These Startups Were The Fastest To Become Unicorns

As you are reading this article someone from somewhere in the world is daydreaming to launch a start-up or actually making it a reality on paper. Other than being famous for their ideas, they all dream of joining the unicorn club. While some get the pass eventually, others may not be fast enough. When Aileen Lee coined the term in 2013, unicorns in the start-up sector were as rare as the mythical creature itself. Now there are 229 of them. And there are a few who made it to the club faster than the rest according to the CB Insights report. If you are curious to know them better, these are the fastest unicorn start-ups.

Here Are The 10 Fastest $1 Billion Exits In Startup History

Aim for the long race when starting a start-up. But that’s not the only way. Amidst the talks on mushrooming funding rounds and all that jazz, a gala exit became cooler than being a $1 billion start-up. The term $1 billion+ exit especially created a buzz in the sector last year with Wal-Mart’s $3.3B acquisition of Jet.com. It was, however, only the sixth fastest $1 billion+ exit. The deal as well, albeit impressive, was not among the biggest returns. Facebook’s $22B purchase of Whatsapp (raised about $58 million) becomes legendary in start-up history, as far as the size of returns among fastest exists are concerned. Among the top 10 fastest $1 billion+ exits, Facebook alone acquired 3 – Oculus, Instagram and Whatsapp. Check out them in detail below.

Top 5 Most Innovative Irish Start-ups

Irish start-up ecosystem is making news for all good reasons. Its 12.5% corporate tax rate is one of the lowest in Europe, making the country a prospective destination for multinationals. As a result, Ireland now has nearly 2,250 start-ups, same as Amsterdam. Amsterdam, however, has more than three times population. If that doesn’t demonstrates the growth of Irish start-ups well enough then here’s a list of top start-ups in Ireland to watch out for next year.