586 startup unicorns in the world

• 586 unicorns in the world, based in 29 countries and 145 cities

• USA leads china by 233 to 227, making up 78% of world’s unicorns

• E-commerce, Fintech, AI and SaaS are top 4 core competence sectors of world’s unicorns, making up 45.9% of the sectoral universe of these unicorns

• Sequoia is the world’s most successful investor in unicorns, being a key investor in 1/5 of the world’s unicorns. Others include Tencent, Softbank, Tiger, IDG, Goldman Sachs, and Alibaba

• On average, set up 9 years ago, with 80% selling services and 60% consumer-facing

• 59% are consumer-facing while 41% are B2B

• The total value of all known unicorns in the world is $1.8tn, equivalent to the GDP of Italy

• Of the 61 unicorns founded by Indians, a massive 2/3 are based outside of India, predominately Silicon Valley in the USA, whilst only 21 are based in India

• 9/10 cities are in China and USA, with London the only other city in the top 10

• By city, Beijing is the world’s unicorn capital with 93, ahead of San Francisco with 68 and followed by Shanghai, New York, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

• As a region, Silicon Valley leads the world with 122 or 21% of the world’s unicorns

Source: Harun