Which will be the next billion-dollar unicorns?

San Francisco

ONE hallmark of the current technology boom is a generation of startups valued at US$1 billion or more by investors. Now meet the startups- in-waiting that may be next to reach that mark, if the white-hot market continues.

The US$1 billion valuation metric was popularised two years ago by the venture investor Aileen Lee. She found that many of the startups that reaped the most riches for venture capital investors - think Facebook and LinkedIn - often reached a valuation of US$1 billion or more while they were privately held. Because of their rarity, Ms Lee termed those companies "unicorns", named after the mythical creatures.

Since then, numerous startups have attained the US$1 billion distinction - and topped it. With investors rushing to bet on the next big thing, the ride-hailing service Uber received a valuation of around US$51 billion, while Airbnb, the online room-rental service, is pegged at about US$24 billion. And every mont…