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HURUN GLOBAL UNICORN INDEX 2020, IN ASSOCIATION WITH SUZHOU NEW DISTRICT IN EAST CHINA

HURUN RESEARCH FINDS 586 UNICORNS IN WORLD, UP 92

USA LEADS CHINA BY 233 TO 227, MAKING UP 79% OF WORLD’S UNICORNS

UK AND INDIA THIRD AND FOURTH WITH 24 AND 21

INDIANS FOUNDED A FURTHER 40 UNICORNS OUTSIDE INDIA, CHINESE FOUNDED FURTHER 16 OUTSIDE CHINA.

NEW TO TOP 10: BEIJING-BASED VIDEO-SHARING APP KUAISHOU UP US$10BN, HANGZHOUBASED PARCEL TRACKER CAINIAO UP US$8BN AND PALO ALTO-BASED DATA MINER PALANTIR UP US$11BN

WORLD’S TOP THREE UNICORNS FROM CHINA: ANT GROUP US$150BN, ON BACK OF SHANGHAI AND HK IPO PLAN, BYTEDANCE UP US$5BN TO US$80BN, DESPITE RECENT US GOVT THREAT TO TIKTOK, AND TAXI-HAILING APP DIDI CHUXING US$55BN

SPACEX, WHICH JUST SUCCESSFULLY DELIVERED TWO ASTRONAUTS TO THE ISS, FIFTH IN WORLD, WORTH US$36BN

SAN FRANCISCO-BASED PAYMENTS PLATFORM STRIPE BIGGEST GAINER, ADDING US$13BN AND 5 PLACES TO 5TH PLACE

9 OF TOP 10 CITIES ARE IN CHINA AND USA, WITH LONDON THE ONLY OTHER CITY IN TOP 10

NO UNICORNS: ITALY, RUSSIA, MEXICO AND HOLLAND LARGEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD BY GDP WITHOUT A UNICORN

USA AND CHINA ADDED 30 AND 21 UNICORNS IN THE PAST YEAR, EQUIVALENT TO THE NUMBER OF UNICORNS IN INDIA OR UK

FINANCIAL SERVICES AND RETAIL SECTORS MOST DISRUPTED BY UNICORNS, FOLLOWED BY MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, HEALTHCARE, LOGISTICS AND AUTOMOBILES

E-COMMERCE LED WITH 89 UNICORNS, FOLLOWED BY AI (EG AUTONOMOUS DRIVING AND FACIAL RECOGNITION) AND FINTECH (EG PAYMENT SOLUTIONS) WITH 63 EACH. OTHERS INCLUDE SAAS 53, SHARED ECONOMY 33 AND HEALTH TECH 28

BIGGEST LOSERS: JUUL LABS AND WEWORK, DOWN US$36BN AND US$27BN

SEQUOIA WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL UNICORN INVESTOR, INVESTING INTO ONE IN FIVE OF THE WORLD’S UNICORNS, FOLLOWED BY TENCENT, SOFTBANK AND IDG. HILLHOUSE AND ACCEL BROKE INTO TOP 10 FOR THE FIRST TIME

943 CO-FOUNDERS OF WORLD’S UNICORNS, AVERAGE AGE 42

33 UNICORNS FOUNDED WITHIN 3 YEARS, AVERAGE AGE 9YRS

80% SELL SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, 20% PHYSICAL PRODUCTS

59% ARE CONSUMER-FACING, 41% B2B

18 OF 20 SPIN-OFFS FROM LARGE CHINESE COMPANIES, LED BY ALIBABA AND JD

AFRICA HAS ONE UNICORN: NIGERIA-BASED PAYMENTS GATEWAY INTERSWITCH WORTH US$1BN. HALF OF UNICORNS IN ASIA

TOTAL VALUE OF ALL KNOWN UNICORNS IN WORLD US$1.9 TRILLION

(4 August 2020, Suzhou, China, Mumbai, India and Oxford, UK) The Hurun Research Institute, in association with Suzhou New District from East China, today released the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020, a ranking of the world’s start-ups founded in the 2000s, worth at least a billion dollars and not yet listed on a public exchange. This is the second year of the list and follows on from six quarterly Hurun China Unicorn Indices. This report includes the Hurun Best Unicorn Investors in the World 2020, a ranking of the 100 most successful unicorn investors. Valuations are a snapshot of 31 March 2020.

Hurun Research found 586 unicorns in the world, based in 29 countries and 145 cities. On average, they were set up nine years ago, with 80% selling software and services and 60% consumer-facing. 5% were in traditional sectors, with the majority disrupting financial services, retail, entertainment, business management solutions, healthcare, logistics and automobile. The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.9tn, equivalent to the GDP of Italy.

89 unicorns saw their valuations rise, 23 saw their valuations drop. There were 142 ‘new faces’ and 50 drop-offs. Of the drop-offs, 30 were because they went public or were acquired and 20 saw their valuation drop below US$1bn.

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said: “We have found 586 unicorns in the world. These young companies, only nine years old on average, are the world’s most exciting startups, leading a new generation of disruptive technology and attracting the world’s top young talent. Just look at Elon Musk’s SpaceX – valued at US$36bn and fifth on the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020 – which caught the imagination of the world by delivering two astronauts to the International Space Station on 31 May. Others that have made headlines recently include Beijing-based ByteDance, which is seeing its massively popular short video app TikTok come under threat from both the US and Indian governments, as well as China fintech Ant Financial, which is reportedly looking at a whopping US$200bn IPO in Shanghai and HK.”

“The USA and China continue to dominate with 80% of the world’s known unicorns, despite representing only 40% of the world’s GDP and a quarter of the world’s population. The rest of the world needs to wake up to providing an ecosystem that allows unicorns to flourish.”

“Hurun has set out to find every unicorn on the planet, ranking countries and cities by unicorn head office location. I hope this will help countries and cities to standardize the number of unicorns they have.”

“Of the 61 unicorns founded by Indians, a massive two thirds are based outside of India, predominately Silicon Valley in the USA, whilst only 21 are based in India. The Indian founders of the 40 unicorns outside of India deserve to be recognised in much the same way as Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, an inspiration to many young Indian entrepreneurs.”

Where are the World’s Unicorns based?

The world’s unicorns are based in only 29 countries around the world, spread around 145 cities.

The USA pipped China to lead by 233 versus 227, together accounting for 79% of the world’s unicorns. “The dominance of the USA and China is such that they each have more than four times the number of unicorns in Europe, which today has 58 unicorns,” said Hoogewerf.

USA and China added 58 and 38 ‘new faces’ this year.

The UK was third with 24, led digital bank Revolut worth US$6bn. Europe’s largest unicorn was Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences worth US$7bn. “The UK has more unicorns than Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Russia and Holland combined”, said Hoogewerf.

India was fourth with 21 unicorns, led by payments solutions platform One97 Communications (US$16bn), travel-stay finder OYO Rooms (US$8bn), online educator BYJU’s (US$8bn), and cab aggregator Ola Cabs (US$6bn).

Despite a population of just under 9 million, Israel was 7th, ahead of France and Switzerland.

By city, Beijing is the world’s unicorn capital with 93, comfortably ahead of San Francisco with 68 and followed by Shanghai, New York, Shenzhen and Hangzhou. As a region, Silicon Valley leads the world with 122 or 21% of the world’s unicorns.

