The data is in. And it’s remarkable. And it’s what we’ve all been feeling and seeing in venture. The Unicorns Really Are Back.
Back to The Highest Level In 3+ Years.
October 2025 just became the biggest month for unicorn creation in over three years. Not just by count. By aggregate valuation. By momentum. By every metric that matters.
Twenty companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in October. Together, they added $44.5 billion in value. In one month.
This is the highest valuation amount added to the unicorn board for a new cohort in the past three years.
But capital is all concentrated in the winners in the Age of AI more than ever. More startups aren’t getting funded.
The deal count is also up, but nowhere near the pace of 2021. Yet:
Why This Matters For B2B
If you’re building a B2B SaaS company right now, here’s what this data actually means for you:
The funding environment is normalizing. Not back to 2021 craziness. But back to rational growth funding for companies with real metrics. If you’re doing $2M-$5M ARR with strong net retention and reasonable CAC payback, there’s capital available. More capital than there was 12-18 months ago.
AI-native companies are getting disproportionate attention. If your product has meaningful AI capabilities baked in from day one (not bolted on, not a chatbot feature, but real AI that changes how the product works), you’re in a different category. VCs are specifically hunting for these companies. The valuations reflect it.
The bar is higher but the rewards are bigger. Twenty unicorns in a month sounds like a lot. Until you realize thousands of companies raised Series A, B, and C rounds in October. The conversion rate to unicorn is still low. You need exceptional execution. But if you get there, the valuations are back to healthy levels.
The Bottom Line
We’re at an inflection point. The data from Crunchbase confirms what I’ve been seeing in deal flow and portfolio company performance: the market is healing. Not overnight. Not back to excess. But healing toward sustainable, rational funding for excellent companies.
If you’re building something real, with radical traction, in a real market, this is your moment. The capital is there. The valuations are there. The exits are starting to happen.
But the bar is higher. You need to be exceptional. You need AI advantage. You need metrics that prove you’re building something durable.
The companies that figure that out are the ones creating the next wave of unicorns. And based on October’s data, that wave is already here.
Full credit to Gené Teare and the Crunchbase News team for the original analysis. Read the complete article here.
