HURUN FUTURE UNICORNS - GLOBAL CHEETAH INDEX 2023

IN SEARCH OF START-UPS FROM THE 2000S, NOT YET LISTED ON A PUBLIC EXCHANGE AND MOST LIKELY TO ‘GO UNICORN’ WITHIN 5YRS.

HURUN RESEARCH FINDS 747 CHEETAHS IN WORLD

CHINA AND USA LED WITH 291 AND 246, MAKING UP 72% OF WORLD’S CHEETAHS

UK AND INDIA THIRD AND FOURTH WITH 38 AND 36

WITH 64 CHEETAHS sHANGHAI TOPS CHEETAHS LIST FOLLOWED BY BEIJING (59) AND SAN FRANCISCO (46)

GUANGZHOU WITH 20 CHEETAHS MAKES TOP 10 CITIES, OF WHICH NANSHA DISTRICT HAS 4: CHALI, JIEMENG INTELLIGENCE, SEQUOIADB AND MOGULINKER. GREATER BAY AREA HAS 56 CHEETAHS, 19% OF CHINA’S CHEETAHS

HEALTHCARE most disrupted by CHEETAHS, followed by Financial services, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS and RETAIL

BIOTECH AND HEALTHTECH LED WITH 99 AND 89 CHEETAHS, FOLLOWED BY ENTERPRISE SERVICES WITH 70, FINTECH WITH 62, E-COMMERCE WITH 46, AI AND SAAS WITH 40 EACH

HONGSHAN, WHICH WAS SPUN OFF FROM SEQUOIA GLOBAL IN JUNE, IS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL GLOBAL CHEETAH INVESTOR WITH 60 KNOWN CHEETAH COMPANIES, FOLLOWED BY CICC, MATRIX PARTNERS, SOFTBANK AND TIGER GLOBAL

AVERAGE AGE 7YRS. 32 OR 4% OF CHEETAHS FOUNDED WITHIN LAST 3 YEARS

66% sell SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, 34% physical products

33% are consumer-facing, 67% B2B

(19 December 2023, Guangzhou, China, Mumbai, India and Oxford, UK) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun Future Unicorns – Global Cheetah Index 2023, a list of the world’s start-ups founded in the 2000s, not yet listed on a public exchange and most likely to ‘go unicorn’, ie hit a valuation of US$1bn, within five years.  The cut-off date used was 31 December 2022. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017 and Gazelles in China and India since 2018. This is the first time Hurun Research has launched the Hurun Cheetah Index on a global level.

This report includes the Most Successful Cheetah Investors in the World 2023, a ranking of the 50 most successful Cheetah investors, and the Most Successful Cheetah Investors in China 2023, based on the number of Cheetahs they have invested in.

Hurun Research found 747 Cheetahs in the world, based in 34 countries and 198 cities. On average, they were set up in 2016 and today have a valuation of US$400 million. 66% sell software and services, led by Enterprise Services, FinTech and followed by HealthTech, Biotech and SaaS. 34% have a physical product as a core business offering, led by Biotech, HealthTech, Smart Chips and Robotics. 67% are selling to businesses, whilst 33% are consumer-facing. Cheetahs are disrupting healthcare mainly, and financial services.

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said:

“I am delighted to release the Hurun Global Cheetah Index 2023 in association with Nansha District. Nansha District has a good environment for the development of high-growth industries and is known for dynamic and strong innovation. Nansha has policies to support innovative enterprises, and gives support to emerging industries in terms of technology research and development, industrial agglomeration, application scenarios, and financial support. This makes Nansha a unique investment destination full of potential and opportunities.”

“Cheetahs represent the economy of the future. What they are doing and where they are doing it shows which industries are attracting the top young talent and investment, and which countries and cities have the best startup ecosystems. They might be young, only seven years old on average, but are already worth US$400 million on average. For the Cheetahs, the top two industries are BioTech and HealthTech, suggesting that these sectors are going to provide the unicorns of the future. Quite different to the Unicorn industries we see today, which are FinTech, SaaS and E-commerce.” 