9 of the Top 10 cities for unicorn headquarters are in China and the USA, with London the only other city to make the Top 10. “China and the USA dominating the world’s unicorn cities is significant because these unicorns create an ecosystem of talent and investors,” said Hoogewerf.

Paris is the unicorn capital of mainland Europe with 6 unicorns, just ahead of Berlin with 5 unicorns.

Table 1: Top countries and cities where the world’s unicorns are based

Rank Country Unicorns Rank City Unicorns
1 ↑ USA 233 (+30) 1- Beijing 93 (+11)
2 ↓ China 227 (+21) 2- San Francisco 68 (+13)
3 ↑ UK 24 (+11) 3- Shanghai 47 (+0)
4 ↓ India 21 (+0) 4- New York 33 (+8)
5 ↑ South Korea 11 (+5) 5 ↑ Shenzhen 20 (+2)
6 ↓ Germany 10 (+3) 5- Hangzhou 20 (+1)
7 ↑ Brazil 8 (+4) 7 ↑ London 16 (+7)
7 ↓ Israel 8 (+1) 8- Palo Alto 12 (+2)
9 ↓ France 7 (+3) 9 ↓ Nanjing 11 (-1)
10 ↑ Switzerland 5 (+2) 10 ↓ Redwood City 10 (+1)
10 ↓ Indonesia 5 (+1) 11 ↑ Seoul 9 (+4)
12- Japan 3 (+1) 12- Guangzhou 8 (+0)
12 ∗ Canada 3 (+3) 12 ↓ Bengaluru 8 (-1)
14 ↓ Singapore 2 (+0) 12- Boston 8 (+0)
14 ↓ Sweden 2 (+0) 15 ↑ Sao Paulo 7 (+3)
14 ↑ Australia 2 (+1) 16 ↓ Gurgaon 6 (-1)
14 ↑ Spain 2 (+1) 16 ↓ Mountain View 6 (+0)
14 ↑ Malta 2 (+1) 16 ↑ Paris 6 (+2)
19 ↓ Finland 1 (+0) 19 ↓ Sunnyvale 5 (+0)
19 ∗ Lithuania 1 (+1) 19 ∗ Tel Aviv 5 (+2)
19 ↓ Argentina 1 (+0) 19 ↓ Hong Kong 5 (+1)
19 ∗ Nigeria 1 (+1) 19 ↓ Berlin 5 (+1)
19 ↓ Luxembourg 1 (+0) 23 ↓ Santa Monica 4 (+0)
19 ↓ Phillipines 1 (+0) 23 ∗ Santa Mateo 4 (+1)
19 ↓ Estonia 1 (+0) 23 ↓ Chengdu 4 (+0)
19 ↓ Ireland 1 (+0) 23 ↓ Atlanta 4 (+0)
19 ↓ Colombia 1 (+0) 23 ∗ Los Angeles 4 (+1)
19 ∗ Malaysia 1 (+1) 23 ↓ Jakarta 4 (-1)
19 ∗ Austria 1 (+1)

∗ New to list

Source: Hurun Research Institute

USA. The USA led the world with unicorns, just ahead of China. In the USA, SaaS and AI unicorns led, followed by e-commerce and fintech. By valuation, fintech led but fintech unicorn valuations in the USA were only one quarter of those in China.

The USA was the country of choice for Indian and Chinese founders of unicorns, who between them founded 49 unicorns in the USA.

Table 2: USA unicorns key industries

Industry No. of Unicorns Cumulative Valuation of US$bn
1 SaaS 37 65
2 Artificial Intelligence 35 81
3 E-commerce 23 53
4 FinTech 21 84
5 Shared Economy 12 56

Source: Hurun Research Institute

China. China follows the USA with 227 known unicorns and with a further 16 unicorns founded by first or second generation Chinese outside of China, predominantly in Silicon Valley. “Interestingly, two of the three largest unicorns co-founded by Chinese outside of China are US and UK versions of China’s ondemand food delivery platform ELEME, which went on to be acquired by Alibaba in 2018.”

By number of unicorns, China was driven by e-commerce, followed by AI. By value, fintech led the way.

Table 3A: Unicorns outside of China with a Chinese co-founder

Rank Company Name Valuation US$bn Country City Sector
1 DoorDash 13 USA San Francisco On-Demand Delivery
2 Wish 11 USA San Francisco E-commerce
3 Deliveroo 4 UK London On-Demand Delivery
4 Binance 3 Malta Malta Blockchain
4 Nuro 3 USA San Francisco Artificial Intelligence
4 Pony.ai 3 USA Fremont Artificial Intelligence
7 Avant 2 USA Chicago FinTech
7 Lime 2 USA San Mateo Shared Economy
7 Notion Labs 2 USA San Francisco SaaS
7 Quanergy Systems 2 USA Sunnyvale Artificial Intelligence
11 Desktop Metal 1.5 USA Burlington 3D Printing
12 Faraday Future 1.3 USA Gardena E-Cars
13 Airtable 1 USA San Francisco SaaS
13 GetYourGuide 1 Germany Berlin E-commerce
13 PlusAI 1 USA Cupertino Artificial Intelligence
13 TuSimple 1 USA San Diego Artificial Intelligence

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Table 3B: China unicorns key industries

Industry No. of Unicorns Cumulative Valuation of US$bn
1 E-commerce 39 70
2 Artificial Intelligence 21 39
3 FinTech 18 239
4 Logistics 16 68
4 Health Tech 16 40

Source: Hurun Research Institute

India. 36 of the 40 unicorns founded by Indians outside of India are in the USA, led by the Bay Area, followed by two in the UK, and one in each of Germany and Switzerland.

Table 4: Unicorns outside of India with an Indian co-founder

Rank Company Name Valuation US$bn Country City Core Competence Main Sector
1 Robinhood 8 USA Menlo Park FinTech
1 Instacart 8 USA San Francisco On-Demand Delivery
3 Roivant SCIENCES 7 Switzerland Basel Biotech
3 Automation Anywhere 7 USA San Jose Artificial Intelligence
5 Samsara Networks 6.5 USA San Francisco IoT
6 Ginkgo BioWorks 4 USA Boston Biotech
7 Freshworks 3.5 USA San Bruno Enterprise Services
8 OakNorth 3 UK London FinTech
8 Rubrik 3 USA San Francisco SaaS
8 Netskope 3 USA Santa Clara SaaS
11 Confluent 2.5 USA Palo Alto SaaS
12 Improbable 2 UK London Gaming
12 Sprinklr 2 USA New York SaaS
12 Carta 2 USA Palo Alto FinTech
12 Nextdoor 2 USA San Francisco Social Media
12 Udemy 2 USA San Francisco EdTech
12 Zenefits 2 USA San Francisco SaaS
12 ThoughtSpot 2 USA Sunnyvale Artificial Intelligence
12 Postman 2 USA San Francisco SaaS
20 RigUp 1.9 USA Austin E-commerce
20 Scopely 1.9 USA Culver City Gaming
22 QuantumScape 1.8 USA San Jose New Energy
23 Poshmark 1.3 USA Redwood City E-commerce
24 Headspin 1.2 USA Palo Alto SaaS
25 Omio 1 Germany Berlin E-commerce
25 Icertis 1 USA Bellevue SaaS
25 ChargePoint 1 USA Campbell New Energy
25 Tresata 1 USA Charlotte Big Data
25 HighRadius 1 USA Houston Artificial Intelligence
25 ClassPass 1 USA New York Fitness
25 Knotel 1 USA New York Shared Economy
25 MoneyLion 1 USA New York FinTech
25 Pendo 1 USA Raleigh SaaS
25 Farmers Business Network 1 USA San Carlos E-commerce
25 Clover Health 1 USA San Francisco Artificial Intelligence
25 Instabase 1 USA San Francisco SaaS
25 Cohesity 1 USA San Jose SaaS
25 Druva 1 USA Sunnyvale SaaS
25 o9 Solutions 1 USA Texas Artificial Intelligence
25 Actifio 1 USA Waltham SaaS

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Can’t find a unicorn here

Italy, Russia, Mexico and Holland are the largest countries in the world by GDP without a unicorn. “Only 29 countries have unicorns, meaning that the other 170 or more countries in the world are without a single unicorn, led by 10 of the world’s 25 largest economies,” said Hoogewerf.

