A handful of new unicorn companies (those valued at more than USD 1 billion) have emerged globally this year, with their total valuation reaching USD 118 billion. Here we will take a glance at this batch of upstarts in an attempt to explore their features and similarities.

Previously, EqualOcean shed light on the general investment trends worldwide in the 2019H1 Global Venture Capital Report.

Key points:

Among the 76 new unicorns, the youngest are Beike Zhaofang, Judo Capital, Hims and Ola Electric Mobility, all of which were founded in 2017.

The most valuable unicorn is Beike Zhaofang, with an astonishing number of USD 10 billion. Argo AI ranks second with a valuation of USD 7 billion.

The United States owns 45 of these newly appeared unicorns, surpassing the total of all the other countries.

Financial services and Internet software & services are the two most significant industries, each with 12 unicorns; Data management & analytics, Logistics, supply chain & delivery and E-commerce each have 7 unicorns

The youngest:

Among the 76 new unicorns, Beike Zhaofang, Judo Capital, Hims and Ola Electric Mobility were all founded two years ago, other six companies including Argo AI, Nuro and Aurora were founded three years ago.

In total, there are 10 unicorn startups founded less than three years ago and 29 less than five years ago.

The most valuable:

Again, Beike Zhaofang takes the lead, with an astonishing valuation of USD 10 billion. It can be referred to as “decacorn” now. Argo AI is also doing well, with a valuation of USD 7 billion.

The valuation numbers of the other 67 new unicorns remain below USD 3.5 billion. Actually, 36 of them are valued at just USD 1 billion. Capital is more concentrated in top-tier startups.

Beike Zhaofang, Argo AI, Nuro and Aurora are the four companies which appear both in "the youngest" list and in "the most valuable" list. They are four "star companies" to which we should pay more attention.

Country-level:

The United States owns 45 of these newly appeared unicorns, surpassing the total of all the other countries. Being the second one, China possesses 11 new unicorns, while India has 4, occupying the third place. It is natural that the top three correspond to the three most funded countries in the first half of 2019. Besides, three of the four "star companies" mentioned above belong to the U.S., while Beike Zhaofang, the most impressive one, belongs to China.

Viewing from the map, we can see clearly the U.S., Asia and Europe are three poles of the world’s entrepreneurship and surely that the U.S. remains the most significant one.

If we consider South Korea as a developed country (as it is a de facto one), among the 14 countries related, there are three developing countries - China, India and Brazil, and their total unicorn number is 16, more than one-fifth of 76.

Industry-level:

Financial services, Internet software & services, Data management & analytics, Logistics, supply chain & delivery and E-commerce are the five major industries where have grown up 40 new unicorns. Financial services and Internet software & services each have 12 unicorn companies while the other three areas each possess seven.

According to Crunchbase, as of June 30, 2019, the number of investments (>USD 100mn) in the first half of 2019 was 292, and the total financing amount was USD 98.248 billion. Compared with the first half of 2018, the number of investments has increased by 26.4% while the total financing amount has fallen by 13.4%.

Surely investors are more cautious and picky this year, but startups with huge potential don’t need to worry about that, since top-tier companies like Beike Zhaofang can obtain over USD 1.2 billion in one single round of funding.

The complete list:

Based on the CB Insights list, EqualOcean has corrected some errors, added the information of founders and founded date and worked out this complete list of the 76 new unicorn companies (in order of the date they were joined in the unicorn list).

Notes:

1. The 76 unicorn companies are categorized by CB Insights, EqualOcean only adjusted some Chinese companies' industry.

2. In the "youngest unicorns" part, if two companies have the same age, we prioritize the company which has a higher valuation number. In the "most valuable unicorns" part, if two companies have the same valuation number, we prioritize the younger company.