Opinion: ​’Unicorn’ startups are going under fast and VCs aren’t riding to their rescue

Convoy, an online platform that connected truck drivers with freight companies, abruptly shut down in October just 18 months after it was valued at $3.8 billion. 

Convoy is merely the latest example of a long decline in the life of a mythical “unicorn” company — startups valued at $1 billion or more. After a gradual increase in their numbers over the mid-2010s, unicorns exploded between 2020 and 2022, with more than 100 created each quarter before dropping below 100 in the third quarter of 2022. The number of IPOs also exploded,…