Table 5: Largest countries in the world without a unicorn

Country Ranking in World by GDP GDP US$bn
1 Italy 8 1,989
2 Russia 11 1,638
3 Mexico 15 1,274
4 Netherlands 17 902
5 Saudi Arabia 18 779
6 Turkey 19 744
7 Poland 21 566
8 Thailand 22 529
9 Belgium 24 518
10 Iran 25 459
11 Austria 26 448
12 Norway 29 418
13 United Arab Emirates 30 406

Source: Hurun Research Institute. GDP rankings and dollar values based on IMF 2019 estimates

Asia leads North America as the continent creating the most unicorns in the world, both in terms of number of unicorns and in terms of total valuations of unicorns. “Interestingly, Asia has 50% of the world’s unicorns, whilst Africa was the most underrepresented, with only 1 unicorn for its 1.2 billion population,” said Hoogewerf.

Table 6: Continents where the world’s unicorns are based

Continent No. of Unicorns % of Total Value
1 Asia 278 55%
2 North America 236 37%
3 Europe 58 6%
4 South America 10 1%
5 Oceania 2 0%
6 Africa 1 0%

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Biggest Losers

JUUL Labs and WeWork led the way with the biggest drops in valuations. JUUL Labs, an e-cigarette company, was hit by new regulations, resulting in a US$36bn drop in its valuation from US$48bn to US$12bn. WeWork dropped US$27bn to US$3bn.

Table 7: Biggest drops in valuations

Unicorn Fall in Valuation US$bn Key Investors Sector
1 JUUL Labs 36 M13, Timothy Davis, Evolution VC Partners, Tiger Global Management, Altria, Capital Re E-cigarettes
2 WeWork 27 Softbank, Hony Capital, Glade Brook Capital, Wellington Management, Benchmark Office Rental
3 Bitmain 8 Sequoia Capital China, Sinovation Ventures, IDG Capital Crypto mining products
4 Airbnb 3 Tiger Global Management, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners Apartment rental
4 UCAR 3 YF Capital, CICC Online car-hailing

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

And the biggest winners

89 unicorns registered a net increase in valuation, led by payments platform Stripe, which increased its valuation by US$13bn or 50% to US$36bn, driving it up 5 places to 5th spot. Stripe, founded in 2010, today counts the likes of Amazon, Google, Uber, Booking.com and Zoom as its clients. Other big risers, straight into the Top 10, were Pala Alto-based data analytics platform Palantir, which jumped US$11bn to US$26bn and video-sharing app Kuaishou, which was up US$10bn to US$28bn.

Table 8: Biggest gainers in valuation

Company Name Valuation change US$bn Key Investors Sector
1 Stripe 13 CapitalG, Thrive Capital, Y Combinator, Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Tiger Global Management Payments
2 Palantir Technologies 11 Founders Fund, Kortschak Investments Data Analytics
3 Kuaishou 10 Sequoia Capital China, Morningside, Baidu, Tencent Video SHaring
4 Snowflake Computing 9 Sutter Hill Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ Capital, Sequoia Cloud Data Platform
5 Cainiao 8 Alibaba, GIC, Temasek, Primavera, YF Capital Express delivery
6 Paytm 6 Alibaba Group, SoftBank, Berkshire Hathaway, Sapphire Ventures, Mountain Capital, Ant Group Payments
6 Beike 6 Softbank, Sequoia Capital China, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital Real Estate Agents
6 Nubank 6 Sequoia, Tiger Global Management, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs, DST Global, Fortress Investment Group, Tencent Holdings Challenger Bank
9 JD Health 5.5 CPE China Fund, CICC Capital, Baring Pharmaceutical retail
10 ByteDance 5 Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital China, Qiming Venture Partners, GGV Capital, SIG, Hillhouse Capital Video sharing
10 Ripple 5 Core Innovation Capital, IDG Capital, Santander InnoVentures, SBI Investment Crypto Currency

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Years to Unicorn

The average age of the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020 is nine years, of which 33 are less than three years old. JD Health was spun-off last year from Chinese e-commerce giant JD and is the youngest unicorn on the list. “In the post-Luckin Coffee era, investors are much more careful now about management ability and systems,” said Hoogewerf.

Table 9: Youngest Unicorns

Company Name Year Founded Valuation change US$bn Country Core Competence Main Sector
JD Health 2019 7 5.5 China Health Tech
Beike 2018 15 6.0 China SaaS
Carzone 2018 1 0 China E-commerce
Du Xiaoman Financial 2018 3 0 China FinTech
Figure Technologies 2018 1.2 New USA Blockchain
Loft 2018 1 New Brazil E-commerce
RELX 2018 2 0 China Consumer Goods
Tencentr Trusted Doctors 2018 1 0 China Health Tech
Lyell Immunopharma 2018 1 New USA Biotech
Aiways 2017 1.5 0 China E-Cars
Anduril 2017 1 New USA Artificial Intelligence
Bianlifeng 2017 1.5 New China New Retail
Binance 2017 3 1 Malta Blockchain
Bird Rides 2017 2.5 0.5 USA Shared Economy
Block.One 2017 2 0 China Blockchain
Bordrin 2017 1 0 China E-Cars
Brex 2017 3 0 USA FinTech
Byton 2017 2 0 China E-Cars
COSMOPlat 2017 1 New China AI
Cowell Health 2017 2 New China Health Tech
Devoted Health 2017 2 0 USA Health Tech
Enovate 2017 1.5 0 China E-Cars
Faire 2017 1 New USA E-commerce
Hims 2017 1 0.0 USA Consumer Goods
Judo Bank 2017 1.5 New Australia FinTech
Leapmotor 2017 1 0 China E-Cars
Lime 2017 2 0 USA Shared Economy
Nome 2017 1 0 China New Retail
Ola Electric 2017 1 0 India Shared Economy
Ovo 2017 3 New Indonesia FinTech
PAX Labs 2017 2 0 USA Consumer Goods
SambaNova Systems 2017 2.5 New USA Artificial Intelligence
Skywell 2017 1.5 0 China E-Cars

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Software and services versus physical products?

80% sell software and services, led by E-commerce and followed by Fintech, AI and SaaS.

20% have a physical product as a core business offering, led by Consumer goods, E-cars and AI.

Top 10 Unicorns in the World

The Top 10 make up 28% of the total value of the world’s unicorns. All are from the USA or China.

Kuaishou, Cainiao and Palantir Technologies made the Top 10 for the first time with JUUL Labs and WeWork dropping out of the Top 10 because of drops in valuations, and Infor being acquired by Koch Industries and no longer being a unicorn.

