On April 9, the reporter learned from Hurun's official channels that the Hurun Research Institute released the "2024 Global Unicorn List" in Guangzhou, listing the world's non-listed companies founded after 2000 and worth more than $1 billion. It is understood that the Hurun Research Institute has tracked and recorded unicorn companies since 2017, and this is the sixth time that the global unicorn list has been released.
The deadline for valuation calculations for this list is January 1, 2024, with significant changes in valuations updated prior to release.
According to the latest list, ByteDance, SpaceX, and OpenAI are among the top three global unicorns in 2024. Among them, thanks to the explosion of generative AI, OpenAI is the world's best-performing and fastest-growing unicorn in the past year, with a value increase of nearly 570 billion yuan and a valuation of 710 billion yuan.
In addition, the Hurun Research Institute also released the "2024 Top 100 Global Unicorn Investment Institutions", which lists the world's most successful unicorn investment institutions according to the number of unicorns on this list. According to the list, the top three most successful "unicorn catchers" in the world are Tiger Global Fund, SoftBank and Sequoia China.
Among the top 10 unicorns in the world, China accounts for four seats
It is understood that the entry threshold for the top 10 in the 2024 global unicorn list is 235 billion yuan, an increase of 50 billion yuan from last year. The top 10 value accounts for 18% of the total value of unicorns in the world.
According to the latest valuations, the list of the top 10 unicorns in the world is as follows:
China and the United States each have four unicorns in the top 10, while Australia and Malta have one each. The rankings of the top 10 unicorn companies have risen and fallen, while others have remained unchanged. Among them, ByteDance and SpaceX ranked first and second, respectively, and Databricks, a San Francisco-based AI data services company, ranked seventh, and these three companies remained unchanged from last year.
The three new unicorns in the top 10 are OpenAI, Canva, an online design platform from Australia, and Binance, a blockchain startup. Notably, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was previously in crisis, paying a hefty $4.3 billion fine to the United States, and the company's founder, Changpeng Zhao, resigned as CEO after admitting to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. However, Hurun pointed out that Binance's value increased by nearly 100 billion yuan to 240 billion yuan. OpenAI's ranking has risen 14 places in the past year, becoming the world's best-performing and fastest-growing unicorn, with a value increase of nearly 570 billion yuan to 710 billion yuan, ranking among the top three in the world.
There are four unicorns that have slipped down the rankings. Hangzhou-based Ant Group fell one place to fourth, with a value drop of more than 280 billion yuan to 570 billion yuan, Guangzhou-based cross-border e-commerce Shein fell one place to fifth, with a value of 460 billion yuan, and although its value rose by nearly 80 billion yuan, San Francisco-based payment platform Stripe fell one place to sixth, with a value of 430 billion yuan, and Tencent-backed digital bank WeBank remained in the top 10 with a value of 235 billion yuan, down four places, and now has a balance of assets under management of more than 2 trillion yuan。
In terms of Chinese unicorns, in addition to the four unicorn companies in the top 10 in the world, miHoYo, Oppo, Vivo, JD Technology, Didi, GAC Aion, and Xiaohongshu are among the top 10 unicorns in China. Among them, miHoYo, a game company from Shanghai, has risen 18 places from last year, ranking fifth among China's top 10 unicorns with a valuation of 112 billion yuan.
China and the United States are far ahead, and AI unicorns have sprung up
"Over the past year, a new unicorn has been born every two days around the world, bringing the total number of known unicorns in the world to a new record of nearly 1,500. Hurun Report, chairman and chief research officer, said when releasing the 2024 global unicorn list.
According to the reporter's understanding, the Hurun Research Institute has found 1,453 unicorn companies around the world, distributed in 53 countries and 291 cities. The value of 430 unicorns increased from last year, including 171 new faces. The value of 170 companies has fallen from last year, and 42 of them have been "downgraded" from the list due to valuations of less than $1 billion. Currently, the total value of global unicorns is $4.6 trillion.
Combing through the list of unicorns, it can be found that the United States and China are far ahead in the number of unicorns. "When it comes to unicorns, the world can now be divided into three parts: the United States, China and the rest of the world," Hurun said. According to the latest list, the United States and China now have 703 and 340 unicorns, respectively, while India, in third place, has only 67 unicorns.
In terms of cities, San Francisco, which is home to Silicon Valley, is undoubtedly the biggest winner, with 190 unicorns, maintaining the title of "global unicorn capital" and the fastest growing number of unicorns in the world. San Francisco is followed by New York (133), Beijing (78), Shanghai (65) and London (46).
Hurun said that fintech, software services and AI are the three main tracks for unicorns. It is worth noting that AI has replaced e-commerce as one of the top three tracks this year. Hurun also pointed out that this year is the year of AI, in addition to OpenAI, which is leading the gains, in China, the dark side of the moon that has been established for one year and the dream of Mingzhi, which has been established for more than two years, are in the leading position in terms of products similar to ChatGPT. China is developing rapidly in the field of artificial intelligence, accounting for 40% of the global AI unicorn companies.
In addition, Hurun also mentioned the low-altitude economic track that has been very popular in the primary and secondary markets recently. He said that although the low-altitude economy has been hot recently, there are not many unicorns in this field in China, while there are relatively many unicorns in the aerospace field, including Beijing-based Galaxy Power, Changchun-based Changguang Satellite and Wuhan-based Aerospace Science and Industry Rocket.
The best "unicorn catcher" surfaced
At the same time as the latest list of global unicorns was released, the "catcher" behind it also surfaced. According to the "2024 Top 100 Global Unicorn Investment Institutions" released by the Hurun Research Institute, Tiger Global Fund, SoftBank and Sequoia China are among the top three most successful global unicorn investment institutions.
It is worth noting that Tiger Global is the first to win the title of "the world's most successful unicorn investment institution", investing in a total of 205 unicorns. Masayoshi Son's SoftBank ranked second with 169 unicorns, while Shen Nanpeng's Sequoia China surpassed Sequoia to rank third with 125.
At the same time, the Hurun Research Institute also released the institutions that are best at investing in Chinese unicorns. The top 10 are Sequoia China, CICC, IDG Capital, Tencent, Hillhouse, CITIC, Jingwei, China Merchants Capital, Alibaba and Shenzhen Capital Group. Among them, the number of Chinese unicorns invested by Sequoia China reached 114, accounting for one-third of Chinese unicorn companies.
When it comes to unicorn listings, China is at the forefront of the world. Of the 29 unicorns listed in the past year, China has 18, well ahead of five in the United States and six in the rest of the world, Hurun said. However, Hurun also pointed out that one of the reasons for the growing number of unicorns is that it is becoming more difficult to go public.
"The world's most successful unicorn investors, led by Tiger Global, SoftBank and Sequoia China, emphasize the symbiotic relationship between startups and strategic investments. This year, there has been a slowdown in new unicorn investment, especially compared to the peak in 2021, as exits have proven to be more difficult. Record-breaking stock markets in the US, India, and UK have not resulted in major unicorn IPOs. Hurun said.
Attached: 2024 Global Unicorn Top 100 List
Source: Securities Star