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Nineteen alum-founded unicorns that may have already changed your life

Alumni are behind a number of the latest billion-dollar startups. Read on to find out which companies have “grown their horns.”
A black origami unicorn stands against a lavender background

You might not realize it, but some of the billion-dollar startups you’ve been reading about may have been co-founded by a fellow alum. As a follow-up to our 2019 tech unicorns list, which featured twelve alumni-founded startups worth a combined $55B, we’ve compiled a list of nineteen additional unicorns founded by former McKinsey colleagues.

Since the 2019 article, the number of new unicorns has increased dramatically. CB Insights reports that the number has grown by more than 300 – 78 of those in just the first three months of 2021. And according to research published by Crunchbase in June 2020, the total list of active unicorns rose to more than 600, with a combined worth of just under $2T.  Equally staggering as today’s rate of proliferation is the combined value of those who have exited, reaching $1.28T in 2020.

In this list, you’ll find newcomers, exited unicorns, those planning exits, and two emerging startups. Their diversity in industry is matched by the diversity of their geographic markets, with Germany, Denmark, Israel, Brazil, India, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. all contributing at least one unicorn to the list. Here are the entrepreneurs who’ve “grown their horns.”

Did we miss one? If you know of an alum-founded unicorn that we didn't include in this article or our 2019 article, please let us know.

Active unicorns:

Aurora Innovation
Co-founder: Sterling Anderson (SEA 13-14)
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Value: $10B

Sterling Anderson, co-founder of Aurora
Vehicle autonomy expert Sterling Anderson co-founded this self-driving tech startup in 2017 to help accelerate the adoption of driverless vehicles. The startup acquired Uber's self-driving vehicle unit in December 2020, adding Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to their Board. In March 2021, the company announced that in addition to their existing partnership with truck manufacturer Paccar, Aurora would be collaborating with Volvo to help bring a long-haul trucking product to market.

 

Clearco
Co-founder: Andrew D’Souza (TOR 08-10)
Headquarters: Toronto
Value: Estimated at $2B

Andrew D'Souza, co-founder of Clearco
Rebranded from Clearbanc in 2021, Clearco is the world’s largest e-commerce investor and the developer of a suite of financial products and services for founders looking to grow their startups. Clearco has developed a range of equity-free capital products tailor-fit to early-stage, e-commerce, and SAAS companies. Since 2015, the company has raised $700 million and invested over $2 billion in more than 4,500 companies.



Faire
Co-founder: Jeffrey Kolovson (SFO 10-11)
Headquarters: San Francisco
Value: Estimated at $2.5B

Co-founder of Faire, Jeff Kolovson
Jeffrey co-founded this curated marketplace to help retailers purchase wholesale merchandise for their stores and reduce their burden of inventory risk. Faire’s AI and predictive analytics enable businesses to get product recommendations, forecast demand, source and manage inventory, and aggregate merchandise from wholesalers and distributors. The company recently announced its intention to expand throughout Europe in 2021.



Glance
Co-founder: Naveen Tewari (MUM, SVO 00-03, 05-05)
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Value: Estimated at over $1B

Naveen Tewari, co-founder of Glance
Appearing on 2019’s unicorns list with his first venture, Indian adtech heavyweight InMobi Group, Naveen has recorded his second unicorn, Glance. Glance is a mobile lock-screen tech platform that delivers personalized ad-free content in multiple languages to the lock screen of Android smartphones. The company, which operates as a subsidiary of InMobi, has acquired short-form video company Roposo; has grown its number of users who spend at least 25 minutes per day on the platform to 115 million; and has secured funding from Mithril Capital and Google that have reportedly pushed its valuation to $1B.



Gympass
Co-founder: Cesar Carvalho (SAP 08-13)
Headquarters: New York City
Value: Undisclosed, but estimated at over $1B

Cesar Carvalho, co-founder of Gympass
Cesar and Gympass are helping boost employee benefit packages for their corporate clients through an offering of health and wellness perks. Since its founding, Gympass has built a global marketplace of over 50,000 gyms and studios that clients can use while at home or on the go. To counter the global lockdowns and gym closures due to COVID-19, the company rolled out a virtual service offering which brings live classes and access to personal trainers to homes around the world.



