HURUN FUTURE UNICORNS IN THE WORLD 2023

INDIA THIRD WITH 48, UP 19. UK 4TH WITH 42, UP 16

 

310 ‘NEW FACES’, INCLUDING CRYPTOCURRENCY PLATFORM ELWOOD TECHNOLOGIES, FOUNDED BY GENEVA-BASED BRITISH HEDGE FUND BILLIONAIRE ALAN HOWARD.

 

120 GAZELLES ‘PROMOTED’ TO UNICORNS OR WENT IPO. 9 OUT 10 MOST VALUABLE STARTUPS THAT WENT IPO FROM CHINA, LED BY SEMICONDUCTOR DESIGN STARTUP JOULWATT, BIOTECH STARTUP 3DMED AND BIG DATA STARTUP TRANSWARP.

 

38 ‘DEMOTED’, NO LONGER MAKING CUT

 

WITH 67 GAZELLES SAN FRANCISCO RETAINED TOP SPOT FOR CITIES WITH MOST GAZELLES, FOLLOWED BY SHANGHAI WITH 63, BEIJING 49 AND NEW YORK 42.

 

AUSTRIA, BAHRAIN, KENYA, KUWAIT AND SOUTH AFRICA HAD AT LEAST ONE GAZELLE FOR FIRST TIME.

 

COLUMBIA BROKE INTO TOP TWENTY WITH TWO NEW GAZELLES: FINTECH ADDI AND E-COMMERCE TUL, BOTH BASED IN BOGOTA.

 

FINTECH LED WITH 101 GAZELLES, FOLLOWED BY BIOTECH 86, SAAS 83, HEALTHTECH 55 AND E-COMMERCE 50.

 

HEALTHCARE (147) MOST DISRUPTED SECTOR BY GAZELLES, FOLLOWED BY FINANCIAL SERVICES (122) AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS (107).

 

SEQUOIA WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL GAZELLE INVESTOR, INVESTING INTO ONE IN SEVEN OF WORLD’S GAZELLES, FOLLOWED BY CICC, MATRIX PARTNERS, TENCENT AND SOFTBANK.

 

AVERAGE AGE OF HURUN GAZELLES 8 YRS. 37 OR 6% FOUNDED SINCE PANDEMIC.

 

 

(27 April 2023, Haikou, China & Mumbai, India) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun Future Unicorns in the World 2023, a list of the world’s Gazelles, defined as start-ups founded in the 2000s, worth over US$500mn, not yet listed on a public exchange and most likely to ‘go unicorn’, ie hit a valuation of US$1bn, within three years.  The Hurun Future Unicorns series is made up of Gazelles, this list here, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years, and Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within five years. The cut-off date used was 31 December 2022. This is the third edition of the list.

 

This report includes the Most Successful Gazelle Investors in the World 2022, a ranking of the top 50 investors, based on the number of Gazelles they have invested in.

 

 

Hurun Research found 688 Gazelles in the world, up from 525 last year, based in 39 countries and 165 cities. 23% or 120 ‘promoted’ from last year’s index to unicorn status or acquired, whilst 7% or 38 were ‘demoted’, no longer making the cut. 367 from last year’s index still make the cut. There were 310 new faces, of which FinTech 44, SaaS 36 and Biotech 24, from China 101, the US 90 and India 26.

 

Of the 120 promotions, 89 went unicorn, 20 went IPO and 11 were acquired. 48 were from China, 38 from the USA and 6 from India. The main sectors were FinTech and BioTech with 16, followed by SaaS with 12.

 

FinTech, Biotech and SaaS led, followed by HealthTech, E-commerce and AI. 74% sell software and services, with only 26% selling physical products. 57% sell to businesses, whilst 43% are consumer-facing. On average, they were set up in 2015.

 

 

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said: “The Hurun Future Unicorns: Global Gazelles Index is a comprehensive list of the world’s startups most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years. Gazelles provide an insight into the economy of tomorrow.  What they are doing and where they are doing it gives an indication into which sectors are attracting the world’s top young talent and smartest capital, and which countries and cities have the best start-up ecosystems.”

 

“While rising interest rates and global uncertainties have dramatically reduced the appetite of investors to put money into startups in the past half year, there are nonetheless just under 700 companies, a new world record, that Hurun Research believes are most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years.”

 

“The three years since the pandemic have been a golden age for startups, with the number of known unicorns in the world tripling from 494 pre-Covid to 1361 today and a world record of just under 700 Gazelles.”

 

“The speed of value creation in the world’s most disruptive industries is remarkable. 37 Gazelles were founded since Covid began.”

 

“The slow-down in the economy has been tough for certain companies, with 7% of last years Gazelles dropping off the list because Hurun Research no longer believes they could go unicorn within three years. Rising interest rates and geopolitical headwinds have combined to make it harder for startups to raise capital.”

 

“The Hurun Future Unicorns: Global Gazelle Index is compiled using data from the world’s leading venture capitalists, making this perhaps the most comprehensive list of the world’s future unicorns.”

 

“The Hurun Future Unicorns: Global Gazelles Index is the pipeline of future unicorns, with 18% or 89 of the 508 new unicorns in the world coming from last year’s index. A further 2% of this year’s new unicorns came from the Hurun Future Unicorns: Global Cheetahs Index, meaning that between Hurun’s two future unicorn lists, we have identified a remarkable 20% of the world’s new unicorns this year. For China, we have managed to identify 40% of the 107 new unicorns in our Gazelles and Cheetahs lists. For India, it was higher still, hitting 80% of the 22 new unicorns.”

 

“The fastest-growing sectors of the year were SaaS, FinTech and Semiconductors, followed by AI, E-commerce, Biotech and Robotics. Overall, the world’s smartest money is betting on FinTech, Biotech and SaaS mainly, followed by HealthTech, E-commerce and AI.”

