Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

To answer that question, Crunchbase took a look at founders and CEOs across several groupings of startup unicorns. The research included the most heavily funded private companies, newly minted unicorns and companies that recently crossed the $5 billion valuation mark.

The short answer? Yes, immigrants are still heavily represented in the ranks of U.S. unicorn founders and CEOs. They hail from multiple continents, and are leading companies in sectors from e-commerce to crypto to pharmaceuticals.

The long answer? Yes, but maybe less so. Early data indicates the proportion of high-valuation U.S. startups founded or led by immigrants may be trending down some. One factor is the growth of startup hubs outside the U.S., making it easier for founders to launch companies in their home country. The other, most notorious factor: the hurdles of securing a visa as a would-be startup founder.

“There is no visa specifically for someone who wants to start a company,” according to , founding partner at , a Silicon Valley-based firm that invests in U.S. startups with immigrant founders.

While U.S. student enrollment of foreign nationals roughly doubled from 2007 to 2018, there hasn’t been a corresponding strategy to speed or simplify graduates’ pursuit of a green card, Mehta said. And although that issue predates Trump’s election, the current administration hasn’t helped, deciding not to implement an Obama-era .

Still, a striking percentage of funded private companies that crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold this past year are immigrant founded. Below, we take a look at 19 such companies, along with a look founders’ countries of origin.

We also look at the most heavily funded, highest-valuation private companies overall with immigrant founders and CEOs.

The big picture

If investors are backing fewer immigrant-led U.S. startups, it may be because there are fewer available to back. For the 2018-19 period, U.S. immigration declined to 595,000 people—the lowest level since the 1980s, according to one oft-cited . It’s a level that leaves even some members of the Trump administration’s inner circle concerned that immigration levels are to support economic growth.

Of course, one needn’t be a new immigrant to launch a high-flying startup. Many of the successful founders on our lists above immigrated years or decades before their companies took flight. The lists, overall, include immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children as well as those who came later, commonly to attend universities.

Lastly, we should keep in mind that immigration, like unicorns, venture funding and startup valuations, has historically been rather cyclical. The issues confronting immigrant founders today may very well fade away or morph into something completely different in coming years.

Illustration: .

Follow Crunchbase News on

This morning two funding rounds caught my eye: , a tech-enabled real estate play, raised $400 million. And, , a tech-enabled real estate play, raised $400 million.

That’s a lot of money. A few months ago I wrote a short piece noting that a number of companies had announced $100 million or greater rounds in quick succession. I didn’t expect we’d quickly repeat the post with the minimum dollar amount quadrupled.

Let’s get to the news.

Compass

Our first company is , a New York-based firm that uses a digital platform and agents to sell your home, or sell you a home. The company’s claims over 2,750 agents, and over 60 offices company told Crunchbase News that it has 6,000 agents and 165 offices and calls itself a “private luxury real estate brokerage.”

According , its $400 million infusion values the firm at $4.4 billion. and the  shared round leadership.

The company has been on a fundraising tear lately. Today’s $400 million follows a $450 million round closed last December and a $100 million around a month before that. Compass has also raised a $75 million Series D, a $60 million Series C, a $40 million Series B, a $25 million Series A, and a huge $8 million seed round. All since 2012.

How has the firm managed to raise so much, so quickly? TechCrunch has an idea: “The company cleared $34 billion in sales in 2018 ($14.8 billion in 2017) and is on track to make $1 billion in revenues.” The same article notes that M&A did drive some of that revenue growth.

Regardless, Compass has raised nearly $1 billion in under a year.

Opendoor

������������� , it announced today. That’s a dollar amount and investing lead just like Compass’s own round.

And just like Compass, it has another nine-figure raise inside the last year: from a number of investors including General Atlantic a few months back in June.

Unlike Compass, however, the firm isn’t worth $4 billion or more. Per , the firm is worth north of $2 billion, but, presumably, not more than $3 billion. So, perhaps the Vision Fund got something akin to a deal.

Here’s how our friends describe the company: “To date, Opendoor, which now employs roughly 950 people, has largely been working with people who need to sell their homes quickly because of a new job or other life event. But the company increasingly wants to help customers buy that next house, too.”

That sounds familiar! Unless It’s too early, and I should stop writing and drink more espresso, the Vision Fund has just made twin wagers into essentially competing companies, at the same time, for the same full-round dollar amount.

I don’t get it. Private investors aren’t supposed to invest in competing companies. Perhaps you could argue that they don’t compete in some fashion or another, but, please. This is all a bit weird.

It’s another day of insane capital deployment at a place that is hard to keep track of. And as always, this is either all rather brilliant in a manner that’s hard to see, or it’s as reckless as it seems.

Top Image Credit: .