When Teamworks, a Durham-based sports software company, revealed last month it had gained a valuation of more than $1 billion, it became the Triangle's first tech startup to join the "unicorn" club — startups surpassing a $1 billion valuation — in more than three years.

Why it matters: While the early pandemic years saw an influx of cash go to startups due to low interest rates, raising money has grown significantly more difficult over the past two years.

• But there are signs that such investments could be picking back up, Scot Wingo, a local investor, told Axios.

What they're saying: "It's whipsawing around," Wingo said of investments into startups.

• "There is a lot of private equity deals going on, and there have been a couple high-profile IPOs that have gone well," he added. "It definitely feels like directionally we are going in the right way."

Zoom in: There are more than 1,200 startups around the world valued at $1 billion or more, according to CB Insights.

• Five of them are located in the Triangle, according to data from CB Insights, Pitchbook and Crunchbase.

Here are the startups in the Triangle that have fetched "unicorn" valuations:

🕹️ Epic Games: The Cary-based video game maker has a valuation of $22 billion, according to CB Insights, after raising $1.5 billion from Disney last year.

🖥️ Pendo: The Raleigh software startup has a valuation of $2.6 billion, according to Pitchbook, and has long held ambitions of going public.

🏈 Teamworks: Founded by a former Duke football player, Durham-based Teamworks runs a software platform that helps sports teams manage their players' schedules, nutrition and even their online brand. It's valued at $1.2 billion.

🔐 JupiterOne: Morrisville-based JupiterOne, a maker of cybersecurity tools, has a valuation of $1 billion, according to Pitchbook.

🩺 Caidya: A clinical trials company based in Raleigh, Caidya raised $165 million from investors earlier this year and has a valuation of $1 billion.

Go deeper on the startups

You're not imagining it. Lightning bugs are having a good year.

The big picture: In general, firefly populations have declined over the last 100 years, said Megan Abraham, division director and state entomologist at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

• Yes, but: Conditions were good for fireflies this year, and there are likely more of them lighting up night skies near you than in recent summers, Axios Indianapolis' Arika Herron writes.

What she's saying: "Every once in a while, we'll see a resurgence because of perfect weather conditions and there will be fireflies all over and that's what we're seeing this year," Abraham said.

How they work: Fireflies lay their eggs in moist soil and leaf litter.

• They emerge in the spring and early summer.
• Once they reach adulthood later in the summer, their sole focus is to reproduce and then, after a couple of weeks to months (depending on the species), they die.

Threat level: A late freeze can kill larvae after they've emerged, but a hot, dry spring can dry them up.

• "We had a mild, moist spring, and they had a really good larval stage," Abraham said.

Zoom out: Much of the country had a warmer, wetter spring than usual.

How fireflies have been impacted by humans

🏢 Citing difficulties getting financing, the Raleigh City Council gave the developer Hoffman & Associates the OK to donate $1.56 million to the city's affordable housing fund instead of including some affordable units in its planned tower over the Raleigh Union bus station. (INDY Week)

🏥 UNC Health plans to build a new diagnostic center in the town of Middlesex in Nash County, an area near fast-growing towns like Wendell and Zebulon. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

💵 The Trump administration's "big, beautiful bill" could force the North Carolina legislature to spend $700 million on food stamps or scale back the program. (WUNC)

Michael Laut was just a junior in college when he decided to start his own industrial design firm inside his cramped apartment near N.C. State, using a table as a workbench instead of a place to eat.

Why it matters: Now, 18 years later, his firm Laut Design has traded the apartment for a modern workshop in Northwest Raleigh, with a team of more than 20 designers and staff.

• Laut now makes products and graphic designs for some of the biggest companies in the country, like Bayer and Pepsi, and local favorites like Burt's Bees and Murphy's Naturals.

We talked with Laut for our latest Local Limelight conversation. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

🪖 How did you end up in the Triangle? My dad was a foot and ankle surgeon in the Army, fixing up the 82nd Airborne paratroopers after hard landings, so I grew up on Fort Bragg. My extended family moved to Southern Pines and I stayed in Raleigh after attending N.C. State's College of Design.

🧆 Favorite place to eat in the Triangle? Recently, Ajja, near Five Points. My assistant turned me on to it and it's become a definite favorite.

🌳 What do you think the Triangle is missing? We need our government leaders to stop selling our green spaces out from under us. Raleigh should be outraged about Lake Crabtree. Green spaces are a huge part of what makes Raleigh amazing.

📲 What's your first read in the morning? The Daily Stoic newsletter, followed very quickly by a flurry of company updates in email.

📚 Last great book you read? I re-read — or listen to — the Ian Fleming (James Bond) novels on a rolling basis, and "Every Tool's a Hammer" by Adam Savage is a semi-recent favorite.

Keep reading the rest of our Q&A With Laut