The hot social media network BeReal, which is gaining steam with young people as a casual alternative to Instagram, recently raised money, a key milestone on the path of any successful start-up.

It had all the elements of a buzzy start-up, like Snapchat, Clubhouse and Pinterest before it. It was popular with college students and even beat out social media video rival TikTok on Apple's App Store. But when a report this month confirmed how investors valued the company, it was reportedly worth in the ballpark of $600 million - far short of the "unicorn" status of more than $1 billion many of its predecessors earned in frothier times.

BeReal's experience is representative of a new reality in Silicon Valley. As employee layoffs, CEO resignations and belt-tightenings eliminate some of the excessive perks for which tech companies are known, investors here minted only 25 companies worth over $1 billion each in the third quarter of 2022, according to the venture capital research firm CB Insights. A year ago, there were more than five times as many new unicorns.

– The Washington Post