Global Unicorn Index 2024

USA LED WITH 703 UNICORNS, UP 37, ACCOUNTING FOR 48% OF WORLD TOTAL.

 

CHINA SECOND WITH 340, UP 24.

​

 

INDIA THIRD WITH 67 UNICORNS, DOWN 1. UK 4TH WITH 53 UNICORNS, UP 4. EU COUNTRIES 109 UNICORNS, UP 5.

 

OPENAI SAW FASTEST VALUATION INCREASE, UP US$80BN TO THIRD PLACE WITH US$100BN.

 

SPACEX SECOND FASTEST, ADDING US$43BN TO US$180BN AND SECOND PLACE.

 

OTHER NEW ENTRANTS TO TOP 10: SYDNEY-BASED GRAPHIC DESIGN PLATFORM CANVA, DOUBLED VALUATION TO US$39BN, AND MALTA-BASED CRYPTO EXCHANGE BINANCE UP US$14BN TO US$34BN.

 

TIKTOK OWNER BYTEDANCE RETAINS TITLE OF WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE UNICORN, WORTH US$220BN, UP US$20BN, DESPITE THREAT OF US BAN.

 

SHANGHAI-BASED GAMING PLATFORM MIHOYO SHOOTS UP 91 PLACES TO 12TH WITH US$23BN VALUATION.

 

OTHERS THAT BROKE INTO TOP 50 INCLUDE JEFF BEZOS-FUNDED SPACE EXPLORATION COMPANY BLUE ORIGIN WORTH US$20BN, US-BASED DIGITAL MEDIA RED VENTURES, SEOUL-BASED CRYPTO EXCHANGE DUNAMU AND VIRGINIA-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA REDDIT. TOP 50 CUT-OFF US$10BN.

 

59 ‘SUPER UNICORNS’ WORTH US$10BN OR MORE, OF WHICH 3 WORTH US$100BN OR MORE.

 

FINTECH, AI, BLOCKCHAIN AND NEW ENERGY FASTEST-GROWING SECTORS THIS YEAR. OVERALL, FINTECH LED THE PACK WITH 185 UNICORNS, FOLLOWED BY SAAS WITH 139 AND AI WITH 115.

 

CHINA UNICORNS MAINLY AI, SEMICONDUCTORS AND NEW ENERGY. US SAAS, FINTECH AND AI, WHILST ‘REST OF WORLD’ FINTECH AND E-COMMERCE.

 

BIGGEST DROPS IN VALUE. CHINA'S FINTECH PLATFORM ANT GROUP, DOWN US$40BN, AND LOGISTICS PLATFORM CAINIAO, DOWN US$16.5BN.

 

RUSSIA FIRST UNICORN THIS YEAR, TAXI CALLING APP YANDEX.TAXI WORTH US$2.4BN. SAUDI ARABIA AND POLAND LARGEST ECONOMIES WITHOUT A UNICORN.

 

SAN FRANCISCO RETAINED WORLD’S UNICORN CAPITAL WITH 190 UNICORNS, FOLLOWED BY NEW YORK WITH 133 AND BEIJING WITH 78. SINGAPORE FASTEST-GROWING CITY IN WORLD FOR UNICORNS AFTER SAN FRANCISCO, ADDING 8, TO TOTAL OF 17. WITHIN CHINA, HEFEI FASTEST GROWING CITY FOR UNICORNS, FOLLOWED BY GUANGZHOU, HANGZHOU AND SUZHOU.

 

21 UNICORNS SPUN OUT OF STATE-OWNED COMPANIES, ALL FROM CHINA, LED BY GUANGZHOU-BASED EV MAKER AION WORTH US$14BN, WUHAN-BASED VOYAH WORTH US$4.3BN AND SHANGHAI-BASED IM MOTORS WORTH US$4.2BN.

 

18 CHINESE UNICORNS WENT IPO FROM LAST YEAR’S LIST, FAR AHEAD OF 5 FROM USA AND 6 FROM REST OF WORLD. 2.7% OF LAST YEAR’S LIST OR 37 UNICORNS ‘PROMOTED’ AFTER IPO OR ACQUISITION. MOST SUCCESSFUL IPO: INDONESIA-BASED J&T EXPRESS AND CHINA-BASED LUXURY EV MAKER LOTUS. BIGGEST US IPO DELIVERY PLATFORM INSTACART, NOW TRADING AT HALF ITS UNICORN VALUE.

 

42 ‘DEMOTED’ FROM UNICORN STATUS, WITH VALUATION DIPPING BELOW US$1BN, LED BY 21 FROM USA AND 11 FROM CHINA. LARGEST DROPOFFS WERE INDIA-BASED EDUCATION PLATFORM BYJU’S, VALUED LAST YEAR AT US$22BN AND US-BASED ECOMMERCE AGGREGATOR THRASIO, LAST YEAR VALUED AT US$10BN.

 

TIGER GLOBAL TAKES CROWN OF ‘WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL UNICORN INVESTOR’ FROM SEQUOIA, FOLLOWED BY SOFTBANK. HONGSHAN OVERTOOK FORMER MOTHER SHIP SEQUOIA TO THIRD SPOT.

