Essential, the new phone startup from Android founder Andy Rubin, is now a unicorn, according to reports from Bloomberg columnist Tim Culpan over the weekend. If you're not up to date on the parlance of Silicon Valley, a unicorn is a company that's valued at over $1 billion dollars, which is no small feat in today's market. This title is even more impressive, given that Essential has yet to ship a single device to consumers.
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According to Culpan, Foxconn's FIH Mobile filing for a $3 million investment in Essential for around 0.25 percent of the fledgling phone company revealed Essential's new unicorn status with a valuation of around $1.2 billion. Earlier estimates from July had previously pegged Essential's worth at approximately $997 million, so crossing the $1 billion mark was likely only a matter of time at that point. This is good news for Essential, particularly as the company approaches the launch of its first product.
While we still don't know when the Essential Phone will actually ship, Andy Rubin has promised that an announcement of a formal release date should be coming sometime this week. The device has already been significantly delayed since the originally promised June release window.