In late 2014 we first discussed "undercorns," companies once valued at $1 billion or more by VCs but now valued below that threshold. It was a new phenomenon and relatively unusual (much rarer than unicorns would become, which presents its own terminology quandary).

• Today, the undercorn herd is running rampant.

Driving the news: New valuation data from PitchBook suggests that more than one-quarter of unicorns have lost their horns, even if still being marked at more than $1 billion by their venture capitalists.

• The majority of these haven't raised new funding in years, often a warning sign in its own right.
• PitchBook reached its conclusion by developing a new valuation framework whose inputs include: Number of employees, private peers that did raise new funding, and public peers. In short, it's a backdoor mark-to-market.

The big picture: The estimated aggregate valuation of unicorns hasn't actually changed too much — $4.4 trillion vs. $4.7 trillion at the end of 2025 — because the top 10 companies account for around 52% of value (up from only 18.5% in 2022 and the highest such figure in a decade).

• That means average VC industry returns won't be dragged down by a rise in undercorns, but median returns are another matter.

What they're saying: "Unicorns are the VC market's crown jewels," says PitchBook analyst Andrew Akers. "A lot of those valuations probably are at least 50% lower than what's on the books."

The bottom line: Most limited partners aren't able to access top-decile firms. If they conclude that there are better investments elsewhere — such as passive indexes without high fees or illiquidity risk — that's where they'll go.

• The losers would be a generation of emerging VC fund managers and the founders they would have backed.

Nuveen has agreed to acquire Schroders (LSE: SDR) for £9.9 billion in cash.

Why it's the BFD: The combined firm would manage nearly $2.5 trillion, making it one of the world's largest active asset managers.

• It also puts an iconic British financial institution in American hands, even though Schroders will maintain its brand and operate as a standalone business inside New York-based Nuveen.

The bottom line: "The deal marks the latest tie-up in the asset-management industry as firms are racing to build the scale needed to weather relentless fee pressure, absorb the soaring costs of artificial intelligence and pivot toward higher-margin private assets." — Elena Vardon, WSJ

• Apptronik, a Texas-based developer of humanoid robots, raised $520m at a $5.3b post-money valuation from AT&T Ventures, John Deere and insiders B Capital, Google, Mercedes-Benz, and PEAK6. axios.link/4tvnOh3

🚑 Talkiatry, an NYC-based psychiatric care startup, raised $210m in Series D funding. Perceptive Advisors led, joined by a16z, Sofina, blisce, and Left Lane Capital. axios.link/403NiVl

🚑 Loyal, an SF-based developer of lifespan extension drugs for dogs, raised $100m in Series C funding. Longevity Fund led, joined by Baillie Gifford. axios.link/3ZvRYmM

🚑 Neurent Medical, an Irish maker of devices to treat chronic rhinitis, raised €62.5m in Series C funding. MVM Partners led, joined by Sofinnova Partners, EQT Life Sciences, Atlantic Bridge, Fountain Healthcare Partners, and Enterprise Ireland. axios.link/4rnZfkE

🚑 Cascade Pharmaceuticals, a Chinese obesity and diabetes drug developer, raised $72m. Zhongping Capital led, joined by China Life Capital, Qingsong Capital, SDIC Pioneer, Gaorong Capital, and Kangjun Capital. axios.link/465NDui

• Lassie, a Swedish pet insurer, raised $75m in Series C funding from alderton Capital, Felix Capital, Inventure, Passion Capital, and Stena Sessan. axios.link/4rjzphS

• Monaco, an AI sales startup founded by Sam Blond (ex-Founders Fund) and Brian Blond (Human Capital), raised $35m in seed and Series A funding led by Founders Fund, with Human Capital participating. axios.link/3O9icZP

• Ever, an EV marketplace, raised $31m in Series A funding. Eclipse led, joined by Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures, and JIMCO. axios.link/3Zv8QtZ

