Understanding Unicorn Valuations

A guest post from newsletter writer Eric Newcomer.

Q: I keep seeing tech scaleups raise larger amounts than ever before. Do you have any insights on what is happening on this market?

I’ve also been noticing the surprising amount of funding, and the sky-high valuations recently. $1B valuations seem to be far more common, especially during the recent months. I was talking with long-time venture capital reporter Eric Newcomer on a related topic as we caught up over a video call.

Eric writes Newcomer, a deeply reported newsletter on the inner workings of the startup industry. In his latest issue, he covers the topic from various angles, and he generously agreed to share a good chunk of his subscriber-only issue with The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter readers (thanks, Eric!). You can check out to his newsletter - one of the most-read tech/VC publications on Substack - here:

This article, along with my comments (that are also comments on the piece) should give a better understanding on the market with several, previously unreported fundraising details. The aricle is an important reminder on the risks high valuations carry, especially for employees joining after these stages if they are still issued options instead of double trigger RSUs. Now, over to Newcomer:

Raising More With Less

It can feel like a new baby software as a service unicorn is born every day.