Global Unicorn Index 2023

(18 April 2023, Guangzhou, China & Mumbai, India) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Global Unicorn Index 2023, 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. The cut-off was 31 December 2022, with significant changes in valuation updated up to the date of release. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017.

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This report includes the Most Successful Unicorn Investors in the World 2023, a ranking of the 100 most successful unicorn investors, based on the number of unicorns they have invested in.

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Hurun Research found 1,361 unicorns in the world, based in 48 countries and 271 cities. 508 new faces.133 were ‘demoted’ as their valuation no longer made US$1bn. 72 were ‘promoted’, of which 57 went IPO and 15 were acquired.

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The world’s unicorns are disrupting financial services, business management solutions and healthcare. The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$4.3tn, more than the GDP of Germany, double that of unicorns pre-Covid. 79% sell software and services, such as FinTech, SaaS, E-commerce and AI, whilst 21% have a physical product, led by New Energy, Biotech, F&B and Semiconductors.

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Since the pandemic, the number of unicorns has surged from 494 pre-Covid to 1361 today, and the total value has risen from US$1.7tn to US$4.3tn. 1323 unicorns were ‘minted’, 264 were ‘promoted’, ie went IPO or were acquired, and 192 ‘demoted’, ie no longer making it to a valuation of US$1bn. The number of countries with at least one unicorn has doubled from 24 to 48, whilst the number of cities with at least one unicorn has grown from 118 to 271.

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Unicorns were founded nine years ago in 2014 on average. Unicorn founders are 43 years-old on average, meaning that they founded their unicorn when they were 34. Unicorns have 2 founders on average. One third are serial entrepreneurs. 40% met at a previous job, whilst 1 in 8 met at university. Computer Science and Business Studies were the most common degrees pursued by the founders. One in five unicorns have at least one co-founder from outside the country of origin of the unicorn. The USA, especially Silicon Valley, attracted the most unicorn founders from abroad, followed by Europe. India led the way for emigrant unicorn founders, followed by China, Israel and Russia.

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Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said: “The three years since Covid began have been the most dynamic years in history when it comes to unicorns, with the world minting one unicorn every day for the past three years to take the total of known unicorns in the world to over 1360. Despite the slowdown in the economy, the world has minted over 500 new unicorns in the past year, just under ten a week.”

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“The Global Unicorn Index 2023 is designed to give an insight into the economy of tomorrow, by listing out the world’s most successful startups. The sectors they are in and the countries and cities they are based in give 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.”

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“Last year was a year of two halves, with unicorns growing fast in the first half of the year, but then slowing down dramatically as the US raised interest rates together with global headwinds and uncertainties, with the result that investors all but stopped funding new projects. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March this year further depressed valuations.”

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“When researching unicorns, it is now possible to split the world into three: the US, China and ‘Rest of the World’. The US has 666, China 316 and Rest of the World 379. The main sectors of US-based unicorns were SaaS, FinTech and Health Tech, for China it was AI, Semiconductors and E-commerce, whilst for the Rest of the World, it was FinTech and E-commerce.”

“These three years since the pandemic began have been the most remarkable period for unicorns in the history of the world, with the world’s number of known unicorns all but tripling from 494 pre-Covid to 1361 today. In the period, 1323 unicorns were ‘minted’, 264 were ‘promoted’, ie went IPO or were acquired, and 192 ‘demoted’, ie no longer making it to a valuation of US$1bn.”

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“Unicorns are dramatically changing the way we live and spend our money. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has had perhaps the largest impact across the world of any unicorn, shooting up in value to US$20bn and hitting the milestone of 100 million users within just over two months, the fastest-growing consumer software application ever. Others that have grown in value dramatically include the likes of Guangzhou-based fast fashion platform Shein, LA-based SpaceX, as well as Web3 NFT leader OpenSea, Medicare Advantage startup Devoted Health, HR software startup Rippling and food delivery business turnkey operator CloudKitchens.”

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“Countries and cities have started to ‘wake up’ about unicorns, especially since the outbreak of Covid, realising the potential contribution of unicorns to the future of their economies. The more unicorns a place has, the better the start-up ecosystem. The number of countries with at least one unicorn has doubled from 24 to 48, whilst the number of cities has more than doubled from 118 to 271. Outside of the US and China, countries that have seen a boom in unicorns were led by India, and followed by the UK and Germany. Countries like Canada and the Netherlands ‘opened’ their unicorn accounts, adding 23 and 7 unicorns respectively over 3 years.”

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“Which industries are unicorns doing? FinTech, SaaS, E-commerce and AI. The fastest-growing industries of the past year by number of unicorns are FinTech, Enterprise Services, Blockchain, Logistics, Cyber Security and AI.”

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“Industries that have been most disrupted by unicorns in the past year are Energy, Life Sciences and Aerospace. Overall, unicorns are most disrupting Financial Services, Business Management Solutions, Healthcare and Retail.”

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“The pipeline for the Hurun Global 500 is the Global Unicorn Index and the pipeline for the Global Unicorn Index is the Hurun Global Gazelle Index. From this, we can see how China and India have a higher percentage of Gazelles and Unicorns, which over the course of the next 5 years, ought to translate into a higher percentage of Hurun Global 500s. In the same way, France, Canada and Australia have a smaller percentage of start-ups, which suggests they will lose ground in the Hurun Global 500. The US has half of the world’s known unicorns and Global 500s, so will likely retain its dominance for the next five years.”

 

“The cut-off to make the Top 100 of the Hurun Global Unicorn Index has more than doubled from US$3bn pre-Covid to US$7.4bn, suggesting that unicorns are creating value faster than before, but also that the markets are flat with fewer IPOs than normal. In the past year in the US, for example, there have only been a dozen companies that IPO’d with a market cap of over a billion dollars.”

