This just in: Apex Fintech Solutions is giving an IPO another shot and has confidentially filed its draft registration statement with the SEC.
Apex, a custody and clearing firm whose clients include SoFi, Webull, and eToro, hasn’t determined the number of shares it would offer or their price range, a statement said.
The fintech had tried to merge with a SPAC in 2021 but ended up pulling those plans. Apex is majority owned by Peak 6 Investments. It is expected to use a traditional IPO to list its shares, Fortune reported.
Fresh data: The number of unicorns, or companies valued at $1 billion or more, across the world might be lower than you’d think.
Crunchbase lists nearly 1500 companies on its Crunchbase Unicorn Board, while CB Insights has more than 1,200 unicorns as of Oct. 23. These lists typically rely on primary round valuations. But if a company hasn’t raised funding recently, or even in the past year, this information could be stale and provide an inaccurate picture of the current unicorn landscape, according to Howe Ng, SVP and head of analytics and investment solutions at Forge Global, a private securities marketplace
Some well-known unicorns haven’t raised money in the past two years. For instance, Revolut, the digital banking app, last collected an $800 million round in 2021 that valued it at $33 billion. Chime Financial raised $750 million, also in 2021, that valued it at $25 billion. The last funding round of Circle Internet Financial in April 2022 valued that company at around $8 billion, Fortune reported. Neither CB Insights or Crunchbase provide more recent valuations on their sites, but it is clear that prices in the private and public markets have dropped significantly in the past few years. For example, PayPal has seen its share price drop by about 80% since June 2021 while Block, the former Square, has fallen by 74%. Revolut, Chime and Circle could not immediately be reached for comment.
But Forge Global, which operates an online market for selling and buying shares of private companies, can offer more up-to-date info on some of these companies, Ng says. Forge currently tracks 513 U.S. unicorns, a spokeswoman said. “A lot of the unicorns were minted as unicorns in the last few years when the market was really hot,” noted Ng.
Of the 513 unicorns they track, 128 showed secondary pricing activity since their last funding round valuations, Ng said. Only 68% of 128, or 87 companies, retained their unicorn status, he said. This includes Databricks, which was valued at $43 billion in September after raising over $500 million in fresh capital. Anthropic, the AI startup, snagged a roughly $5 billion valuation in May after securing funding.
Anand Sanwal, CEO and cofounder of CB Insights, said secondary market services typically operate on a vibe market. “Outside of a few high profile names where there is enough trading activity, most of these 1200-plus unicorns will not have the liquidity where you can say there is enough data for a credible clearing price,” Sanwal said.
“There is very little fundamental data there,” he added.
Gené Teare, senior data editor at Crunchbase, said many of the unicorn valuations were set in 2021 when global venture funding and unicorn creation shattered all records. “Now, we're about six quarters into a substantial downturn during which we've seen high-profile companies culled from the Crunchbase Unicorn Board after raising at lower valuations or in some cases shutting down entirely. I fully expect these trends to continue, potentially leading to a situation where the cumulative value of the unicorn board reflects roughly half of its current projection,” Teare said in a statement late Monday.
According to the Forge data, more than one-third of the 128 companies (that showed secondary pricing activity since their last funding round valuations), have lost their unicorn status. This includes Thrasio Holdings, the once IPO candidate that was valued at $4.5 billion in 2022, dropped to a valuation of $193.9 million on Sept. 30, Ng said. Thrasio is preparing to file for bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported in November. Convoy, the trucking startup whose investors include Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, was valued at $3.8 billion in 2022 but is now shutting down.
Some companies posted a lower valuation but retain unicorn status, Ng said. He pointed to Automation Anywhere, which was valued at $7.3 billion in 2022 but is now valued at $1.9 billion, he said. Last year, Epic Games, the creator of “Fortnite” was valued at $31.5 billion but is now valued at $13.9 billion, according to Ng.
Thrasio, Convoy, Automation, and Epic could not be reached for comment.
Using primary fundraising data to calculate valuations of private companies can paint an inaccurate picture, Ng said. “You can look to the secondary market for more timely and accurate data when valuing private companies,” he said.
Talk to you tomorrow,
Luisa Beltran
Twitter: @LuisaRBeltran
Email: luisa.beltran@fortune.com
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