“No matter whether it's a Cheetah, Gazelle, or Unicorn, you can basically divide the world into three: the United States, China, and the ‘Rest of the World’. 70% of the world's most powerful startups are in China and the United States, suggesting that the Apples and Microsofts of the future are most likely to come from these two countries. The rest of the world’s startups are from India, the UK, Germany, Israel, Canada and France.”

“The malaise across venture capital is apparent, with many investors pulling out their money, mainly due to interest rate hikes and a downturn in the global economy. In the first three months of this year, VC funding was less than half that raised in the same period last year. Despite this, Hurun managed to identify 750 Cheetah companies that we believe are most likely to become unicorns within five years.”

“Now is a good opportunity to start up, especially when considering that ChatGPT is still only in its first year. When the iPhone hit the world in January 2007, it took a few years for the impact to filter through to everyone’s lives. This generated a golden period for innovation and startups.  I expect to see ChatGPT spawn a similar period of innovation, but at a faster scale than before.”

“Investment is the lifeblood for many of these future unicorns. I hope the Hurun Global Cheetahs Index can encourage more people to focus on these young high-growth companies, and potentially provide capital to them. I believe this has great social value. Identifying these future unicorns is hard, but there are professional venture capital houses out there, like HongShan, CICC and Matrix Partners, which have a great track record of identifying and investing into them.”

“Investors tend to focus on exiting within five to seven years at the higher end, which is why we designed the Hurun Global Cheetah Index to focus on startups most likely to go unicorn within five years. It’s about value creation more than just sales.”

“Our list of Cheetahs is noteworthy because many go on to become Gazelles, Unicorns or go public. 20% of the world’s new unicorns this year came from previous Hurun Gazelle and Cheetah lists. In China and India, our record was even better with 40% and 80% of new unicorns coming from our Gazelle and Cheetah lists.”

“BioTech and HealthTech are the two preferred industries of Cheetahs, showing that healthcare as a whole is going through strong disruption.”

“These Cheetahs, now worth US$400 million on average, were founded seven years ago on average.  At this rate, if you start a business today, seven years from now, ie in 2030, you should be aiming to make our Cheetah list!”

“This year, we have identified 2,800 Unicorn, Gazelle and Cheetah companies, making Hurun the world’s largest list maker in the world for startups. This year we took the Cheetahs Index to a global level. I am proud that our startup series is finally complete.”

“Hurun is committed to promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Hurun’s ‘startup series’ has three main components. On the corporate level, it begins with the Hurun Cheetah Index, startups most likely to go unicorn within five years, moving onto the Hurun Gazelle Index, startups most likely to go unicorn within three years, and finishing with the Hurun Unicorn Index, startups already worth US$1 billion. On the individual level, we have the Hurun Under30s, Under35s and Under40s, for founders of businesses that are worth US$10 million, US$50 million and US$100 million.”

Where are the World’s Cheetahs based?

The world’s Cheetahs are based in only 34 countries around the world, spread around 198 cities.

China and USA led with 291 and 246, together accounting for 72% of the world’s known Cheetahs.

The UK was third with 38 Cheetahs, followed by India with 36.

By city, Shanghai is the world’s Cheetah capital with 64. Beijing is second ahead of San Francisco and Hangzhou.

London is the Cheetah capital of Europe with 28 Cheetahs, more than Paris, Berlin, Oxford, Basel and Munich combined.

Asia led North America as the continent creating the most Cheetahs in the world.

Table 1: Top 20 countries and cities where the world’s Cheetahs are based

Table 2: Top Cities for Cheetahs in China, USA & Rest of World

Table 3: Continents where the world’s Cheetahs are based

What industries do they come from?

Biotech and HealthTech are the core business for Cheetahs, followed by Enterprise Services, FinTech, and E-commerce.

More than half of the China Cheetahs were in Biotech, HealthTech, Enterprise Services and Smart Chips, whilst for USA it was Biotech, HealthTech, SaaS, Enterprise Services and FinTech. For the Rest of the World, it was FinTech, E-commerce, HealthTech, SaaS and Biotech.