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“I am delighted to release the Global Unicorn Index 2023 on the occasion of the Global Unicorn CEO Conference in Guangzhou, inviting the world’s unicorns, investors and advisers to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship, new technologies and business models.”

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“I hope this list of the world’s unicorns can inspire individuals to drive value creation in new sectors and for countries and cities to recognise the importance of unicorns to their future economy. Yes, some will fail, and when they do it is normally to massive media attention, such as cryptocurrency exchange FTX or vaping app JUUL Labs, but on the whole unicorns are seen as inherently vital to the new economy.”

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“A remarkable 71 unicorns were only founded since Covid began. Partly it shows the super-fast value creation generated by industries like Web3, AI and cyber security. Partly it shows the impact of serial entrepreneurs like Adam Neumann of WeWork fame, who last year founded a real estate start-up Flow with a valuation on start-up of a billion dollars. Then there’s Travis Kalanick of Uber fame who in 2017 founded CloudKitchens, which today is worth US$15bn. Partly it also shows how larger companies are spinning of business units which become unicorns in their own right, such as Zeekr, which was spun out of China-based car maker Geely and today has a valuation of US$13bn. Another is Web3 metaverse network MSquared, which raised money on a valuation of US$1bn, after being spun out of another unicorn London-based Improbable, worth US$3bn.”

 

“8 unicorns have already made it into the Hurun Global 500, becoming one of the 500 most valuable companies in the world. These were led by Beijing-based TikTok owner ByteDance, and include SpaceX, Ant Group, Shein, Stripe, WeBank, Databricks and Revolut.”

 

“The average age of unicorns in the Global Unicorn Index 2023 is nine years, suggesting that if you were to start a business today, you should aim to ‘go unicorn’ by 2032.”

 

“Founders from India, China and Russia are producing more offshore unicorns than any other country. India’s co-founded 70 unicorns outside of India compared with 68 in India, whilst Chinese co-founded 32 outside of China, compared with 316 in China.”

 

“Serial entrepreneurs is a new trend that investors and governments are looking to, since these founders have the experience of running a business, building a team, attracting investors and thinking big. It is critical to a thriving startup ecosystem to encourage these people to live there. Best-known serial founders include the likes of Elon Musk, who has co-founded three unicorns on this year’s list: SpaceX, OpenAI and The Boring Company. Others include Travis Kalanick formerly of Uber and now CloudKitchens, Adam Neumann formerly of WeWork and now Flow and the likes of Jack Ma of Alibaba and later Ant Group, Liu Qiangdong of JD and later JDT, Li Shufu of Geely and now Zeekr.”

 

“Being a unicorn for too long is like the old English saying of ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’. The objective for most of these unicorns is to go IPO sooner or later.”

 

“The 27 members of the EU, despite contributing 8% to the world’s GDP, have only just under 100 or 7% of the world’s unicorns, slightly underperforming. Germany, France and the Netherlands led the way.”

 

“SE Asia, with its population of over 1 billion, underperforms when it comes to unicorns. Today there are only 23 known unicorns headquartered there, led by 9 from Singapore, 5 from Indonesia, 4 from Vietnam, 3 from the Philippines and one each from Thailand and Malaysia. Fintech and e-commerce are leading the way, followed by games and logistics.”

 

“Some regions like the Gulf States, are strong in their traditional sectors like energy and real estate but underperform when it comes to unicorns. There are four unicorns in the Gulf, all in the UAE.”

 

“The Global Unicorn Index is compiled using data from the world’s leading investors, the ‘entrepreneurs behind the

entrepreneurs’, making this perhaps the most comprehensive attempt to capture all of the world’s unicorns into one list.”

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“Hurun 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 two ‘future unicorn’ lists, the pipeline for unicorns: 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 Global Unicorn Index is the pinnacle of the world’s start-ups.”

 

According to the relevant person in charge of the Commerce Bureau of Guangzhou, Guangzhou strengthened innovation-driven development, registering a regional GDP of RMB 2.88 trillion as the only first-tier city in China with positive growth in consumption, foreign trade and foreign investment in the past year. Innovation is a vital engine for high-quality industrial development, and innovation capacities are mainly measured by scientific research strengths. Guangzhou has 97% of Guangdong Province's national key disciplines, 95% of doctoral students and seven “double first-class” universities. This year, Guangzhou has seen the creation of a fund of funds (FOF) worth RMB 50 billion dedicated to startups, sci-tech and innovation. Special funds, angel investment funds and seed investment funds have been established to give capital support and talent empowerment for unicorn enterprises' technology R&D and achievement commercialization.

 

As noted by the relevant person in charge of Huangpu District / Guangzhou Development District, the district has ranked first among China's development zones in terms of sci-tech innovation capabilities for four consecutive years with R&D investment accounting for 6.14% of the regional GDP, which is a world-leading level. In recent years, the district has attracted more than 20,000 sci-tech enterprises, more than 2,500 national high-tech enterprises, and over 500 gazelle enterprises. In 2023, seven businesses in the district have been included in the Global Unicorn Index, an increase of two from last year, ranking first among all districts in Guangzhou. This is mainly because the district has established a unique system for investment promotion, talent attraction and technology introduction to empower unicorn enterprises.

 

"The clustering of unicorn companies in Huangpu is attributable to the district's great emphasis on technological innovation. Huangpu is encouraging entrepreneurs to lead the way and take their businesses to a higher level. Such entrepreneurship is similar to that in Silicon Valley," said Rupert Hoogewerf.