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: .

It also revealed that it had received a “previously undisclosed $75 million investment” last year, bringing its total funding to , according to Crunchbase data. ThredUP did not give further details on the $75 million investment.

Its last disclosed venture round before the newly announced investment, its Series E led by , raised $81 million in September 2015.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

The fashion resale space is one that’s heating up as more consumers go online to buy and sell clothing and accessories. ThredUP calls itself the “world’s largest fashion resale marketplace,” with 35,000 brands available at up to 90% off retail prices.

ThredUP competes with Redwood City’s in the area. Poshmark, which has in total funding, last raised $87.5 million in its Series E round in November 2017.

Poshmark is reportedly looking to go public, according to an April 2019 report from the The company had nearly $150 million in revenue and “narrow losses” last year, WSJ reported.

It wouldn’t be the first fashion resale startup to go public this year—another notable competitor, , went public in June after raising�� in venture funding.The company had a valuation of when it was private, and it is now valued at $1.06 billion. Its stock, which had an all-time high of $28.90 when it began trading on June 28, was trading at $17.22 on Wednesday afternoon. (The company’s equity was as the market digested trade concerns and recession jitters.)

The three companies, while related, don’t do exactly the same thing. The RealReal specializes in luxury consignment goods, whereas Poshmark and ThredUP mix both low-end and high-end items. The RealReal has a team of authenticators who verify that every item accepted for consignment and sold by the company isn’t a knockoff. Poshmark offers authentication as a premium service and ThredUP authenticates items that are sent to the company as part of its LUXE program.

ThredUP’s fresh round of funding follows its announcement last week that it would partner with JC Penney to bring second-hand clothes and accessories to JCP’s retail stores. ThredUP items will be available at 30 JC Penney stores, and the startup started offering its items at 40 Macy’s locations since the beginning of this month as well.

With the new cash, ThredUP is starting what it calls “resale-as-a-service,” where retailers and brands can partner with the startup to add inventory to their own stores and websites, according to a announcing the funding. Retailers will also be able to issue “Clean Out Kits” to shoppers who turn in clothes they don’t want anymore to ThredUP for shopping credits.

With one company public and the other two richly-valued and well-funded it will be interesting to see which is the next of the three to file for an IPO.

Illustration Credit:��

Correction: We misinterpreted thredUP’s previously undisclosed $75 million investment and added it to its total funding. The total funding and chart have been corrected. We regret the error.

Sites like were created to give consumers a way to resell higher-end fashion-related items and get some of their money back. Now the fashion resale marketplace company isthat could take place as early as this fall, according to the Wall Street Journal who cited “people familiar with the matter.”

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Poshmark has tapped Inc. and as its underwriters, according to the WSJ.

The Redwood City-based company has raised since its inception in 2011. Its last funding round, an announced in November 2017, gave it a valuation of $600 million, according to its Crunchbase profile. Backers include ��1, , and .

Poshmark now potentially joins the ranks of startups (such as ride-hailing company and photo-sharing site ) planning to go public this year as Crunchbase News has covered��here and here.

Poshmark “generated close to $150 million in revenue and posted narrow losses last year,” according to the WSJ. Its valuation has climbed to about $1.25 billion since some shareholders recently sold shares via a secondary transaction, the Journal went on to say. But the company believes its public market value will top that figure, according to the paper’s sources.

Part of the beauty behind Poshmark’s model is that the company doesn’t have much overhead in the way of merchandise. Like eBay, it works as a facilitator between buyers and sellers, who post photos of their items on the Poshmark site. It makes money by charging a commission on each deal.

Poshmark isn’t the only company in the space looking to leave the private markets. WSJ also reported that , a San Francisco-based luxury consignment shop, has also “met with investment bankers to prepare for a possible IPO that could happen this year.” TheRealReal has raised since it was founded eight years ago, according to its Crunchbase profile. Most recently, it secured a last July.

Illustration: