Crunchbase's Billion-Dollar Exits Board counted 182 US billion-dollar private companies that listed in 2021, compared with 51 in 2020. By its August 2023 review, 45% of the 171 members of that 2021 group still public were worth less than $500 million.
The entry price is the denominator
The board selects companies by their value at the public debut, not their later trading value. That choice makes the cohort useful for tracking repricing, but it also means the lower values do not remove companies from the original list. The 2021 wave included traditional IPOs and blank-check listings. Those routes have different mechanics, and a simple total should not be read as a count of conventional IPOs alone.
Liquidity and value diverged
An exit can give early holders a path toward liquidity while still disappointing investors who bought near the initial public price. Lockups, selling windows and the amount actually distributed further separate a headline exit value from cash returned to a fund. The 2023 snapshot therefore says more about the price public investors assigned to the surviving listed cohort at that time than about each venture fund's realized return. It also helps explain why a burst of listings did not guarantee a permanently open exit market.
Use the time stamp
This is an August 2023 assessment of 2021 debuts. Share prices change daily, companies may be acquired or delisted, and the board can revise inclusion if a proposed merger fails. The count is a historical observation, not a live valuation screen. For founders considering an IPO, the durable point is the distinction between an attractive debut valuation and performance after the market can test the business over several quarters. Neither the 2021 listing count nor its later drawdown should be applied automatically to a different vintage.
The 2023 valuation snapshot is historical and covers only US venture-backed exits initially valued at $1 billion or more.
Financial education, not investment or legal advice. Historical notes are retrospective analysis prepared in September 2026, not contemporaneous Venture Trace reporting.
Sources & scope
Crunchbase News
Many Of 2021's IPOs Have Flopped. What Does That Mean For 2023's Hopefuls?
- Source date
- 25 Aug 2023
- Retrieved
- 19 Sept 2026
- Period / geography
- 2021 cohort, assessed August 2023 · United States
Crunchbase Billion-Dollar Exits Board, US venture-backed companies with exits initially valued at $1 billion or more
Historical 2023 assessment of a 2021 cohort. Public-market values are a dated snapshot; the board selects by initial exit value and includes IPO and SPAC listings.
