohort of young unicorns to date. This year’s newcomers follow a good-sized 2025 cohort of early-stage companies that secured valuations of $1 billion or more as well. Per Crunchbase data, 59 hit this valuation milestone last year, up about 50% from 2024. Over the past 10-plus years, meanwhile, the number of new early-stage unicorns has fluctuated widely, from a couple dozen to more than 100, as charted below. Recent early unicorns are all about AI Virtually all of the early-stage unicorns minted in the past couple quarters are AI-focused. This includes several of the most heavily funded newcomers. Examples include Project Prometheus, the physical AI startup launched by Jeff Bezos, Thinking Machines Labs, the foundational AI company co-founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, and Nscale, a London-based AI infrastructure unicorn that has raised over $5 billion. All this represents the opposite of a surprising development, given that 80% of global venture funding this past quarter went to AI. Additionally, later-stage AI companies are famously securing unheard-of private market valuations, with OpenAI and Anthropic recently valued at $852 billion and $380 billion, respectively. While we’re not seeing those kinds of numbers for more recently minted early-stage unicorns, several are hitting post-money valuations previously unheard of for such young companies.
Thinking Machines Lab, valued at $12 billion for its first funding, is reportedly looking to secure a $50 billion valuation for its next round. And 2-year-old Reflection AI, which secured an $8 billion valuation late last year, is reportedly seeking fresh funding at a $25 billion value. Fastest climbers In addition to their high valuations, many newcomers to the early-stage unicorn club are also noteworthy for the speed of their ascents. Quite a few unicorns minted in the last 15 months were founded in 2025. And one — Advanced Machine Intelligence — was apparently founded just this year. For a broader view, we used Crunchbase data to aggregate some prominent examples of recently founded early-stage unicorns. By now, some of our early-stage unicorns have also already moved on to later stage. Nscale, for instance, closed a Series C this month. And residential backup power provider Base Power closed on $1 billion in Series C funding in October, just eight months after its Series B. Others are already close to securing new funding at Series C and beyond. Was this the peak? Given the new funding records set last quarter, and the blistering pace of early-stage unicorn creation, it’s worth considering whether this could be the peak for the ultra-high AI newcomer funding rounds and valuations. After all, public markets haven’t done well in recent weeks, and private markets have a history of following suit. For those of us who’ve followed startup funding ebbs and peaks for some time, it’s clear the current environment shares characteristics of a market top. By the same token, top performing tech startups have long demonstrated that doubters are often wrong. Related reading: Investors Are Once Again Rapidly Minting Early-Stage Startups As Unicorns More Early-Stage Startups Are Getting Minted As Unicorns The Crunchbase Unicorn Board Illustration: Dom Guzman TagsAI defense tech semiconductors unicorn venture Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily. You may also like Artificial intelligence • Communications tech • Seed funding • Startups • Venture Exclusive: Miravoice, Builder Of An AI ‘Interviewer’ To Conduct Phone Surveys, Raises $6.3M Mary Ann AzevedoApril 2, 2026 Miravoice, a startup using AI voice agents to conduct long-form phone surveys, has raised $6.3 million in a seed funding round, the company tells... Artificial intelligence • Manufacturing • Robotics • Startups • Venture Exclusive: Anvil Robotics Raises $5.5M to Build ‘Legos for Robots’ Platform For Physical AI Teams Mary Ann AzevedoApril 2, 2026 Anvil Robotics, an eight-month-old startup that aims to be the “Legos for robots,” has raised $5.5 million in a seed funding round, it tells... Artificial intelligence • Startups • Venture Sector Snapshot: Venture Funding To Foundational AI Startups In Q1 Was Double All Of 2025 Mary Ann AzevedoApril 2, 2026 As of March 31, foundational AI startups had raised $178 billion across 24 deals, compared with $88.9 billion across 66 deals in all of 2025 in a... Economy • Job market • Layoffs • Public Markets • Startups The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker Crunchbase NewsApril 1, 2026 Over 127,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, per a Crunchbase News tally, and the layoffs have continued... Artificial intelligence • Communications tech • Seed funding • Startups • Venture Exclusive: Miravoice, Builder Of An AI ‘Interviewer’ To Conduct Phone Surveys, Raises $6.3M Mary Ann AzevedoApril 2, 2026 Miravoice, a startup using AI voice agents to conduct long-form phone surveys, has raised $6.3 million in a seed funding round, the company tells... Artificial intelligence • Manufacturing • Robotics • Startups • Venture Exclusive: Anvil Robotics Raises $5.5M to Build ‘Legos for Robots’ Platform For Physical AI Teams Mary Ann AzevedoApril 2, 2026 Anvil Robotics, an eight-month-old startup that aims to be the “Legos for robots,” has raised $5.5 million in a seed funding round, it tells... Artificial intelligence • Startups • Venture Sector Snapshot: Venture Funding To Foundational AI Startups In Q1 Was Double All Of 2025 Mary Ann AzevedoApril 2, 2026 As of March 31, foundational AI startups had raised $178 billion across 24 deals, compared with $88.9 billion across 66 deals in all of 2025 in a... Economy • Job market • Layoffs • Public Markets • Startups The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker Crunchbase NewsApril 1, 2026 Over 127,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, per a Crunchbase News tally, and the layoffs have continued... Artificial intelligence • Crypto • M&A • Regional • Seed funding • Startups • Venture Q1 Global Startup Funding Posts Strongest Quarter Since Q2 2022 With A Third Going To Massive OpenAI Deal April 3, 20257 Min Read