Table 16: Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020 TOP 10

Rank Company Name Valuation US$bn Headquarters
1 Ant Group 150 Hangzhou, China
2 ByteDance 80 Beijing, China
3 Didi Chuxing 55 Beijing, China
4 Lufax 38 Shanghai, China
5 SpaceX 36 Los Angeles, USA
5 Stripe 36 San Francisco, USA
7 Airbnb 35 San Francisco, USA
8 * Kuaishou 28 Beijing, China
9 * Cainiao 27 Hangzhou, China
10 * Palantir Technologies 26 Palo Alto, USA

Source: Hurun Research Institute. *New to the Top 10

Hangzhou-based Ant Group, spun out of Alibaba in 2014, is the world’s biggest unicorn with a valuation of US$150bn, on the back of its impending IPO in Shanghai and HK. Ant Group’s main product is the payments platform Alipay.

Beijing-based ByteDance, founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012, is best known for its news aggregator platform Toutiao and short video platform TikTok. In March this year, Tiger Fund led a new round of investors, valuing ByteDance at US$80bn. In July this year, India banned TikTok and the US government is threatening to do the same.

Taxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing, founded in 2012, is the world’s third largest unicorn with a valuation of US$55bn. Last year Didi started expanding outside of China.

Shanghai-based wealth management platform Lufax, incubated by Ping An originally, is the fourth largest unicorn in the world, moving up one space after Infor was acquired by Koch Industries.

SpaceX. Elon Musk founded LA-based SpaceX in 2002, and has raised US$3.2bn in 27 funding rounds, with the latest one valuing the unicorn at US$36bn. The aerospace company, while collaborating with NASA, has just sent two astronauts to the International Space Station at the end of May 2020.

Stripe. Started by Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison in 2010, San Francisco-based Stripe holds the 5th rank in the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020. Stripe provides payment solutions to businesses and helps companies start up by providing the online infrastructure to manage operations. In a recent fresh round of funding in April 2020, the Silicon Valley-based e-payment technology venture announced that it had raised US$600mn, which raised the valuation of the company at US$36bn.

Airbnb. Founded in 2008, San Francisco-based Airbnb provides an online platform for people who wish to rent their homes to people who are in search of temporary accommodation while touring. The company is a brainchild of Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk. It is currently valued at US$35bn. Recently, in April 2020, the company managed to raise US$1bn from private equity firms.

Beijing-based Kuaishou has transformed from an application app to a short video community since 2012, gaining a foothold in the short video field with more than 200 million daily active users. Kuaishou moved up 6 places to 8th after a new round of investment, valuing it at US$28bn.

Cainiao, founded by Alibaba in 2013, focuses on working with partners to improve logistics efficiency, reduce social logistics costs and improve consumers' logistics experience. In November last year, Alibaba invested US$3.3bn to increase its stake from 51% to 63%, valuing Cainiao at US$27bn and shooting Cainiao into the Top 10.

With a valuation of US$26bn Palantir Technologies, a data mining and data analytics company, which was founded by Alex Karp along with Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale and Stephen Cohen, was up 5 places to break into the Top 10. It is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

What industries have been disrupted?

“Unicorns create value mostly by disrupting existing industries. Financial services and Retail are the two sectors most disrupted by unicorns, followed by Media & Entertainment, Business Management Solutions and Healthcare,” said Hoogewerf. “The car industry, for example, is being disrupted by unicorns in the fields of autonomous driving and e-cars.”

Table 10: Industries most disrupted by unicorns

Industry % of Unicorns
1 Financial Services 13.2%
2 Retail 11.2%
3 Media & Entertainment 7.7%
4 Business Management Solutions 6.0%
5 Healthcare 5.3%
6 Logistics 5.0%
7 Automobile 4.8%
8 Transportation 4.6%
9 Predictive Analysis 4.5%
10 Education 3.4%
11 Life Sciences 3.1%
12 Hospitality 2.9%
13 Data Management 2.7%
14 Software & Services 2.6%
15 Cyber Security 2.2%
15 Real Estate 2.2%
17 Consumer Electronics 1.5%
17 Food & Beverages 1.5%
17 Surveillance 1.5%
20 Energy 1.4%

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

What is the core business of these unicorns?

E-commerce is the core business for unicorns, followed by AI, FinTech and SaaS.

Table 11: Industries of the unicorns

Industry % of Total Value
1 E-commerce 89 10.5%
2 Artificial Intelligence 63 7.1%
2 FinTech 63 21.6%
4 SaaS 53 5.3%
5 Shared Economy 33 9.3%
6 Health Tech 8289 3.2%
7 Big Data 20 3.7%
7 EdTech 20 2.3%
9 Media & Entertainment 19 2.0%
10 Biotech 17 2.7%
10 Consumer Goods 17 2.0%

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

E-commerce. There are 89 e-commerce unicorns with a total value of US$196bn, which translates to 10.5% of the valuation of all unicorns combined. US online market-place Wish leads the industry with US$11bn valuations, followed by South Korea’s Coupang and China’s Cars (US$9bn) each. With 39 unicorns China has the largest number of e-commerce unicorns followed by USA (23) and India (7).

Artificial Intelligence boasts 63 unicorns up from 24 the previous year. With US$7bn valuation each USbased Argo AI, Uber ATG, UiPath and Automation Anywhere are the top AI companies in the list followed by China-based facial recognition platforms SenseTime (US$7bn) and Megvii (US$4bn). The total value of all AI unicorns is US$130.4bn or 7.1% of the global list. The key uses of AI are in autonomous driving and facial recognition. The USA leads with 34 AI unicorns, followed by China with 21 and the UK with 3.

FinTech. There are 63 VC-backed fintech unicorns. 56% are payment technology-related unicorns. The most valuable FinTech unicorn is Ant Group (US$150bn), followed by online wealth management platforms Lufax (US$38bn) and Stripe (US$36bn). FinTech dominates with US$403bn or 21.6% of the total value of all unicorns.

SaaS. With 16 new unicorn SaaS industry comes fourth with 8% of the unicorns in the list. Top SaaS companies are China-based property platform company Beike (US$15bn) and social commerce company Xiaohongshu (US$5bn), followed by USA-based HashiCorp (US$5bn). The total value of all cloud unicorns is US$88.3bn.

Shared Economy at 5th spot with 33 unicorns and the total value of industry unicorn comes to US$175.5bn or just 9.3%. The sector is led by Beijing-based ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing (US$55bn). Online marketplace Airbnb (US$35bn) comes second followed by Malaysia-based ridehailing company Grab (US$14bn).

HealthTech has 28 unicorns, making it the 6th largest sector with 4.8% of the unicorns. New York has seen the most unicorn activity in HealthTech and is home to 4 unicorns. With its own online healthcare ecosystem, PingAn Healthcare Technology is the most valuable at US$9bn, followed by Beijing-based pharmaceutical retailer JD Health (US$7bn) and Hangzhou-based WeDoctor (US$4bn).

Big Data sector offering services like data management and predictive analytics has 20 unicorns led by Palo Alto-based Palantir Technologies (US$26bn) and San Mateo-based Snowflake Computing (US$13bn), followed by San Francisco-based Databricks (US$6bn) and Mountain View-based Zume (US$4bn). These unicorns make up 3.2% of the global list and their combined valuation comes to US$67.5bn.

EdTech has 20 unicorns led by Bengaluru-based BYJU’s (US$8bn) and Beijing-based Yuanfudao (US$7bn), followed by VIPKID (US$4bn) and Zuoyebang (US$3bn). These unicorns make up 3.2% of the global list and their combined valuation comes to US$39.6bn.