• Uptiq, a McKinney, Texas-based builder of AI agents for lending and wealth workflows inside financial institutions, raised $25m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Curql led, joined by Silverton Partners, 645 Ventures, Broadridge, Green Visor Capital, Live Oak Ventures, First Capital, Epic Ventures, Tau Ventures, and Evolution VC. axios.link/3Ztj2mJ

• Complyance, a London-based risk and compliance startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. GV led, joined by Speedinvest and Everywhere Ventures. axios.link/3Zvykra

• Nucleus Security, a Sarasota, Fla.-based vulnerability and exposure management startup, raised $20m in Series C funding. Delta-v Capital led, joined by Arthur Ventures. axios.link/3MjUjye

• Winn AI, an Israeli revenue execution platform, raised $18m in Series A funding. Insight Partners, Mangusta Capital and S Capital led, joined by Moneta, Highsage, Alumni Ventures, Sarona Ventures, and OurCrowd. axios.link/3MvwROm

• Meridian, an agentic spreadsheet startup, raised $17m in seed funding at a $100m post-money valuation. A16z and General Partnership led, joined by QED Investors, FPV Ventures, and Litquidity Ventures. axios.link/461SQDr

⚡️Hades, a German critical minerals mining and geothermal energy startup, raised €15m. HV Capital and Headline led, joined by insiders Project A and Visionaries Tomorrow. axios.link/4trUsQZ

⚡️Archimetis, an operational reasoning system for energy, chemical, and industrial plants, raised $11.5m. Inspired Capital led, joined by Homebrew, MCJ, Borusan Ventures, and Incite Capital. axios.link/4bQhNFE

• Scala, an intelligence platform for contact centers and customer experience, raised $7.5m in seed funding led by Madrona and Fuse. scala.ai

🍷 Santé, a provider of POS software for wine and spirits stores, raised $7.6m in seed funding, per Axios Pro. Bonfire Ventures led, joined by Operator Collective, YC, and Veridical Ventures. axios.link/4ty94Ow

• Upside Robotics, a Canadian developer of robots for reducing fertilizer use and waste in corn crops, raised US$7.5m. Plural led, joined by Garage Capital. axios.link/4rHSdXP

• Bracket, a London-based treasury intelligence platform, raised $7m led by Macquarie Group and Blackfinch Ventures. axios.link/4recXXi

• Manufact, an infrastructure platform for agents built on Model Context Protocol, raised $6.3m in seed funding. Peak XV led, joined by Liquid 2 Ventures, Ritual Capital, Pioneer Fund, and YC. mcp-use.com

• Pelgo, a career transition agent, raised $5.5m in seed funding. Flybridge Capital Partners led, joined by ENIAC Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, and 645 Ventures. axios.link/4rdlhXy

• Tangible, a London-based debt financing platform for "hardtech" companies, raised $4.3 million seed funding led by Pale Blue Dot. axios.link/4ar7hCb

• Demoboost, a Polish provider of product demo solutions for B2B software companies, raised €2.8m led by Digital Ocean Ventures and Rafał Brzoska's family office, with participation from B-Value. axios.link/46DOaUn

• Blackstone and EQT agreed to buy Spanish waste management firm Urbaser from Platinum Equity for $6.6b. axios.link/4kAh9OT

• CapitalSpring invested in Alloy Personal Training, a Roswell, Ga.-based provider of personalized fitness training. axios.link/4aejY4s

🚑 Cinven agreed to invest in Regenity Biosciences, a bioresorbable technologies company owned by Linden. axios.link/46z28H4

• Coral Tree Partners invested in Plein Air, a French consultancy for restaurant and retail brands. axios.link/4tqrIrz

⚡ CPP Investments agreed to buy a 50% stake in Peruvian power producer Inkia Energy from I Squared Capital at a $3.4b enterprise value. I Squared will transfer its remaining 50% position to a continuation vehicle. axios.link/4rEL6iM

• Halo Partners acquired W.O. Grubb, a North Chesterfield, Va.-based provider of cranes and other heavy equipment. axios.link/46MnS2f

