Unicorns flourish in China and the US - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

China is home to four out of five largest unicorns - startups valued over one billion US dollars, second to the US, says the latest report by the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, published on Tuesday. “The rest of the world needs to wake up to providing an ecosystem that allows unicorns to flourish,” says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun report to the South China Morning Post. 

The South China Morning Post:

China is home to four of the world’s five largest unicorns – start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion – as the country recorded 227 such companies at the end of March, despite its protracted tech and trade war with the United States.

That total was behind the US tally of 233 unicorns in the same period, according to this year’s edition of the Hurun Global Unicorn Index released by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute on Tuesday. It said the US and China accounted for a combined 79 per cent of the world’s 586 known unicorns, based on valuations at the end of March.

“The US and China continue to dominate … despite representing only 40 per cent of the world’s GDP and a quarter of the world’s population,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of privately held Hurun Report, in a statement on Tuesday. “The rest of the world needs to wake up to providing an ecosystem that allows unicorns to flourish.”

The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.9 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Italy, according to Hurun Research.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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