Media & Entertainment has 19, or 3.2% of the unicorns. With US$3bn each, five Chinese unicorns lead: Yixia, NetEase Music, Himalaya, Dadi Digital Cinema and Bona Film. Other interesting entries include Skydance Media (US$2.5bn) and Sportradar (US$2.5bn). The total value of all the unicorns in this industry comes to US$37bn or 2% of the whole list.

Consumer Goods is in 10th place with 17, or just under 3% of the unicorns. At the top is E-cigarette company JUUL Labs (US$12bn), followed by four cosmetic unicorns: Seoul-based L&P Cosmetic, (US$3bn), Seoul-based GP Club (US$2bn), NY-based Pat McGrath Labs (US$2bn) and Santa Monicabased The Honest Company (US$1bn). The total value of all Consumer Goods unicorns comes to US$37.1bn or above 2.0% of the total.

Table 12: Core business of the world’s unicorns

Use case No. of Companies Total Value US$bn
1 Market place 19 60
2 Payments 15 231
3 E-Cars 14 31
4 Express Delivery 13 59
5 Self-driving 9 30
5 Ride Hailing 9 38
7 Online Education 8 21
7 Challenger Bank 8 37
7 Online medical services 8 13
10 Genetic sequencing 7 12
10 Food delivery 7 31
12 Game development 6 19
13 Consumer lending 5 11
13 Facial recognition 5 16
13 Home improvements 5 9

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Which investors are the best at finding unicorns?

Sequoia is far and away from the world’s most successful investment platform at finding and investing into unicorns, investing into one in five of the world’s known unicorns, followed by Tencent, Softbank, IDG and Hillhouse Capital, Tiger Fund and Goldman Sachs. Hoogewerf says, “Unicorns are supposed to be hard to find, but investors like Sequoia, Tencent, Softbank and IDG make it look easy.”

31 investors made the Hurun Best Unicorn Investors in the World 2020 for the first time, led by Google Ventures, straight in at 21st place with 16 unicorns invested and followed by Sinovation Ventures with 11.

“I was surprised not to see the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook towards the top of the Hurun Best Unicorn Investors in the World 2020,” added Hoogewerf.

Table 13: Most successful investors into unicorns – Top 10

(for the full list of the Top 100 investors, see Appendix 1)

Investor No. of Unicorns HQ by Country Key Leadership Team
1- Sequoia 109 (+17) USA Donald Valentine, Neil Shen Nanpeng
2- Tencent 52 (+6) China Pony Ma Huateng, Lau Seng Yee, Xi Dan
3- Softbank 51 (+9) Japan Masayoshi Son, Rajeev Misra
4 ↑ IDG 41 (+10) USA Jim Breyer, Cui Guangfu
5 ∗ Hillhouse Capital 37 (+21) China Zhang Lei
6 ↓ Tiger Fund 35 (-1) USA Chase Coleman, Scott Shleifer
7 ↓ Goldman Sachs 32 (+8) USA David Solomon, John Waldron
8 ↓ Alibaba 25 (+3) China Daniel Zhang Yong, Eddie Wu
9 ↓ Andreessen Horowitz 24 (+4) USA Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz
10 ∗ Accel 23 (+5) USA Philippe Botteri, Andrew Braccia

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Start-up or incubated?

20 or 4% of the world’s unicorns were incubated by large companies before being spun off and attracting outside investors. Hoogewerf says, “Chinese companies are far and away the most successful at spinning off unicorns, with 18 of the world’s 20 ‘spun-off’ unicorns, led by the likes of Ant Group, spun off from Alibaba in 2014, and Lufax, spun off from PingAn.”

China-based e-commerce platform JD and Alibaba spun off three unicorns each followed by PingAn and Suning with two each. All but two were spun-off from a China-based company.

Table 14: Unicorns spun off from large corporations

Company Name Spun off from Country Valuation US$bn Industry
Ant Group Alibaba China 150 FinTech
Taobao Dianying Alibaba China 2 E-commerce
Alisports Alibaba China 1 Media & Entertainment
JD Digits JD China 20 Digital Technology
JD Logistics JD China 13 Logistics
JD Health JD China 7 Health Tech
Lufax PingAn China 38 FinTech
Ping An Healthcare Technology PingAn China 9 Health Tech
Suning Finance Suning China 7 FinTech
Suning Sports Suning China 2 Media & Entertainment
NetEase Music Netease China 3 Media & Entertainment
Beike Lianjia China 15 SaaS
Uber ATG Uber USA 7 Artificial Intelligence
Du Xiaoman Financial Baidu China 3 FinTech
Whaley CMC China 2 Consumer Goods
Shuhai Haidilao China 2 Logistics
RRS Haier China 2 Logistics
Kingsoft Cloud Kingsoft China 2 Cloud
Ovo Lippo Group Indonesia 1 FinTech
Daojia 58 China 1 SaaS

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Unicorns recently listed

Of the 50 companies from last year that dropped off, 19 went IPO and 11 were acquired. 20 dropped off because their valuation dropped below US$1bn. Please note this report includes all known unicorns as of 31 March 2020, some of which have since gone IPO or been taken over.

California-based life science and diagnostic company 10X Genomics was the best-performing exunicorn, surging US$3.8bn in value since its IPO in September last year.

Nashville-based teledentistry platform SmileDirectClub was the worst performing, dropping US$6.3bn in value since its September IPO.

NY-based Infor was the largest of 11 ex-unicorns acquired in the last year. Infor was acquired by Koch Industries.

Table 15A: Best-Performing Unicorns since IPO

Company Rise in value since IPO US$bn Current Valuation US$bn Stock Exchange IPO Date
1 10X Genomics 3.8 7.4 NASDAQ 12-Sep-19
2 Cloudflare 2.7 7.1 NYSE 12-Sep-19
3 Bill.com 2.4 4 NYSE 12-Dec-19
4 OneConnect 1.2 4.9 NYSE 13-Dec-19
5 Youdao 1 2.4 NYSE 25-Oct-19
6 One Medical Group 0.8 3.5 NASDAQ 31-Jan-20
7 Peloton Interactive 0.3 8.4 NASDAQ 26-Sep-19

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Table 15B: Worst-Performing Unicorns since IPO

Company Fall in value since IPO US$bn Current Valuation US$bn Stock Exchange IPO Date
1 SmileDirectClub 6.3 2.6 NASDAQ 12-Sep-19
2 Danke 1.3 1.2 NYSE 17-Jan-20
3 Global Fashion Group 0.7 0.3 XETRA 29-Jul-19
4 Canaan 0.5 0.9 NASDAQ 21-Nov-19
5 Health Catalyst 0.3 1 NASDAQ 25-Jul-19
5 Casper 0.3 0.3 NYSE 06-Feb-20
7 FangDD 0.2 0.8 NASDAQ 01-Nov-19

Source: Hurun Research Institute.

Other Unicorns of Note

Beike

In March 2020, real estate agent platform Beike completed a D+ round of financing of $2.4 billion, and its valuation rose to US$15bn. Beike, spun out of China real estate agency Lianjia, is positioned as a technology-driven quality living service platform, providing consumers with a full range of living services including second-hand houses, new houses and rental.

Yuanfudao

Online education platform Yuanfudao has more than 400 million users in China, and is headquartered in Beijing. In March 2020, Yuanfudao completed a new round of financing of US$1bn, with a postinvestment valuation of US$7bn.

