These 15 startups didn't exist 5 years ago — now they're worth billions

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Every week this year, another startup has reached a billion-dollar valuation. (Whether these private market valuations actually hold water is another question.)

We've decided to rack up a bunch of these billion-dollar startups — Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee first referred to them as "unicorns" — that didn't exist five years ago, and that are now valued at $1 billion or more.

For the purposes of this list, we zeroed in on US-based companies that were founded in 2011 or later (since we're nearing the very end of 2015), and that are private tech companies.

We then ranked them from least to most valuable.

Udacity

Founded: 2011

Valuation: $1 billion

Education startup Udacity wants to help you "be in demand." Sebastian Thrun, also known for launching Google's secretive hardware lab Google X, founded the company in 2011 with the lofty goal of democratizing education. 

The idea is that anyone who completes one of udacity's nine nanodegrees — which include front-end web developer, Android developer, and data analyst — will be perfectly primed to get a job, since big companies actually helped design the curriculum. Over 10,000 students from 168 countries have enrolled in the nanodegree program, and in November the company raised a $105 million Series D round to continue scaling that growth. 

Vox Media

Founded: 2011

Valuation: $1 billion

Vox Media, the media company that owns The Verge, Curbed, SB Nation, Vox.com, and Eater, added another site to its arsenal in June: 18-month-old Re/code, a tech-news publication founded by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher in 2014, which is predicted to bring in $12 million this year, Business Insider reported at the time of the acquisition.

In addition to purchasing Re/code, Vox Media received a $200 million investment from NBCUniversal in August. The investment is reportedly part of a push by NBC to connect with Millennial audiences, Re/code reported at the time, but it’s a good sign for Vox Media any way you slice it. 

Uptake

Founded: 2014

Valuation: $1.1 billion

Cofounded by Groupon founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky, Uptake is a billion-dollar Internet of Things startup. The company provides analytics for major industries, with the eventual goal of helping industries like gas and construction cut costs. One of the company's biggest partnerships is with Caterpillar Inc.

“Eliminating unplanned downtime is the aspiration of the industrial Internet,” Keywell, uptake's CEO, told Fortune earlier this year. “The benefit is not tens of millions of dollars, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars of increased revenue and profitability.” The Chicago-based startup has more than 300 employees.