• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechUnicorns

Uber and Snapchat Are Making Bill Gurley’s Unicorn Fears Come True

By
Jen Wieczner
Jen Wieczner
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jen Wieczner
Jen Wieczner
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 8, 2016, 7:11 PM ET
Bill Gurley And Malcolm Gladwell In Conversation - 2015 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival
Photograph by Robert A Tobiansky — Getty Images for SXSW

Don’t say Bill Gurley didn’t warn you.

The Benchmark venture capitalist lamented in a blog post in April that the high numbers of “unicorns”—private companies with valuations of $1 billion or more—raising huge amounts of money with “remarkable ease” were making the market “dangerous” for startups and VCs because it could become increasingly difficult to sustain those valuations—which eventually may have nowhere to go but down.

There are now signs that Gurley’s prediction is already coming true. A larger and larger portion of venture capital dollars is going to small number of unicorn companies, according to a new study by research firm PitchBook. While VC funding rose more than 27% to $22.3 billion in the second quarter of 2016 over the previous quarter, there were 8% fewer deals—meaning a select few companies accounted for all of the growth in capital. Indeed, while funding to non-unicorn companies declined quarter over quarter, the money going to unicorns more than doubled to nearly $8.8 billion.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s tech newsletter.

That means unicorns received roughly 40% of all VC funding. Of that, much of it went to a handful of companies with sky-high valuations, according to Preqin. Those companies include private Alibaba (BABA) affiliate Ant Financial, which raised $4.5 billion in April; Uber, which raised $3.5 billion in equity funding in June; Snapchat, which raised nearly $1.1 billion; and Chinese ride-hailing startup Didi Chuxing, which also raised $4.5 billion in equity funding last month.

To raise such massive fundraising rounds, Gurley argued that companies were having to cast a wider net to find new investors—a potential sign of a bubble close to popping, as companies might exhaust their funding source. “The main message for investors who are just now being approached is the following: It’s not the second inning or even the sixth, it’s the fourteenth inning in a five-hour baseball game,” he wrote. “You are not being invited to a special dance; you are being approached because you are the lender of last resort.”

Unicorns’ reluctance to go public could also exacerbate the liquidity crunch, Gurley suggested in his post. And so far, the numbers aren’t looking good: With only 18 initial public offerings of venture-backed companies in the first half of 2016, this year is on track to be the slowest for such IPOs since 2009, when there were only 10 IPOs of VC-backed companies—and that was a recession year.

About the Author
By Jen Wieczner
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Europe
George Clooney moves to France and sends a strong message about the American Dream
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 30, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Environment
'I opened her door and the wind caught me, and I went flying': The U.S. Arctic air surge is sweeping northerners off their feet
By Holly Ramer and The Associated PressDecember 30, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Health
Lay's drastically rebrands after disturbing finding: 42% of consumers didn't know their chips were made out of potatoes
By Matty Merritt and Morning BrewDecember 31, 2025
20 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Gen Z could wave goodbye to résumés because most companies have turned to skills-based recruitment—and find it more effective, research shows
By Orianna Rosa RoyleDecember 29, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
Buddhist monks peace-walking from Texas to DC persist even after being run over on highway outside Houston
By The Associated PressDecember 30, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
Exiting CEO left each employee at his family-owned company a $443,000 gift—but they have to stay 5 more years to get all of it
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 30, 2025
2 days ago

Latest in Tech

Two gamer teenagers work on computers.
CybersecurityHacking
Feds are hunting teenage hacking groups like ‘Scattered Spider’ who have targeted $1 trillion worth of the Fortune 500 since 2022
By Amanda GerutJanuary 1, 2026
2 hours ago
C-SuiteLeadership Next
For CEOs in 2025, the year was all about wellness, AI adoption, and changing consumer habits
By Fortune EditorsDecember 31, 2025
17 hours ago
xi
EconomyChina
Xi touts China’s AI, chip wins in triumphant New Year’s speech
By BloombergDecember 31, 2025
18 hours ago
Donald Trump on the phone in front of a Christmas tree
Startups & VentureDonald Trump
Trump Mobile says its first-ever smartphone is delayed, and the government shutdown is to blame
By Dave SmithDecember 31, 2025
23 hours ago
MGI
CommentaryProductivity
The world is awash in wealth but starved for productivity—and that imbalance is distorting growth, debt, and opportunity. We need AI to come through
By Jan Mischke, Olivia White and Rebecca J. AndersonDecember 31, 2025
23 hours ago
Melinda French Gates
SuccessMelinda French Gates
Melinda French Gates got her start at Microsoft because an IBM hiring manager told her to turn down its job offer—’It dumbfounded me’
By Emma BurleighDecember 31, 2025
1 day ago