Xiaohongshu

Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu is a social media platform with 300 million registered users as of July 2019. In March 2020, Xiaohongshu completed its E-round of financing, at a valuation of US$5bn.

Mininglamp

Beijing-based Mininglamp is a one-stop enterprise-level AI product & service platform. In March 2020, Mininglamp announced the completion of US$300mn for its E round, and its valuation rose to US$3bn.

CloudKitchens

Founded by Uber’s ex-CEO, Travis Kalanick, the concept of CloudKitchens is to provide exclusive food delivery to customers without having the customers at the restaurants. The task involved in this business is optimizing the food delivery services to customers by setting up restaurants with all the food preparation infrastructure sans the sit-in or dine-in facilities. The start-up was valued at US$5bn during the beginning of November 2019, when Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth invested US$400mn.

VistaJet

Founded by Thomas Flohr, Malta-based VistaJet operates on a global level, while having a reach to about 187 countries. As of the beginning of the year 2020, the company operated with close to 70 private jets. The recent addition to the fleet being the Bombardier Global 500 aircraft. Currently valued at US$2.7bn, VistaJet, offered provided complimentary empty leg flights to enable the governments to make people stranded due to Covid19, return to their respective home countries.

Notion Labs

Founded in the year 2012, Notion Labs is a San Francisco based start-up that is now valued at US$2bn. Notion Labs compete with several other workplace management applications such as Smartsheet, Airtable, Trello and Evernote. As of May 2020, the company has registered a subscriber base of 4 million. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic the company managed to raise US$50mn funding at the current valuation.

Udemy

Currently valued at US$2bn, Udemy is an online educational platform that enables individuals and students across the globe to connect with various instructors. The startup was founded by Eren Bali, Oktay Caglar and Gagan Biyani in 2010, and is headquartered in San Francisco. The user base of the learning platform is comprised of 50 million students and 57,000 course instructors, while there are around 150,000 different courses available on the website for learning.

Verkada

Currently valued at US$1.6bn, Verkada is a new entrant to the list and it develops security cameras functioned to work for the Internet of Things (IoT). The startup was founded in 2016 by Filip Kaliszan, Benjamin Berkowitz, James Ren and Hans Robertson. Followed by that, in the beginning 2020, Felicis Ventures invested US$80mn in Verkada at the current valuation, which is triple the valuation in April 2019.

Lenskart

Optical devices aggregator, Lenskart operates in 100 cities across India and has around 500 stores in the country. In December 2019, Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund announced that it will be investing US$275mn in Lenskart. Currently valued at estimated US$1.5bn, the company aims to utilize these funds to enhance its supply chain infrastructure.

You & Mr Jones

You & Mr Jones promotes itself as a ‘brandtech’ company, the word brandtech being a combination of branding and technology, which are the business wheels of the company. You & Mr Jones was valued at US$1.3bn in December 2019, after it raised US$200mn in a funding round.

ClassPass

Founded in 2013 by Payal Kadakia and Mary Biggins, ClassPass aims at providing its users access to various fitness studios, gyms and health clubs located across the globe while charging a monthly subscription fee in return. In January 2020 ClassPass, which now operates in 28 countries raised US$ 285mn to secure the unicorn status.

Grammarly

San Francisco-based Grammarly is now the most popular AI based online spell-check and grammar check-application. The company was founded by Alex Shevchenko and Max Lytvyn in 2009. In October 2019, the company raised US$90mn to hit the unicorn “button”.

Methodology

The Hurun Global Unicorns 2020 is compiled by the Hurun Research Institute with a 31 March 2020 cutoff. Hurun defines a unicorn as a start-up founded in the 2000s that has reached a valuation of US$1bn, but not yet listed on a public exchange.

Hurun Research believes the Hurun Global Unicorns 2020 to be the most serious attempt to capture all of the world’s unicorns into one list.

Valuing unicorns can be tricky. The very nature of these super-fast growing companies makes valuations hard to pin down, but to ensure consistency of the valuations, the Hurun research team used the most recent valuation based on a sizeable round. Countries and cities are ranked according to the unicorn head office.

The Hurun research team used databases that specialize in recording rounds of investments by the professional investment world, cross-checking the data with some of the world’s top investment houses, industry experts, journalists and media sources.

Unicorns can drop out from the list either by going public (IPO), being acquired by another company, or dropping in valuation below US$1bn.

Hurun Research has been tracking China’s top unicorns since 2017, starting with the Hurun China Unicorn Index.

Disclaimer: All the data collection and the research has been carried out by Hurun Research. This report is meant for information purposes only. Reasonable care and caution have been taken in preparing this report. The information contained in this report has been obtained from sources that are considered reliable. By accessing and/or using any part of the report, the user accepts this disclaimer and exclusion of liability which operates to the benefit of Hurun. Hurun does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information contained in the report and neither shall it be responsible for any errors or omissions in or for the results obtained from the use of such information.

No third party whose information is referenced in this report under the credit to it, assumes any liability towards the user with respect to its information. Hurun shall not be liable for any decisions made by the user based on this report (including those of investment or divestiture) and the user takes full responsibility for their decisions made based on this report. Hurun shall not be liable to any user of this report (and expressly disclaim liability) for any loss, damage of any nature, including but not limited to direct, indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, consequential losses, loss of profit, lost business and economic loss regardless of the cause or form of action and regardless of whether or not any such loss could have been foreseen.

About Suzhou New District

Located in the southeast of China and the Yangtze River Delta, Suzhou New District (SND) is one of the first batch of national high-tech industrial development zones in China. The district covers 332 square kilometers (including 109 square kilometers of Taihu Lake water area), with a total population of 980,000. SND has developed to be the key driving force of economic growth and a demonstration area for selfinnovation in Suzhou city, and the indicator of innovative development ranks among the best in the national high-tech zones.

In recent years, the R&D investment of the whole region accounts for 3.5% of the GDP. The number of effective invention patents of 10000 people is 123.09, which is more than twice of the city’s average. It has become one of the first batch of national ecological industry demonstration parks, one of the first batch of national intellectual property demonstration parks, national innovative park of science and technology and national Green Park. In 2019, the GDP reached 133 billion yuan, the foreign trade value stood at $41.98 billion and the actual use of foreign capital surged 21.8% to $530 million.

SND owns 19 listed enterprises, 11 Unicorn incubating enterprises, 198 national and Gazelle enterprises, and 692 national high-tech enterprises, ranking among the top high-tech zones in China.

There are more than 1700 foreign-funded enterprises (including 59 Fortune Global 500 enterprises), with the actual use of foreign capital $16.4 billion. Among them, there are more than 580 Japanese enterprises.

The district is endowed with excellent land and watery resources, with 27 kilometers of Taihu Lake coastline, 49 hills and mountains. The protection rate of natural wetlands reaches 60.3%, the forest coverage rate exceeds 26.1%, the green coverage rate reaches 44%, and the per capita public green space area is 12.8 square meters.

About Hurun Inc.

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Established in the UK in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, widely regarded as an influential opinion-leader in the world of business on the back of generating 4 billion views on the Hurun brand last year.

Best-known today for the Hurun Rich List series, ranking the most successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key properties include the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, the Hurun U30s, an awards recognizing the most successful entrepreneurs under the age of thirty, the Hurun 500, a ranking of the world’s most valuable companies, the Hurun Philanthropy List and the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial insitutions, real estate developers and regional governments.