Table 4: Industries of the Cheetahs

Table 5: Key sectors of Cheetahs in China, USA & Rest of World

Table 6: High-profile Cheetahs by Region

Table 7: Top 10 Industries most disrupted by Cheetahs

Which investors are the best at finding Cheetahs?

HongShan, which was spun off from Sequoia Global in June, is the world’s most successful investment platform at finding and investing into Cheetahs, investing into 60 of the world’s known Cheetahs, followed by CICC, Matrix Partners, SoftBank and Tiger Global Management.

For the full Top 50 list of the Most Successful Cheetahs Investors in the World 2023 and the full Top 30 list of the Most Successful Cheetah Investors in China 2023, see Appendix.

Table 8: Most successful investors into Cheetahs – Global and China Top 10

Comparison between Hurun Cheetahs, Gazelles and Unicorns

A Unicorn is a start-up from the 2000s, worth at least a billion dollars and not yet listed on a public exchange. A Gazelle is a start-up from the 2000s, not yet listed and most likely to become a unicorn within three years. A Cheetah is a start-up from the 2000s, not yet listed and most likely to become a unicorn within five years.

By country, the USA, China, India and the UK are the countries with the highest number of Unicorns, Gazelles and Cheetahs.

By city, San Francisco, Shanghai, Beijing, New York and London lead the way with the most Cheetahs, Gazelles, and Unicorns.

By industry, Biotech and HealthTech generated more Cheetahs, whilst for Gazelles and Unicorns it was FinTech, SaaS and E-commerce.

Cheetahs produce more physical products than Gazelles and Unicorns, and have a tendency to sell more to businesses rather to consumers.

Table 9A: By Country comparison of Cheetahs, Gazelles and Unicorns

Table 9B: By City comparison of Cheetahs, Gazelles and Unicorns

Table 9C: By Industry comparison of Cheetahs, Gazelles and Unicorns

Table 9D: Comparison between Cheetahs, Gazelles and Unicorns

Methodology

The Hurun Future Unicorns – Global Cheetahs Index 2023 was compiled by the Hurun Research Institute. The cut-off used was 31 December 2022. Hurun Research defines a Cheetah as a start-up founded in the 2000s, not yet listed on a public exchange and most likely in our opinion to reach a valuation of US$1bn – ie ‘go unicorn’ – in the next five years. Cheetahs mostly have a valuation today of between US$300mn to US$500mn.

Many of the world’s top investment houses provided details of their portfolio, which Hurun Research cross-checked against specialized investment databases, industry experts, media sources, as well as Cheetahs co-founders.

Valuing Cheetahs can be tricky. The very nature of these super-fast growing companies makes valuations hard to pin down, but to ensure consistency of the valuations, the Hurun research team used the most recent valuation based on a sizeable round. Where it becomes harder is when a Cheetah is underperforming or on its way down, since it is unlikely to have a new round of investment at a valuation lower than the previous round. In this case, Hurun uses industry comparatives to ascertain a new lower valuation.

Countries and cities are ranked according to the Cheetah head office.

Cheetahs leave the Hurun Global Cheetah Index either by being ‘promoted’ or ‘demoted’.  Promotions are by becoming a Gazelle or Unicorn, listing on a public exchange (IPO) or being acquired. Demotions are when Hurun Research believes they will no longer become a unicorn within five years.

Hurun Research has been tracking Unicorns since 2017, Gazelles since 2018 and Cheetahs since 2020.

Disclaimer. All the data collection and the research has been carried out by Hurun Research. This report is meant for information purposes only. Reasonable care and caution have been taken in preparing this report. The information contained in this report has been obtained from sources that are considered reliable. By accessing and/or using any part of the report, the user accepts this disclaimer and exclusion of liability which operates to the benefit of Hurun. Hurun does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information contained in the report and neither shall it be responsible for any errors or omissions in or for the results obtained from the use of such information. No third party whose information is referenced in this report under the credit to it, assumes any liability towards the user with respect to its information. Hurun shall not be liable for any decisions made by the user based on this report (including those of investment or divestiture) and the user takes full responsibility for their decisions made based on this report. Hurun shall not be liable to any user of this report (and expressly disclaim liability) for any loss, damage of any nature, including but not limited to direct, indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, consequential losses, loss of profit, lost business and economic loss regardless of the cause or form of action and regardless of whether or not any such loss could have been foreseen.

