Reaching the Unicorn status is tha dream of most of the Entrepreneurs while very few have achieved so. It takes of a lot of patience, hard work and creativity to pitch investors for getting fundings but sometimes a startup attracts investors so much that they make the founders exit from it by paying an amount much high than the founder expects.
There have been multiple examples in that the past where a startup rocketed to $1 billion funding but some of them just took some days to reach the mark. Today, we are sharing the top 10 fastest startup exits with $1 billion fundings achievements.
1. Oculus VR
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 280
Mark Zuckerberg led Facebook bought this virtual reality headset startup for $2 billion after its $16 million Series A round from Matrix Partners, Spark Capital, Founders Fund and Formation 8.
2. Airwatch
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit – 364
VMware paid around $1.5 billion for this Airwatch less than a year after it raised $225 million at a $1 billion valuation in its first venture funding.
3. Flexus Biosciences
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 481
It took only 4 months more than Airwatch for Flexus Biosciences to go from its first funding to being acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb for up to $1.25 billion
4. PopCap Games
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 627
Even after having games like Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled, PopCap Games raised only $30 million before Electronic Arts snapped it up for about $1.3 billion.
5. Jet.com
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 741
WalMart bought Jet.com after New Enterprise Associates led its $75 million Series A round. Jet.com raised about $565 million before agreeing to be acquired during the same month.
6. Cruise Automation
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 774
GM agreed to pay about $1 billion for Cruise Automation 774 days after it raised first funding.
7. Lynda.com
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 914
LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for about $1.5 billion after Accel and Spectrum Equity led its $103 million Series A funding round.
8. Instagram
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit- 914
The developer of Instagram was acquired by Facebook 2.5 years after Baseline Ventures led a $7 million funding round. Sequoia Capital led a $50 million Series B that in the same month that the deal was announced. As a sum, Instagram had raised about $57.5 million by investors $500 million before the sale.
9. WhatsApp
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– 1048
WhatsApp had raised only $58 million before Facebook bought it for $22 billion.
10. Nicira Networks
Days taken from first financing to $1 billion+ exit– three and a half years
VMware bought Nicira Networks for $1.3 billion in 2012. Nicira raised $42 million before it was acquired.
The list clearly shows the dominance of Facebook in acquiring startups with heavy investments.
