Project Overview

This project explores global unicorn startups (private companies valued at $1B+) to identify geographic patterns, funding trends, investor dominance, and the evolution of time-to-unicorn. The goal is to provide both technical and business stakeholders with actionable insights on valuation hotspots, industry growth, and capital flow.

The analysis is based on a structured and cleaned version of a global unicorn dataset, with over 1,000 records across industries, countries, and funding rounds.

Objectives

• Clean and prepare the dataset (handling missing data and standardizing funding/valuation formats)
• Engineer useful features: Valuation ($B), Funding (M), Time to Unicorn, Year Joined
• Create visualizations that reveal global and regional trends
• Identify investor patterns and outliers
• Deliver actionable insights for both data teams and business decision-makers

Key Insights

1. Valuation Dominance by Region

• The United States and China contribute a disproportionate share of total unicorn valuation.
• When these top players are removed, valuation becomes more evenly distributed across Europe and Southeast Asia.
• Post-2020 unicorn formation shows continued geographic expansion.

2. Hardware Companies are City-Concentrated

• A clear concentration of hardware unicorns exists in Beijing, San Francisco, and London.
• These cities represent global innovation clusters for deep tech.

3. Investor Power Laws