About Nansha

Located at the geographical center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Nansha New Area of Guangzhou is 38 nautical miles away from Hong Kong and 41 nautical miles away from Macao. A half-hour transportation circle with Nansha as its core is taking shape. Covering an area of 803 square kilometers, Nansha has a population of over 1.2 million.

Nansha enjoys multiple strategic designations: it is the only state-level new area in Guangdong province, the largest area of Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Demonstration Zone for Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In June 2022, the State Council issued the Overall Plan for Promoting Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao by Further Deepening Opening-up in Nansha District of Guangzhou, which envisioned Nansha as a major strategic platform with global perspective that is based on the Greater Bay Area and in collaboration with Hong Kong and Macao. Nansha has scored notable achievements in cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao. In recent years, major projects have been implemented here, including the Consultative Committee on Guangdong-Hong Kong Cooperation (Guangzhou Nansha), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), the Hong Kong-style International Community and the Nansha Incubation Base of Hong Kong Science Park. Nansha boasts the largest container hub port in South China, and the largest international cruise home port in China. Railways from Nansha port are accessible to Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. With the new position of National Demonstration Zone for Creative Promotion of Import Trade, Nansha has outstood in pursuing a more robust development by fully leveraging domestic and international markets. As a main support area for comprehensive national science center of the Greater Bay Area, Nansha is building a batch of scientific and technological innovation platforms such as Nansha Science City, cold-seep scientific facilities, International Special Zone for Talents, and the permanent site of the Greater Bay Area Science Forum. It is also home to an over 200-billion-yuan automotive cluster. The development of the strategic emerging industries in Nansha including artificial intelligence, life science, marine science, aerospace, and aviation is in full swing. Financial platforms such as the Guangzhou Futures Exchange and Guangzhou Data Exchange are being constructed in Nansha. More than 240 projects invested by Global Fortune 500 companies have been introduced here.

Nansha’s charm of Lingnan culture, water town culture, and ocean culture are unique and lingering. Nansha boasts distinctive attractions: the “Nansha Man” Relics, dated back to 4,000 years ago and known as the earliest one found in Guangzhou; Humen Fort Former Site; Former Residence of the People’s Musician Xian Xinghai. Besides, Nansha’s kylin dance, salt-water songs, and gambiered canton gauze have been included as intangible cultural heritages. Nansha enjoys an outstanding ecological environment, featuring a perfect integration of mountains, farmlands, rivers, sea, towns. With hundreds of hectares of wetlands, it is also crowned as a most livable community by the United Nations, a national law-based government demonstration district, and one of the happiest cities (district-level) in China.

About Hurun Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sydney, Paris

Established in the UK in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research.  Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 6 billion views on the Hurun brand last year, mainly in China and India.

Best-known today for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s two other key series include the Hurun Start-up series and the Hurun 500 series, a ranking of the world’s most valuable companies.

The Hurun Start-up series begins with the Hurun U30s, an awards recognizing the most successful entrepreneurs under the age of thirty, and is today in seven countries. Next up are Hurun Cheetahs, Chinese and Indian start-ups with a valuation of between US$200mn to US$500mn, most likely to go unicorn with five years.  Hurun Global Gazelles recognize start-ups with a valuation of US$500mn to US$1bn, most likely to go unicorn within three years. The culmination of the start-up series is the Hurun Global Unicorn Index.

Other lists include the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists, the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today, etc…

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial insitutions, real estate developers and regional governments.

Hurun hosted high-profile events in the last couple of years across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore.

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Hurun Future Unicorns – Global Cheetah Index 2023

Appendix 1 – Most Successful Cheetahs Investors in the World 2023

Appendix 2 – Most Successful Cheetahs Investors in China 2023