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Square Inc.’s official filing to go public means it will soon exit an exclusive club that’s becoming less exclusive by the month: the so-called unicorns, or privately held companies that are worth $1 billion or more.
There are 143 such companies now, up from 123 in early August. Indeed, more than 60 startups have achieved a $1-billion-or-more valuation just this year, according to CB Insights, a New York City-based research firm.
Of these firms, nine besides San Francisco-based Square have a stake in the payments business. But if its initial public offering goes forward at the expected $11-to-$13-per-share price, Square will realize a valuation of no more than $4.2 billion, well below the $6 billion mark it reached with a private offering last year. That could put a damper, for a while at least, on any IPO plans among the remaining payments unicorns.
But it appears plenty of cash is floating around in the private market. Among the 10 payments unicorns, the most recent addition is Kabbage Inc., an Atlanta-based startup whose credit lines compete with Square Capital and other services that specialize in cash advances to merchants against credit card receipts. The company achieved a $1 billion valuation last month with a $135 million Series E funding round.
Two other interesting cases, according to CB Insights’ data, are Adyen and Klarna, both of which are European companies that focus on e-commerce payments. Adyen, which ranks fifth on the list, saw its valuation soar to $2.3 billion from $1.5 billion in August thanks to a funding round at the end of September. How much it raised in that round wasn’t disclosed. Adyen, which operates a payments gateway, has major operations in the United States.
Klarna, which recently set up U.S. operations, saw its valuation more than double since August, shooting from $1 billion to $2.25 billion. The company, which advances funds to online merchants and then collects from the buyers, has raised $282 million in six funding rounds, though there have been no rounds reported since March 2014.
Here’s how the 10 payments unicorns rank:
1. Square, $6 billion
2. Stripe (e-commerce payments), $5 billion
3. Powa Technologies (mobile point of sale), $2.7 billion
4. Mozido (mobile wallets), $2.39 billion
5. Adyen, $2.3 billion
6. Klarna $2.25 billion
7. Prosper Funding LLC (online lending), $1.9 billion
8. TransferWise Ltd. (multicurrency money transfer), $1 billion
9. Funding Circle (merchant lending),$1 billion
10. Kabbage, $1 billion
Source: CB Insights