 

AVERAGE UNICORN AGE 10 YEARS. AVERAGE FOUNDER 45YRS OLD.

 

TOTAL VALUE OF UNICORNS IN WORLD US$4.6TN, UP 7%

​​

​

(9 April 2024, Guangzhou, China & Mumbai, India) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Global Unicorn Index 2024, 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 1 January 2024, with significant changes in valuation updated up to the date of release. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017. This is the sixth year of the Global Unicorn Index.

 

This report includes the Most Successful Unicorn Investors in the World 2024, a ranking of the most successful unicorn investors, based on the number of unicorns they have invested in.

 

Hurun Research found 1,453 unicorns in the world, based in 53 countries and 291 cities. 430 unicorns saw their valuations rise, of which 171 were new faces. 170 saw their valuations drop, of which 42 were ‘demoted’ as their valuation no longer made the cut of US$1bn. 37 were ‘promoted’ out of the list, of which 29 went IPO and 8 were acquired. 895 saw no change to their valuations. Their total value was US$4.6tn.

 

The world’s unicorns are disrupting financial services, business management solutions and healthcare. 78% sell software and services, led by FinTech, SaaS and AI, whilst 22% have a physical product, led by New Energy, Biotech, F&B and Semiconductors.

 

 

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said: “The world has minted one unicorn every two days over the last year to take the total of known unicorns in the world to a new record of just under 1500. Despite the slowdown of the economy, China still managed to keep up with the US in terms of new unicorns, each minting more than one unicorn a week for every week of the year.”

 

“A key feature of the Global Unicorn Index is that it is compiled using data from the world’s leading investors, the ‘entrepreneurs behind the entrepreneurs’, making this the most comprehensive list of the world’s unicorns.”

 

“The Global Unicorn Index 2024 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.”

 

“The last five years have been a golden era for entrepreneurship. We have seen the biggest explosion of new technologies coming to market that the world has ever known. Since 2019, the number of unicorns has tripled from 494 to 1453. Whilst the US is leading the way with half of the world’s known unicorns, the number of countries with at least one unicorn has more than doubled from 24 to 53 and the number of cities with at least one unicorn has grown from 118 to 291.”

 

“The world can now be split into three when it comes to unicorns: the US, China and ‘Rest of the World’. The US has half of the world’s known unicorns, led by SaaS, FinTech and AI, China a quarter, led by AI, Semiconductors and New Energy, while the Rest of the World has the other quarter, led by FinTech and E-commerce.”

 

“The most active city for unicorns outside of the US and China was London, followed by Bengaluru, Paris and Berlin.”

 

“This has been the year of AI. OpenAI led the way, adding US$80bn of value to be worth US$100bn today. In China, one-year old Beijing-based Moonshot AI and two-year old Shanghai-based MiniMax are leading the way for ChatGPT-like products. Others include Atlanta-based OneTrust, that uses AI for data security, UK-based Graphcore, that highlights the global race towards computational capabilities and India-based Glance, that showcases the impact of AI in transforming content consumption on mobile platforms.”

 

“The total value of the world's unicorns reached US$5 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Japan, meaning that investors expect these unicorns to generate US$5 trillion of profits over the next ten or so years. This shows how startups are shaping the economy of the future.”

 

“India’s start-up ecosystem has slowed, with the number of unicorns down for the first time since the launch of our list and despite the recent stock market record highs. One factor is that Indian founders produced more offshore unicorns than any other country, co-founding 109 unicorns outside of India compared with just 67 in India. Of the unicorns founded outside of India, significantly all were in the USA (95), led by the Bay Area, with 4 in the UK, 3 in Singapore and 2 in Germany.”

 

“Despite its stock markets’ poor performance, China nevertheless trailblazed when it came to unicorns going public, with 18 of the 29 unicorns that went public this past year, far ahead of the US with 5 and the Rest of the World with 6.”

 

“Why are there more and more unicorns?  One reason is that they find it hard to go public, which means that some unicorns are likely to end up like the ‘bridesmaid that never gets to be a bride’. ”

 

“FinTech, SaaS and AI are the three main sectors of unicorns. AI overtook E-commerce to break into the Big Three. Financial services and business management solutions are being most disrupted by unicorns.”

 

“The world’s most successful unicorn investors, led by Tiger Global, Softbank and HongShan, highlight the symbiotic relationship between startups and strategic investment. This year has seen a slowdown in new unicorn investments, especially compared with the heyday of 2021 as exits prove harder to come by. Ironically, the record-breaking stockmarkets in the US, India and the UK have not delivered significant unicorn IPOs.”

 

“The World’s 10 most valuable unicorns made up half of all new value increases, led by OpenAI, up US$80bn in value to US$100bn and SpaceX, up US$43bn to US$180bn.”

 

“Perhaps 5% of the Global Unicorns Index are spinoffs from a larger company, with the core business a startup in the 2000s. The biggest example is fintech Ant Group, which was a spin off in 2004 of the online payments business Alipay from the much bigger Alibaba Group. Others include several of the EV makers, incubated and then spun off from the traditional car manufacturer. Most of these spinoffs are from China.”

