💥 44% of Unicorn Founders Aren’t From the US

Inside/VC Weekly #22

Jun 16, 2025

Hey - it’s Jannis,

Happy Monday! ☕️ Let’s start the week strong - here’s your 5-minute briefing on the top startup, AI, and VC news you can’t miss!

🔥 These are the 5 most important things:

🌎 44% of US Unicorn Founders Were Born Abroad
📢 $1B in Ads: DoorDash Beats Instacart to the Punch
🚖 Tesla to Launch Robotaxi Pilot Without LiDAR
💻 Lovable Eyes Unicorn Round After Hitting $61M ARR
☢️ Proxima Fusion Raises €130M for Nuclear Ambitions

Let’s get into it.

Weekly Spotlight:

🌎 44% of US Unicorn Founders Were Born Abroad

Turns out the American Dream has a passport. A new Stanford study finds that 44% of US-based unicorn founders are immigrants — born outside the country, but very much building its future.

India leads the global scoreboard with 90 founders, followed by Israel (53) and Canada (42). Germany clocks in at 18, with heavyweights like Peter Thiel (PayPal, Palantir), Jawed Karim (YouTube), and Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun Microsystems) in the mix.

And it's not just about where you're from, it's where you start. Around 8% of unicorns were actually founded abroad and only later made the jump to the US. Think Slack (Canada), Unity (Denmark), or Headspace (UK). Sometimes, the road to Silicon Valley goes through the Himalayas.

What does this mean? Smart people often don't come from the US, but they move there. Why? To pursue the American Dream. The U.S. is still the largest market for entrepreneurs.

Inside/VC Shorts

📢 $1B in Ads: DoorDash Beats Instacart to the Punch

DoorDash has crossed $1B in annualized ad revenue, ahead of Instacart’s $958M — becoming the first delivery platform to hit that mark. The milestone includes Wolt and spans 30+ countries.

Retail media is scaling fast: Instacart already generates 30% of its revenue from ads. DoorDash is still at ~10%, but the growth trajectory is steeper and international.

If they can nudge margins closer to Instacart’s model, ads alone could push them into the black — no need to touch delivery fees.

🚖 Tesla to Launch Robotaxi Pilot Without LiDAR

Tesla plans to launch its first robotaxi service in Austin on June 22, starting with 10 to 20 modified Model Ys. The vehicles will drive without steering wheels, pedals, or safety drivers — and without LiDAR.

Unlike rivals like Waymo, Tesla relies only on cameras. It’s cheaper, but critics say the system lacks redundancy. Poor visibility, unpredictable traffic, and edge cases remain unresolved.

Waymo, in contrast, runs over 1,500 robotaxis in four US cities and handles more than 250,000 rides per week. Tesla has completed one fully autonomous trip in Austin, recorded on video. No live service yet.

Production of a custom robotaxi model is planned for 2026. For now, it's a limited pilot with big claims and open questions.

🏦 N26 Faces Pressure Over Dutch Mortgage Unit

Germany’s neobank N26 is once again under scrutiny from regulators. The German financial watchdog BaFin is reportedly concerned about risk controls at Neo, N26’s mortgage subsidiary in the Netherlands.

The timing is far from ideal. CEO Valentin Stalf is currently courting new investors, hoping to secure a fresh funding round. But questions over regulatory oversight could complicate the pitch — especially after years of compliance issues.

N26 entered the mortgage business in 2023, a move that raised eyebrows given its shaky past with financial supervision. If BaFin intervenes, it could put both the product line and the fundraising plans at risk.

🧠 Fun Fact: Larry Ellison is now #2 richest after Oracle’s stock jump

Thanks to Oracle’s Q4 boost and a 13%+ stock rally, Larry Ellison’s net worth spiked by about $26 billion in a single session, rocketing him above Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg into the No. 2 spot—just behind Elon Musk. That day’s shift reshuffled the billionaire leaderboard:

🥇 Elon Musk (~$407 B)
🥈 Larry Ellison (~$243 B)
🥉 Mark Zuckerberg (~$239 B)
4️⃣ Jeff Bezos (~$227 B)

☢️ Proxima Fusion Raises €130M for Nuclear Ambitions

Munich-based Proxima Fusion just closed Europe’s largest private fusion round to date: €130M Series A, led by Cherry Ventures and Balderton.

The Max Planck spinout plans to build a working fusion prototype by 2031, targeting continuous net energy. The current round will fund development of a high-field magnet, a key step toward the reactor.

Total funding now exceeds €185M. Estimated cost to reach prototype: €1B. There’s still some way to go, but it's great to see that this field is growing too!

📚 Knowunity Raises €27M to Scale AI Learning App

Berlin-based EdTech startup Knowunity just closed a €27M Series B to expand its AI learning companion. The round was led by XAnge with participation from Project A, Redalpine, Educapital, and others.

Founded by high school students in 2020, Knowunity now serves 20M users across 15 countries, offering short-form, curriculum-aligned content and personalised AI tutoring. In Germany, one in three students uses the app.

The company plans to enter the US and Asia next, aiming to reach 1 billion students globally. Total funding now stands at €45M.

💻 Lovable Eyes Unicorn Round After Hitting $61M ARR

Swedish AI startup Lovable is in talks to raise $100M at a $1.5B valuation, according to Bloomberg. The round would follow a €15M raise in February led by Creandum.

Founded in 2023, Lovable helps non-coders build apps and sites using AI. Just six months after launch, the team claims to have reached $61M in ARR, up from $50M in May.

The startup leads a fast-growing category of “vibe coding” tools. But questions around app security — flagged in a Semafor report — are starting to surface.

🧑‍💻 Career Corner: Hot VC Internships (US + EU)

Internships

🇫🇷 White Star Capital - VC Analyst Intern (Paris)

🇩🇪 Hitachi Ventures - Quantum Computing Intern (Munich)

🇺🇸 Great Circle Ventures - Summer Venture Fellow (NY)

🇧🇪 Telos Impact - Strategy & Impact Analyst Intern (Brussels)

🇬🇧 kopa ventures - Part-time student at Impact VC (London)

🇩🇰 Dreamcraft Ventures - VC Analyst Intern (Copenhaguen)

🇪🇸 Invivo Partners - Biotech & Deeptech VC Analyst Interns (Barcelona)

That’s a wrap! 🎉 See you next week for another dose of startup & AI insights.

Cheers,

Jannis ✌️

While this newsletter has been carefully compiled, we cannot accept liability for its content. The presumption of innocence applies until a final legal judgment is made. For further details, please refer to the respective referenced sources.