🎲 Pavilion Payments, owned by Parthenon Capital Partners, acquired assets of Ditronics, a Las Vegas-based provider of funds access services to the gaming industry. axios.link/4kxD2hq

• Province, a Trivest portfolio company, acquired disputes and investigations firm StoneTurn. axios.link/46EvqE7

• Smarte Carte, a portfolio company of 3i Group, acquired Lost and Found Software, a German solution for lost and found property operations in airports and other public venues. axios.link/4awUgXV

🚑 Supreme Group, backed by Trinity Hunt Partners, acquired Broth, an NYC-based health-care commercialization creative agency. axios.link/40506La

⚡ Arko Petroleum, a fuel distribution subsidiary of ARKO (Nasdaq: ARKO), raised $200m in its IPO. It priced 11.1m shares at $18, versus plans to offer 10.5m at $18-$20, and will list on the Nasdaq (APC). axios.link/4cocn4D

• Clear Street Group slashed its IPO terms ahead of tonight's expected pricing. The NYC-based brokerage now plans to offer 13m shares at $26-$28, versus earlier plans to offer 23.8m shares at $40-$44. Its market cap at the midpoint would be $6.9b, down from $11.3b under the original terms. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq (CSIG), while backers include Prysm Capital. axios.link/4tyJ0mw

• Idea Acquisition, an AI-focused SPAC, raised $350m in its IPO. axios.link/4owxXa3

• General Atlantic agreed to sell its remaining 20% stake in German investment research and index provider ISS Stoxx to Deutsche Boerse for €1.1b. axios.link/46oPoD5

• GIC is weighing the sale of its 80% stake in a European data center JV with Equinix, which plans to retain its position, per Bloomberg. The deal could fetch €800m-€1b. axios.link/4bQB5uw

• Baker Hughes (Nasdaq: BKR) is seeking to sell Waygate, a German industrial testing and inspection firm that could fetch $1.5b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3MD8NJy

• iCapital agreed to acquire Passthrough, a provider of investor onboarding and financial compliance solutions for private markets. axios.link/401LE6D

• Mercedes-Benz Group said it plans to sell some of its €12m stake in Daimler Truck this year. axios.link/4640hdj

• TPG agreed to invest $500m into retirement services and insurance firm Jackson Financial (NYSE: JXN). axios.link/4kBBXW7

• AAF Ventures, led by Adrian Aoun (ex-Forward, Google), is raising $100m for its debut fund, per an SEC filing.

• Black Opal Ventures of NYC is raising up to $75m for its second fund, per an SEC filing.

• Oaktree Capital held a $2.4b first close on its fourth special situations fund, which is targeting $4b but may raise $5b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3Zxz8vy

• Seligman Ventures, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm led by Umesh Padval (Thomvest Ventures) and Ashish Kakran (Sierra Ventures) raised $500m for its debut fund. axios.link/4rhZC0n

• Sun Capital Partners raised a single-asset CV for Fletchers Solicitors, a UK-based personal injury law firm. axios.link/403PJqZ

• Steve Amdur joined Fried Frank as a partner in the law firm's M&A and private equity practice. He previously was with Pillsbury Winthrop. axios.link/4qu4vC0

• Bessemer Venture Partners promoted Maha Malik to vice president. axios.link/401VOUP

• Branford Castle Partners promoted Marilyn Yang to managing director. axios.link/4af1iBK

• Felicis promoted James Detweiler to general partner and Eric Flaningam to partner, while Michael Chen (Applied Compute) joined as a venture partner. axios.link/46p5hJJ

• JPMorgan Chase promoted Burkhard Koep to global head of communications investment banking, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4coaMMi

• Donald Raymond, former chief investment strategist at both QIA and CPP Investments, joined Star Mountain Capital as a senior advisor. axios.link/4qzJCph

• Steve Wiborg, co-founder and exec chair of Ampler Holdings, joined Maple Park Capital Partners as an operating advisor. axios.link/408NNgM