Hippo Insurance
Co-founder: Assaf Wand (NYO 04-06)
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
Value: $5B

Assaf Wand, co-founder of Hippo
It’s been a productive six years since Assaf Wand co-founded Hippo, the insurtech company leveraging smart technology and AI to improve the home insurance experience. In the last year alone, Hippo has gobbled up over $500M in funding,  acquired two companies, and is constructing a new location in Austin, Texas. The company announced in March 2021 that it plans to go public in a SPAC valued at $5B, alongside its goal to expand coverage of U.S. homeowners across its market by 20% by the end of 2022.



K Health and Vroom
Co-founder: Allon Bloch (LON 97-00)
Headquarters: New York City
Value: K Health - Estimated at $1.5B; Vroom - IPO in June 2020

Allan Bloch, co-founder of Vroom and K Health
Allon Bloch adds two unicorns to the list in the 2013-founded Vroom and the 2016-founded K Health. Vroom is a marketplace platform that enables consumers to buy, sell, and trade used vehicles without the need to go to a dealership. The company went public in June 2020, exiting with a valuation of over $2.5B.  Today Allon leads K Health as they leverage AI to pair clinicians with patients seeking care. K Health recently rolled out a pediatric service for parents to find care for their children and has serviced over 4 million users since 2016.



Kavak
Co-founders: Carlos Julio Garcia (BOG 12-14) and Loreanne Garcia (CAR, SFO 06-08, 10-13)
Headquarters: Mexico City
Value: Estimated at over $4B

Loreanne Garcia (left) and Carlos Julio Garcia (middle)
Founded in 2016, Kavak is the online marketplace and financing company that is increasing the accessibility of pre-owned vehicles for people in emerging markets. In 2020, the company became Mexico’s first unicorn and in April 2021, it became one of LatAm’s five highest valued startups. Kavak is now setting their sights beyond Mexico; they’re launching in Brazil and have announced plans to expand to markets outside of Latin America over the next few years.



Komodo Health
Co-founder: Arif Nathoo (NJE 05-13)
Headquarters: San Francisco
Value: Estimated at $3.3B

Arif Nathoo, co-founder of Komodo Health
Komodo Health has developed a dynamic healthcare database that leverages data from enterprises, the public domain, and proprietary sources to help life science companies improve patient outcomes, reduce disease burdens, and increase transparency and market intelligence. Komodo Health analyzes the data of over 15 million healthcare encounters each day across over 3.5 million providers and 450 thousand healthcare organizations. The company announced two financing rounds this year, with the most recent raising $220M in new funding.



Rivigo
Co-founders: Deepak Garg (SYD, DEL 06-14) and Gazal Kalra (DEL 07-09)
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Value: Estimated at over $1B

Gazal Kalra (left) and Deepak Garg (right)
Rivigo is optimizing India’s transport services and improving the quality of life of the people who operate them. The logistics company uses its platform to increase the practice of relay trucking throughout India by giving fleet owners the ability to track, manage, and get quick access to drivers. The app gives drivers access to maps, an assignment selection system, and a feature that automatically rotates drivers. Since reaching unicorn status in 2019, the company has grown its fleet to over 5,000 trucks, 2,000 verified fleet owners, and has logged more than 1 billion total kilometers driven.



Sidecar Health
Co-founder: Patrick Quigley (ATL 97-99, 01-03)
Headquarters: El Segundo, California
Value: Estimated at $1B

Patrick Quigley, co-founder of Sidecar Health
Sidecar Health is a U.S. insurtech company that enables its members to pay upfront for medical care, get access to any licensed health care provider, and easily evaluate transparent benefit amounts when shopping. Since receiving its billion-dollar valuation in January 2021, the company has expanded its coverage to nearly 42% of the U.S. population.



Via
Co-founder: Oren Shoval (TAV 06-07)
Headquarters: New York City
Value: Estimated at $2.25B

Oren Shoval, co-founder of Via
This ride-hailing company is breaking the wheel of public transportation by replacing fixed routes and rigid schedules with a more efficient, dynamic, and environmentally responsible alternative. Since 2012, Via has recorded over 70 million rides, partnered with over 90 transit partners worldwide, and helped save over 32 million pounds of CO2 emissions. In 2020, the company helped meet the needs of COVID-19 by rolling out an on-demand transit service for essential healthcare workers.