 

“The US and China’s start-up ecosystems are strong in quite different sectors, with US-based Gazelles doing SaaS, FinTech and HealthTech, and China’s doing Biotech, SaaS and Semiconductors. Gazelles from the Rest of the World are doing FinTech, E-commerce and SaaS.”

 

“Industries that have been most disrupted by Gazelles are Healthcare, Financial Services and Business Management Solutions.”

 

“The average age of the Hurun Gazelles is only eight years, suggesting that if you were to start-up today, you should aim to build a Gazelle by 2031! This list represents the best companies under a billion.”

 

“Which countries are most likely to produce unicorns in the next three years? The US and China dominate with two thirds of the world’s known Gazelles, despite representing only a quarter of the world’s population. The rest of the world is currently led by India, the UK, Germany, Israel and Singapore.”

 

“Europe’s start-up ecosystem is picking up speed, with 16% of the world’s Gazelles.  This suggests that Europe is going to add to its share of the world’s unicorns, currently standing at 11%.”

 

“A successful start-up ecosystem requires rolemodels, both individuals, such as those from the Hurun Rich Lists, and companies, such as those from the Hurun Global Unicorn and Hurun Global 500 most valuable companies series. If a city or country can attract the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and companies to set up shop there, that will have a roll-on effect. Entrepreneurship is infectious and cities with lots of rolemodels are likely to attract the brightest and best young entrepreneurs. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.”

 

“The role of investors is evolving from just providers of cash to mentorship and scale-up opportunities. The world’s leading Gazelle venture capitalists are building ecosystems with their portfolios, hugely attractive to the world’s fastest-growing start-ups. Being able to say you have one of these brands as an investor adds significant credibility. Sequoia is the world’s most successful VC platform at finding and investing into Gazelles, followed by CICC, MatrixPartners, Tencent and SoftBank.”

 

“Some business models will have a ‘local winner’ in each region. VCs that invested into Gazelles across the largest spread of countries, were SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, Temasek and Sequoia.”

 

“What the Gazelles do gives an indication of the problems they are offering solutions to. In India, for example, quick commerce company Zepto, financial services start-up Viviriti Capital and EV space start-up Ather Energy are expected to play a critical role in solving credit, last mile logistics and renewable energy for India.  In the US, companies Virgin Hyperloop and vehicle automation start-up Robotic Research are making an impact.”

 

“There is a clear trend towards serial entrepreneurs. The likes of Elon Musk has a Gazelle with Neuralink, three Unicorns with SpaceX, OpenAI and The Boring Company, as well as one of the Top 10 most valuable companies in the world, Tesla.”

 

“World-class universities are of critical importance to a successful start-up ecosystem. Stanford underpinned Silicon Valley’s early success, and today we are seeing deeper engagements of top universities with successful start-ups that – in turn – are fostering new generations of talent.”

 

“Hurun Report is committed to promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Hurun’s ‘startup series’ has four main components. It begins with the Hurun U30s Entrepreneurs to Watch, a list of the top entrepreneurs under the age of 30. Next up are the two future unicorn lists: Hurun Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within 5 years and currently with a valuation of between US$200 million and US$500 million, and Hurun Gazelles, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within 3 years and currently with a valuation of between US$500 million and US$1 billion. The Hurun Global Unicorn Index is the pinnacle of the world’s start-ups.”

 

“I am delighted to release the Hurun Future Unicorns in the World 2023 in Hainan Island’s Haikou, inviting the world’s gazelles, investors and advisers to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship, new technologies and business models.”

 

Hainan is currently the world's largest free trade port with the greatest potential for growth. At present, Hainan has launched preparations for customs closure operations to fully deepen free and convenient trade, investment, cross-border capital flow, entry and exit of people, transportation from the island and safe and orderly flow of data, with the deployment of island-wide customs closure operations to be achieved by the end of 2025. As the frontier and window of China's reform and opening up, Hainan will become the new highland of China's open economy. At present, in the cultivation of unicorns, the Hainan Provincial Government has issued a "Special Action Plan for the Cultivation of Listed Companies", striving to add one to two new listed companies by 2025, cultivate 60 listed enterprises in reserve, and to actively build a cluster of the digital economy industry with international-level competitiveness.

 

Hainan Free Trade Port Resort Software Community (Hereinafter RSC) is the key platform that reaped the advance policy of Hainan Free Trade Port (Hereinafter FTP) in the early stage of the development of the digital economy in Hainan FTP. It will innovate the digital economy scenario track and nurture unicorns and listed companies through the trinity of "scenario + fund + policy" industry cultivation strategy. In the future, RSC will further unleash the advantages of the system innovation of Hainan FTP with the strong support of the government, invest material, human and financial resources to build digital technology, provide digital infrastructure for enterprises in addition to physical infrastructure, and play the leading role of industrial investment funds to cultivate enterprises through capital mergers and acquisitions and integrations.

 

 

Where are the World’s Gazelles based?

 

The world’s Gazelles come from 39 countries, up from 30 last year, spread around 165 cities, up from 134. Just over 150 countries in the world have no known Gazelle.

 

The USA and China led with 247 and 218 Gazelles, together accounting for 68% of the world’s known Gazelles.

 

India was third with 48 Gazelles, including quick commerce start-up Zepto, e-commerce start-up Turtlemint, and FinTech start-up Vivriti Capital. India is the fastest-growing country in the world for Gazelles, after China and the US.

 

By city, San Francisco and Shanghai are the world’s Gazelle capitals with 67 and 63, followed by Beijing and New York.

 

London is the Gazelle capital of Europe with 38 Gazelles, more than Berlin, Paris, Munich and Zurich combined.

 

Asia led North America as the continent creating the most Gazelles in the world.