Hurun hosted high-profile events in the last year across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore.

Appendix 1 – Hurun Global Best Unicorn Investors 2020

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Rank Rank Change Investor No. of Unicorns 2020 No. of Unicorns 2019 Founded in (Country)
1 0 Sequoia 109 92 USA
2 0 Tencent 52 46 China
3 0 Softbank 51 42 Japan
4 1 IDG 41 31 USA
5 10 Hillhouse Capital 37 16 China
6 -2 Tiger Fund 35 36 USA
7 -1 Goldman Sachs 32 24 USA
8 -1 Alibaba 25 22 China
9 -1 Andreessen Horowitz 24 20 USA
10 2 Accel 23 18 USA
11 -3 DST 22 20 Russia
11 -1 GGV 22 19 USA
13 5 Insight Partners 19 14 USA
13 -3 Qiming Venture Partners 19 19 China
13 10 Temasek 19 13 Singapore
13 New to Top 50 YF Capital 19 Top 100 China
17 6 General Atlantic 18 13 USA
17 -2 Matrix Partners 18 16 USA
19 -6 Index Ventures 17 17 USA
19 -1 IVP 17 14 USA
19 -6 Warburg Pincus 17 17 USA
22 New Google Ventures 16 New USA
22 -4 Shunwei 16 14 China
24 13 Bessemer Venture Partners 15 9 USA
24 -1 ICONIQ Capital 15 13 USA
24 -6 Y Combinator 15 14 USA
24 -6 ZhenFund 15 14 China
28 5 Baillie Gifford 14 10 UK
28 1 Founders Fund 14 11 USA
28 9 General Catalyst 14 9 USA
28 -5 Kleiner Perkins 14 13 USA
32 -3 KKR 13 11 USA
32 -3 T. Rowe Price 13 11 USA
34 12 CDH 12 7 China
34 -11 Fidelity 12 13 USA
34 12 Greylock Partners 12 7 USA
34 -1 Lightspeed 12 10 USA
34 -11 Morningside 12 13 China
34 -19 New Enterprise Associates 12 16 USA
40 -7 GIC 11 10 Singapore
40 -3 Khosla Ventures 11 9 USA
40 New Sinovation Ventures 11 New China
40 -3 Thrive Captial 11 9 USA
40 -11 Wellington Management 11 11 USA
45 -12 SIG 10 10 USA
46 -3 Ant Financial 9 8 China
46 0 Battery Ventures 9 7 USA
46 -3 Spark Capital 9 8 USA
49 Last Year was Top 100 Bain Capital 8 Top 100 USA
49 New to Top 50 Capital Today 8 Top 100 China
49 -12 DFJ Growth 8 9 USA
49 New to Top 50 Northern Light 8 Top 100 China
49 -12 TPG 8 9 USA
54 -8 Capital G 7 7 USA
54 -8 Greenoaks Capital 7 7 USA
54 Last Year was Top 100 Meritech Capital Partners 7 Top 100 USA
57 Last Year was Top 100 Baidu 6 Top 100 China
57 -14 Benchmark 6 8 USA
57 Last Year was Top 100 Redpoint 6 Top 100 USA
57 Last Year was Top 100 Sapphire Ventures 6 Top 100 USA
61 Last Year was Top 100 Coatue Management 5 Top 100 USA
61 -15 JP Morgan 5 7 USA
61 Last Year was Top 100 Legend Capital 5 Top 100 China
61 Last Year was Top 100 Norwest Venture Partners 5 Top 100 USA
61 Last Year was Top 100 Ribbit Capital 5 Top 100 USA
61 Last Year was Top 100 Silver Lake Partners 5 Top 100 USA
61 Last Year was Top 100 TCV 5 Top 100 USA
61 Last Year was Top 100 Viking Global Investors 5 Top 100 USA
69 Last Year was Top 100 Access Industries 4 Top 100 USA
69 Last Year was Top 100 Blackrock 4 Top 100 USA
69 New Canada Pension Plan Investment Board 4 New Canada
69 -23 CICC 4 7 China
69 Last Year was Top 100 Daimler 4 Top 100 Germany
69 Last Year was Top 100 Dragoneer Investment Group 4 Top 100 USA
69 Last Year was Top 100 Fortune Capital 4 Top 100 China
69 New GSR Ventures 4 New China
69 Last Year was Top 100 Hopu Investment Management 4 Top 100 China
69 Last Year was Top 100 Horizons Ventures 4 Top 100 China
69 Last Year was Top 100 Hyundai Motor Company 4 Top 100 South Korea
69 Last Year was Top 100 Intel Capital 4 Top 100 USA
69 New Mayfield Fund 4 New USA
69 Last Year was Top 100 Morgan Stanley 4 Top 100 USA
69 New Peter Thiel 4 New USA
69 New Premjilnvest 4 New India
69 Last Year was Top 100 Revolution 4 Top 100 USA
69 New Salesforce Ventures 4 New USA
69 Last Year was Top 100 SDIC 4 Top 100 China
69 Last Year was Top 100 Sina 4 Top 100 China
69 Last Year was Top 100 Source Code Capital 4 Top 100 China
69 New Union Square Ventures 4 New USA
69 Last Year was Top 100 Xiaomi 4 Top 100 China
92 New Atomico 3 New UK
92 New August Capital 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Bertelsmann 3 Top 100 Germany
92 New Breyer Capital 3 New USA
92 New CIC Capital 3 New China
92 New Co-Stone 3 New China
92 New Credit Suisse 3 New Switzerland
92 New CRV 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Cybernaut 3 Top 100 China
92 -46 DCM 3 7 USA
92 -55 DFJ 3 9 USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Didi 3 Top 100 China
92 Last Year was Top 100 Everbright 3 Top 100 China
92 New First Round Capital 3 New USA
92 New Forerunner Ventures 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Franklin Templeton Investments 3 Top 100 USA
92 New Gaorong Capital 3 New China
92 New Glynn Capital Management 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 GX Capital 3 Top 100 China
92 Last Year was Top 100 Hony Capital 3 Top 100 China
92 New Jackson Square Ventures 3 New USA
92 New L Catterton 3 New USA
92 New Lead Edge Capital 3 New USA
92 New Lone Pine Capital 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Menlo Ventures 3 Top 100 USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Microsoft 3 Top 100 USA
92 New Mithril Capital Management 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Naspers 3 Top 100 South Africa
92 Last Year was Top 100 Qatar Investment Authority 3 Top 100 Qatar
92 Last Year was Top 100 Qualcomm 3 Top 100 USA
92 New Riverwood Capital 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 SAIF Partners 3 Top 100 China
92 New Shenzhen Capital 3 New China
92 Last Year was Top 100 Social Capital 3 Top 100 USA
92 New Stripes 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Tiantu Capital 3 Top 100 China
92 Last Year was Top 100 Toyota Motor Corporation 3 Top 100 USA
92 New Vertex Ventures 3 New USA
92 Last Year was Top 100 Visa 3 Top 100 USA
92 New Zeev Ventures 3 New USA

For further information, see hurun.co.uk


Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020 TOP 100, in association with Suzhou New District in East China