Wealthsimple
Co-founders: Michael Katchen (TOR 09-11) and Brett Huneycutt (NYO, MEX 06-10)
Headquarters: Toronto
Value: CAD $5B

Michael Katchen (left) and Brett Huneycutt (right)
Michael and Brett co-founded this Canadian financial services startup and banking disruptor in 2014. Since then, the duo has expanded Wealthsimple’s offerings to include a suite of investment, savings and tax filing services. The company’s platform has grown to include cryptocurrency trading,  peer-to-peer money transfers, and two million users.  In May 2021, the company tripled its valuation with a CAD $750M Series F.



Exited Unicorns:

BridgeBio Pharma
Co-founder: Neil Kumar (NJE 07-11)
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
Exited: IPO in June 2019

 
Neil co-founded this biotech umbrella organization in 2015 to focus on diseases caused by genetic defects. The company’s operating model acquires overlooked or shelved research and creates subsidiary organizations around the new properties. Since recording the biggest biotech IPO of 2019, Neil and BridgeBio have expanded their organizational umbrella through a series of acquisitions, mergers, and joint ventures.



Delivery Hero
Co-founder: Nikita Fahrenholz (BER 08-09, 09-10)
Headquarters: Berlin
Exited: IPO in June 2017

 
Nikita co-founded this Berlin-based food ordering and delivery company in 2011. Six years later, Delivery Hero launched an IPO and exited with an estimated $5.14B valuation. The company recently announced its reentry into the German market following the $1.1B sale of its German operations to Takeaway.com in 2018.    Delivery Hero also launched DX Ventures, a $60M early-stage fund to invest in global startups, and founded Delivery Hero Tech academy to promote more diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.



FanDuel
Co-founder: Nigel Eccles (DM UK, LON 03-06)
Headquarters: New York City
Exited: Acquired by Flutter in 2018

 
FanDuel is the online sports betting platform that allows enthusiasts to place bets and build virtual teams of professional athletes across a range of sports. As CEO, Nigel grew the company to an estimated $1.1B valuation in 2016 before departing in 2017. The popular U.S. entertainment software company was acquired by Flutter in 2018 for $4.2B. In 2021, the company announced a deal with Spotify to be the exclusive betting partner for the popular U.S. sports podcast The Ringer.



Global-e
Co-founder: Amir Schlachet (TAV 06-08)
Headquarters: London
Value: IPO in May 2021

Amir Schlachet, co-founder of Global-e
Amir co-founded this leading direct-to-consumer cross-border e-commerce platform in 2013. With payments, multi-lingual checkout, logistics and shipping, local duty and tax calculation, global market insights, and other services, Global-e's solution gives brands and retailers the simplicity of local commerce at an international scale. The company went public in May 2021, exiting with a $3.55B estimated valuation.



Zymergen
Co-founder: Joshua Hoffman (SFO 97-03)
Headquarters: Emeryville, California
Exited: IPO in April 2021

Joshua Hoffman, co-founder of Zymergen
Zymergen is a biology company that is transforming the manufacturing process by replacing petroleum-based chemicals with genetically engineered molecules derived from nature – a process it calls “biofacturing.”  In 2021, the company shared its first biofabricated material with its introduction of Hyaline Z2, an optical film used to create brighter, clearer, and more energy-efficient displays in electronics. The company became the first “biofacturer” to go public with its IPO in April 2021.



. . . and here are just two “soonicorns” – two to watch as potential unicorns:

Market Kurly
Co-founder: Sophie Kim (HKO 10-11)
Headquarters: Seoul
Value: Estimated at $880M

 
Sophie Kim’s Seoul-based food delivery startup, Market Kurly, is focused on crafting a curated selection of the best food options for its customers. This focus has been rewarded with a 60% return rate of first-time customers. Investors have also taken note and lifted Kurly to a $150 million Series E in 2020 and a current valuation of $880M. In March 2021, the company announced their plans to launch an IPO by the end of 2021.



Raisin
Co-founders: Frank Freund (MUN 08-12), Tamaz Georgadze (FRA, BER 03-13), and Michael Stephan (MUN 09-12)
Headquarters: Berlin
Value: Undisclosed, but estimated at €400—600M

Michael Stephan (left), Tamaz Georgadze (middle), and Frank Freund (right)
Why should your savings opportunities be limited to your domestic banks? As “the first and only pan-European deposit marketplace,” Raisin is partnering with 105 banks across Europe to bring Europeans access to the best interest rates. Since its founding in 2013, Raisin has acquired four companies, expanded to thirty European countries, and boasts over 350,000 customers.




Did we miss one? If you know of an alum-founded unicorn that we didn't include in this article or our 2019 article, please let us know.

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