 

“33 of the 171 new unicorns, roughly one in five, came from previous years’ Hurun Future Unicorns Indices, either from Hurun Gazelles, most likely to go unicorn within three years, or Hurun Cheetahs, most likely to go unicorn within five years. In China, 14 of the 56 new unicorns, one in four, came from the Hurun Future Unicorns Index. In India, all the new unicorns came from Hurun Future Unicorn Index. Hurun is proud to have grown to become the world’s largest compiler of lists for unicorns and future unicorns in the world.”

 

“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 India education platform BYJU, but on the whole unicorns are seen as inherently vital to the new economy.”

 

“8 unicorns have already made it into the Hurun Global 500, becoming one of the 500 most valuable companies in the world: ByteDance, SpaceX, Shein, Stripe, WeBank, Databricks, OpenAI and Ant Group.”

 

“The average age of unicorns in the Global Unicorn Index is ten years, suggesting that if you were to start up a business today, you should aim to ‘go unicorn’ by 2034. The average age of a unicorn founder is 45 years, meaning they started out on their unicorn when they were 35.”

 

“Serial founders are on the up, since they 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 owns or co-founded five unicorns on this year’s list: SpaceX, OpenAI, X, The Boring Company and Neuralink. Others include Liu Qiangdong of fintech platform JDT, JD Property and JD Mro, and Travis Kalanick formerly of Uber and now CloudKitchens.”

 

“The EU underperforms when it comes to unicorns. Its 27 members have only 109 or 8% of the world’s unicorns between them, led by Swedish battery maker Northvolt and German SaaS platform Celonis. This is significantly less than the EU’s 15% contribution to world GDP.”

 

“While Singapore has grown to become a unicorn powerhouse, becoming the world’s fastest-growing city for unicorns after San Francisco this year, the rest of SE Asia, with its population of over 1 billion, underperforms when it comes to unicorns.”

 

“Some regions like the Gulf States, are strong in their traditional sectors of energy and real estate but underperform when it comes to unicorns. There are only three unicorns in the Gulf, all in the UAE, with none in the economic powerhouse of Saudi.”

 

“Some 150 countries in the world have no unicorn, led by Saudi Arabia, Poland, Bangladesh, Iran and Pakistan. For the first time, Hurun Research found unicorns in Russia and South Africa.”

 

“Hurun is committed to promoting entrepreneurship and value creation through lists and research. Hurun’s ‘startup series’ has four main components. It begins with the Hurun Uth series, listing the top founders under the ages of 30, 35 and 40. Next up are two ‘future unicorn’ lists: Hurun Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within 5 years and currently with a valuation of between US$300 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.”

 

“Hurun is delighted to be co-hosting the third annual Global Unicorn CEO Conference in Guangzhou starting today, with founders from over 100 unicorns represented. The breakout sessions this year include New Energy and Decarbonisation, AI and New Productive Forces, Biotech and Healthcare, Platform Economies and Going Global.”

 

 

Guangzhou Development District/Huangpu District official said, “We are pleased to see the Global Unicorn CEO Conference is being held in our district for the third consecutive year. Guangzhou Development District/Huangpu District will continue to provide the best environment and services for Cheetahs, Gazelles, and Unicorns, by following the highest standards. In February this year, the district launched its ‘Global Investment Promotion Year’ to promote the mutual strengthening of industries and technologies and develop new quality productive forces, with a focus on competitive, strategic emerging and future-oriented industries.”

 

The head of the Guangzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau commented, “Last year, Guangzhou constantly promoted innovation-driven development and accelerated the cultivation of new quality productive forces, closely focusing on the city’s positioning as the educational and cultural center of science and technology and the significant carrier of international science and innovation center. To date, Guangzhou boasts 24 global unicorn companies, with industrial investment and investment in technological transformation and upgrading both exceeding a remarkable 20% growth rate. Additionally, Guangzhou serves as a hub of university and college students as well as skilled talents, with major national platforms and other innovative resources clustering in the city. Notably, Guangzhou ranks eighth globally in the ‘Nature Index Science City’ ranking. According to the annual business environment survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in the People's Republic of China (AmCham China), Guangzhou is frequently rated as one of the preferred destinations for future investment in China. In the ‘2024 Special Report on the State of Business in South China’ by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, Guangzhou has been listed as the most popular investment city for the seventh consecutive year. Unicorn companies are leaders in fostering new quality productive forces. We are committed to creating a friendly business environment for industries, enterprises, and entrepreneurs, and extend a sincere invitation to global unicorn companies to settle in Guangzhou for further development.”

​​

​

Top 10 Unicorns in the World​

 

The cut-off to make the Top 10 was US$33bn, up US$6bn. This year’s Top 10 made up 18% of the total value of the world’s unicorns.

​​

China and USA each had four of the Top 10, with 1 in both of Australia and Malta.​

​

The Top 10 added US$198bn, making up 45% of all the new value added in the year.​

 

There were three new faces: San Francisco-based OpenAI, Australia-based Canva and Malta-based Binance, at the expense of Telegram and Revolut, which dropped down to the Top 30, and Cainiao, which dropped down to the Top 50.