“Unicorn Rising: The Anticipated Return of Consumer Tech”

Consumer tech is bound for a comeback among unicorns, but maybe not just yetTen years after Cowboy Ventures’ founder Aileen Lee gave unicorns their nickname, she and her team are back with fresh analysis on private companies worth more than $1 billion. As the number of unicorns boomed from 39 to more than 532, Cowboy found that their very nature also changed. “The pendulum swung hard to enterprise, with 78% of unicorns today focused on B2B, the inverse of 2013,” Lee and her team member Allegra Simon wrote. But spending more than a decade in tech teaches you something: to be ready for the pendulum to swing back. Hence Cowboy’s prediction that “given the hard shift to enterprise,” we can “hope and expect more exciting consumer unicorns will be born in coming years.”

After ten years of dominating the consumer tech market, unicorns may be on the brink of a comeback, according to Aileen Lee and her team at Cowboy Ventures.

In 2013, Lee was credited for coining the term “unicorns” to describe private companies with a valuation of over $1 billion. Now, with the meteoric rise of these mythical creatures, Cowboy Ventures has returned to offer fresh analysis on the ever-evolving unicorn landscape.

So much has changed in the past decade that a comprehensive review is necessary. But amidst all the developments, one trend stands out: the shift towards enterprise and what it could mean for the future of unicorns.

According to Lee and her team member Allegra Simon, the makeup of unicorns has undergone a significant transformation. Currently, 78% of these companies focus on B2B, a complete reversal from 2013.

However, with years of experience in the tech industry, Cowboy Ventures understands that trends are cyclical. Just as the pendulum swung towards enterprise, it could soon swing back towards consumer-based unicorns. Lee and Simon predict that as the market continues to shift towards enterprise, we can expect to see the emergence of more thrilling consumer unicorns in the near future.