For the full list of 586 unicorns, see www.hurun.net

Rank Rank Change Company Name Valuation US$bn Valuation Change US$bn Country City Core Sector
1 0 Ant Group 150 0 China Hangzhou FinTech
2 0 ByteDance 80 5 China Beijing Social Media
3 0 Didi Chuxing 55 0 China Beijing Shared Economy
4 2 Lufax 38 0 China Shanghai FinTech
5 3 SpaceX 36 1 USA Los Angeles Aerospace
5 5 Stripe 36 13 USA San Francisco FinTech
7 -1 Airbnb 35 -3 USA San Francisco Shared Economy
8 6 Kuaishou 28 10 China Beijing Social Media
9 3 Cainiao 27 8 China Hangzhou Logistics
10 5 Palantir Technologies 26 11 USA Palo Alto Big Data
11 0 WeBank 21 0 China Shenzhen FinTech
12 0 JD Digits 20 0 China Beijing Digital Technology
13 0 Paytm 16 6 India Noida FinTech
14 11 Beike 15 6 China Beijing SaaS
14 1 DJI 15 0 China Shenzhen Robotics
16 -1 Grab 14 -1 Malaysia Midview City Shared Economy
17 2 DoorDash 13 0 USA San Francisco On-Demand Delivery
17 3 JD Logistics 13 0 China Beijing Logistics
17 41 Snowflake Computing 13 9 USA San Mateo Big Data
20 -15 JUUL Labs 12 -36 USA San Francisco Consumer Goods
20 0 Samumed 12 0 USA San Diego Biotech
22 3 Wish 11 2 USA San Francisco E-commerce
23 20 Magic Leap 10 4 USA Plantation AR/ VR
23 35 Nubank 10 6 Brazil Sao Paulo FinTech
23 28 Ripple 10 5 USA San Francisco Blockchain
26 -1 Cars 9 0 China Beijing E-commerce
26 -1 Coupang 9 0 South Korea Seoul E-commerce
26 -3 GO-JEK 9 -1 Indonesia Kebayoran Baru Shared Economy
26 -1 Ping An Healthcare Technology 9 0 China Shanghai Health Tech
30 0 Robinhood 8.5 1 USA Menlo Park FinTech
31 12 BYJU’s 8 2 India Bengaluru EdTech
31 -1 Coinbase 8 0 USA San Francisco Blockchain
31 -1 Instacart 8 0 USA San Francisco On-Demand Delivery
31 20 OYO Rooms 8 3 India Gurgaon E-commerce
35 -1 Argo AI 7 0 USA Harrisburg Artificial Intelligence
35 49 Automation Anywhere 7 4 USA San Jose Artificial Intelligence
35 189 JD Health 7 5.5 China Beijing Health Tech
35 -1 Meicai 7 0 China Beijing E-commerce
35 -1 Roivant Sciences 7 0 Switzerland Basel Biotech
35 8 SenseTime 7 0 China Beijing Artificial Intelligence
35 -1 Suning Finance 7 0 China Nanjing FinTech
35 -1 Tokopedia 7 0 Indonesia Jakarta E-commerce
35 -1 Uber ATG 7 0 USA Pittsburgh Artificial Intelligence
35 -1 UiPath 7 0 USA New York Artificial Intelligence
35 49 Yuanfudao 7 4 China Beijing EdTech
46 12 Compass 6.5 2.5 USA New York E-commerce
46 12 Samsara Networks 6.5 2.5 USA San Francisco IoT
46 -12 Tanium 6.5 -0.5 USA Emerville Cyber Security
49 89 Chime 6 4 USA San Francisco FinTech
49 35 Databricks 6 3 USA San Francisco Big Data
49 -6 Full Truck Alliance 6 0 China Guiyang Logistics
49 -6 Ola Cabs 6 0 India Bengaluru Shared Economy
49 89 Revolut 6 4 UK London FinTech
49 35 Unity Technologies 6 3 USA San Francisco Gaming
49 -6 WeDoctor 6 0 China Hangzhou Health Tech
49 8 Ziroom 6 2 China Beijing Shared Economy
57 1 Klarna 5.5 1.5 Sweden Stockholm FinTech
58 -7 Bluehole 5 0 South Korea Seongnam Gaming
58 New CloudKitchens 5 New USA Los Angeles Shared Economy
58 80 HashiCorp 5 3 USA San Francisco SaaS
58 -7 Lazada Group 5 0 Singapore Singapore E-commerce
58 -7 Machine Zone 5 0 USA Palo Alto Gaming
58 -7 Rivian 5 0 USA Plymouth E-Cars
58 26 Tempus 5 2 USA Chicago Biotech
58 -7 The Hut Group 5 0 UK Manchester E-commerce
58 26 Toast 5 2 USA Boston Enterprise Services
58 26 Xiaohongshu 5 1 China Shanghai SaaS
68 16 Confluent 4.5 1.5 USA Palo ALto SaaS
68 -10 Traveloka 4.5 0.5 Indonesia Jakarta E-commerce
70 -50 Bitmain 4 -8 China Beijing Blockchain
70 -13 Dada group 4 0 China Shanghai Logistics
70 68 Deliveroo 4 2 UK London On-Demand Delivery
70 195 Ginkgo BioWorks 4 3 USA Boston Biotech
70 68 Gusto 4 2 USA San Francisco FinTech
70 14 Hellobike 4 1 China Shanghai Shared Economy
70 -12 Houzz 4 0 USA Palo Alto E-commerce
70 68 Impossible Foods 4 2 USA Redwood City Food Tech
70 14 Katerra 4 1 USA Menlo Park Construction
70 New Kraken 4 New USA San Francisco Blockchain
70 -13 Megvii 4 0td> China Beijing Artificial Intelligence
70 -12 Niantic 4 0 USA San Francisco AR/ VR
70 -12 OpenDoor Labs 4 0 USA San Francisco E-commerce
70 14 Procore Technologies 4 1 USA Carpinteria Enterprise Services
70 14 Roblox 4 1 USA San Mateo Gaming
70 -13 Royole 4 0 China Shenzhen Consumer Goods
70 -12 SoFi 4 0 USA San Francisco FinTech
70 -12 TripActions 4 0 USA Palo ALto E-commerce
70 -13 Ubtech 4 0 China Shenzhen Robotics
70 -13 United Imaging 4 0 China Shanghai Health Tech
70 14 VIPKID 4 1 China Beijing EdTech
70 New Wind 4 New China Shanghai FinTech
70 -13 WM Motor 4 0 China Shanghai E-Cars
70 New Woowa Brothers 4 New South Korea Seoul On-Demand Delivery
70 -13 Xpeng Motors 4 0 China Guangzhou E-Cars
70 68 Zume 4 2 USA Mountain View Big Data
96 New Arrival 3.5 New UK London E-Cars
96 -38 Auto1 Group 3.5 -0.5 Germany Berlin E-commerce
96 42 Freshworks 3.5 1.5 USA San Bruno Enterprise Services
96 -66 GRAIL 3.5 0 USA Menlo Park Biotech
96 -13 Greensill 3.5 0 UK London FinTech
96 -38 Indigo Ag 3.5 -0.5 USA Cambridge Biotech
96 -12 N26 3.5 0.5 Germany Berlin FinTech
96 169 Rappi 3.5 2.5 Colombia Bogota On-Demand Delivery
96 169 Root Insurance 3.5 2.5 USA Columbus Artificial Intelligence
96 -12 Swiggy 3.5 0.5 India Bengaluru On-Demand Delivery
96 -38 TransferWise 3.5 -0.5 UK London FinTech
96 -38 Zomato 3.5 -0.5 India Gurgaon On-Demand Delivery

Source: Hurun Research Institute