| Scale AI, a data labeling outfit, is reportedly closing a round at a valuation that represents a whopping 80% premium to its last round. Right now, that makes it a rare exception in a sea of stumbling companies that were launched in the last 10 years or less, among them the rebooted electric carmaker Fisker; Stability AI, the image generating company; and BeReal, a social network that captured the world's attention, then saw the spotlight move on. Each represents a very different industry, but all raised a significant amount of capital, and all are beginning to raise questions about even more established names that investors would sooner let die than continue funding through a choppy market. For his part, Eric Liaw, a general partner with the growth-stage venture firm IVP, sees more rough road ahead, but he doesn't anticipate the full-blown bloodbath that others have predicted. "Just as people don’t know what they are capable of until their backs are against the wall," Liaw told me this week, "I think the same is actually proving true for companies. They may not have thought they could be as efficient with their engineering team or their sales team or their marketing dollars as they are proving they can be, because they realize there may not be the opportunity to raise more." Liaw's best guess was that 15% of today's billion-dollar-plus outfits will eventually disappear and that some of these — sorry to say it — will not be missed. He pointed to Zume, a pizza-making robotics company that was founded in 2015 and raised $450 million before hanging up its apron last June. "I mean, the pizza robot one never made sense to me," he said. In his view, it’s more likely that most of today’s so-called unicorns will “quietly get acquired for a lot less than their last-round valuation. Maybe [they'll sell for] somewhere [around their] total capital raised and their last round as they work through what cash is left on their balance sheet. As for complete Chapter 11?” Liaw continued. “I think it's going to be a relatively small percentage." — Connie Loizos | 
