Hurun Research Institute found 586 unicorns in the world, based in 29 countries and 145 cities. On average, they are 9 years old, with 80% selling software and services and 60% consumer-facing. The majority are disrupting financial services, retail, entertainment, business management solutions, healthcare, logistics, and automobile. The total value of all known unicorns in the world is $1.9tn, equivalent to the GDP of Italy. 89 unicorns saw their valuations rise, 23 saw their valuations drop. There were 142 new unicorns and 50 drop-offs.
These young companies are the worldโs most exciting start-ups, leading a new generation of disruptive technology and attracting the worldโs top young talent. two examples are Elon Muskโs SpaceX, which is valued at $36bn, and Beijing-based ByteDance, with its popular short video app TikTok.
The USA is still leading to China by 233 versus 227, together accounting for 79% of the worldโs unicorns. USA and China added 58 and 38 new unicorns this year. The UK was third with 24, led by digital bank Revolut, which is worth $6bn.
Europeโs largest unicorn was Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences worth $7bn. India was fourth with 21 unicorns.
