HURUN FUTURE UNICORNS 
GLOBAL CHEETAH INDEX 2023

WITH 64 CHEETAHS SHANGHAI TOPS CHEETAHS LIST FOLLOWED BY BEIJING (59) AND SAN FRANCISCO (46)

 

GUANGZHOU WITH 20 CHEETAHS MAKES TOP 10 CITIES, OF WHICH NANSHA DISTRICT HAS 4: CHALI, JIEMENG INTELLIGENCE, SEQUOIADB AND MOGULINKER. GREATER BAY AREA HAS 56 CHEETAHS, 19% OF CHINA’S CHEETAHS

 

HEALTHCARE MOST DISRUPTED BY CHEETAHS, FOLLOWED BY FINANCIAL SERVICES, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS AND RETAIL

 

BIOTECH AND HEALTHTECH LED WITH 99 AND 89 CHEETAHS, FOLLOWED BY ENTERPRISE SERVICES WITH 70, FINTECH WITH 62, E-COMMERCE WITH 46, AI AND SAAS WITH 40 EACH

 

HONGSHAN, WHICH WAS SPUN OFF FROM SEQUOIA GLOBAL IN JUNE, IS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL GLOBAL CHEETAH INVESTOR WITH 60 KNOWN CHEETAH COMPANIES, FOLLOWED BY CICC, MATRIX PARTNERS, SOFTBANK AND TIGER GLOBAL

 

AVERAGE AGE 7YRS. 32 OR 4% OF CHEETAHS FOUNDED WITHIN LAST 3 YEARS

 

66% SELL SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, 34% PHYSICAL PRODUCTS

 

33% ARE CONSUMER-FACING, 67% B2B

 

 

(19 December 2023, Guangzhou, China, Mumbai, India and London, UK) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun Future Unicorns – Global Cheetah Index 2023, a list of the world’s start-ups founded in the 2000s, not yet listed on a public exchange and most likely to ‘go unicorn’, ie hit a valuation of US$1bn, within five years.  The cut-off date used was 31 December 2022. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017 and Gazelles in China and India since 2018. This is the first time Hurun Research has launched the Hurun Cheetah Index on a global level.

 

This report includes the Most Successful Cheetah Investors in the World 2023, a ranking of the 50 most successful Cheetah investors, and the Most Successful Cheetah Investors in China 2023, based on the number of Cheetahs they have invested in.

 

Hurun Research found 747 Cheetahs in the world, based in 34 countries and 198 cities. On average, they were set up in 2016 and today have a valuation of US$400 million. 66% sell software and services, led by Enterprise Services, FinTech and followed by HealthTech, Biotech and SaaS. 34% have a physical product as a core business offering, led by Biotech, HealthTech, Smart Chips and Robotics. 67% are selling to businesses, whilst 33% are consumer-facing. Cheetahs are disrupting healthcare mainly, and financial services.

 

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said:

 

“I am delighted to release the Hurun Global Cheetah Index 2023 in association with Nansha District. Nansha District has a good environment for the development of high-growth industries and is known for dynamic and strong innovation. Nansha has policies to support innovative enterprises, and gives support to emerging industries in terms of technology research and development, industrial agglomeration, application scenarios, and financial support. This makes Nansha a unique investment destination full of potential and opportunities.”

 

“Cheetahs represent the economy of the future. What they are doing and where they are doing it shows which industries are attracting the top young talent and investment, and which countries and cities have the best startup ecosystems. They might be young, only seven years old on average, but are already worth US$400 million on average. For the Cheetahs, the top two industries are BioTech and HealthTech, suggesting that these sectors are going to provide the unicorns of the future. Quite different to the Unicorn industries we see today, which are FinTech, SaaS and E-commerce.”

 

“No matter whether it's a Cheetah, Gazelle, or Unicorn, you can basically divide the world into three: the United States, China, and the ‘Rest of the World’. 70% of the world's most powerful startups are in China and the United States, suggesting that the Apples and Microsofts of the future are most likely to come from these two countries. The rest of the world’s startups are from India, the UK, Germany, Israel, Canada and France.”

 

“The malaise across venture capital is apparent, with many investors pulling out their money, mainly due to interest rate hikes and a downturn in the global economy. In the first three months of this year, VC funding was less than half that raised in the same period last year. Despite this, Hurun managed to identify 750 Cheetah companies that we believe are most likely to become unicorns within five years.”
 

“Now is a good opportunity to start up, especially when considering that ChatGPT is still only in its first year. When the iPhone hit the world in January 2007, it took a few years for the impact to filter through to everyone’s lives. This generated a golden period for innovation and startups.  I expect to see ChatGPT spawn a similar period of innovation, but at a faster scale than before.”

 

“Investment is the lifeblood for many of these future unicorns. I hope the Hurun Global Cheetahs Index can encourage more people to focus on these young high-growth companies, and potentially provide capital to them. I believe this has great social value. Identifying these future unicorns is hard, but there are professional venture capital houses out there, like HongShan, CICC and Matrix Partners, which have a great track record of identifying and investing into them.”

 

“Investors tend to focus on exiting within five to seven years at the higher end, which is why we designed the Hurun Global Cheetah Index to focus on startups most likely to go unicorn within five years. It’s about value creation more than just sales.”

 

“Our list of Cheetahs is noteworthy because many go on to become Gazelles, Unicorns or go public. 20% of the world’s new unicorns this year came from previous Hurun Gazelle and Cheetah lists. In China and India, our record was even better with 40% and 80% of new unicorns coming from our Gazelle and Cheetah lists.”

 

“BioTech and HealthTech are the two preferred industries of Cheetahs, showing that healthcare as a whole is going through strong disruption.”

 

“These Cheetahs, now worth US$400 million on average, were founded seven years ago on average.  At this rate, if you start a business today, seven years from now, ie in 2030, you should be aiming to make our Cheetah list!”

 

“This year, we have identified 2,800 Unicorn, Gazelle and Cheetah companies, making Hurun the world’s largest list maker in the world for startups. This year we took the Cheetahs Index to a global level. I am proud that our startup series is finally complete.”

 

“Hurun is committed to promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Hurun’s ‘startup series’ has three main components. On the corporate level, it begins with the Hurun Cheetah Index, startups most likely to go unicorn within five years, moving onto the Hurun Gazelle Index, startups most likely to go unicorn within three years, and finishing with the Hurun Unicorn Index, startups already worth US$1 billion. On the individual level, we have the Hurun Under30s, Under35s and Under40s, for founders of businesses that are worth US$10 million, US$50 million and US$100 million.”

 

 

Where are the World’s Cheetahs based?

 

The world’s Cheetahs are based in only 34 countries around the world, spread around 198 cities.

 

China and USA led with 291 and 246, together accounting for 72% of the world’s known Cheetahs.

 

The UK was third with 38 Cheetahs, followed by India with 36.

 

By city, Shanghai is the world’s Cheetah capital with 64. Beijing is second ahead of San Francisco and Hangzhou.

 

London is the Cheetah capital of Europe with 28 Cheetahs, more than Paris, Berlin, Oxford, Basel and Munich combined.

 

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