In this report, EqualOcean analyzes 623 private businesses that have reached the 'unicorn' status and presents a selection of 50 most promising of these upstarts. A guidebook to the global tech space, this paper delineates major venture trends and depict tectonic shifts in the adjacent areas. It is a must-read for investors and corporate decision-makers, as well as for general audience willing to expand their knowledge.
On December 9-12, EqualOcean is holding the World Innovators Meet (WIM) 2020. This year, the event's main topic is 'Technology and Innovation Connect the World.' WIM2020 gathers innovators from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas to share their knowledge and key achievements, promoting the concept of 'Tech for Equal.'
The economic development environment in 2020 is more complicated, and start-ups face many new challenges
In 2020, with the ongoing COVID-19 and the increasing complexity of market environment, startups have been facing numerous challenges worldwide.
However, some companies have already managed to reach a certain scale and level of influence in their respective sectors. As history shows, during hard times, the global investors tend to keep close tabs on such enterprises.
In this report, EqualOcean analyzes 623 private businesses that have reached the 'unicorn' status and presents a selection of 50 most promising of these upstarts.
A guidebook to the global tech space, this paper delineates major venture trends and depict tectonic shifts in the adjacent areas. It is a must-read for investors and corporate decision-makers, as well as for general audience willing to expand their knowledge.
The total number of unicorns in the world shows an increasing trend in 2020, and the number of unicorn companies in China surpasses that of the United States
From the perspective of geographic distribution, there will be 623 unicorn companies in 30 countries and regions in the world in 2020. This is an increase of 88 compared to the total number of last year. Among them, the two major economies of China and the United States contributed about 80% of unicorn companies.
In addition, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Israel, Brazil, France, and Indonesia have contributed to the rest of the world's economic innovation and active power.
From the perspective of industry distribution, the global unicorn companies are mainly distributed in the three fields of technology, consumption and finance, and the real estate industry has the fewest unicorn companies.
From the perspective of investment institution preference, the top 10 venture capital institutions and companies that are best at identifying unicorns and making early investments include Sequoia Capital, Tencent, SoftBank, IDG, Hillhouse Capital, Tiger Fund, Goldman Sachs, Alibaba, Andreessen Horowitz Fund and Accel.
Focus on the list
Among the eight industry categories, the technology industry has the largest number of unicorn companies, followed by the consumer, financial, and healthcare industries. Compared with the same period last year, fewer unicorn companies were born in the communication and real estate industries.
Therefore, in the chapter of "Major Industries Analysis ", EqualOcean focuses on analyzing the technology, consumer, finance, and healthcare industry.
In the technology industry, artificial intelligence has the most companies on the list, and remote conferencing software has ushered in a short-term rapid outbreak due to the COVID-19.
In the consumer industry, the e-commerce field is currently the most popular, and consumption scenarios have become more diverse based on digitalization.
In the financial industry, 9 fintech companies were selected into the list. Under the profound influence of mobile, cloud computing and big data, the traditional financial industry and new technologies continue to merge, and new financial formats continue to emerge.
In 2019, due to the unprecedented destruction of global health and development caused by the COVID-19, the healthcare industry has once again become the focus of the world. According to relevant data, in the 2020 Q1 quarter, medical device transaction events increased to 57%. The primary market has become hot again, and capital pays particular attention to those companies that have achieved certain development results after the series C.
Future prospects, risks and opportunities coexist
In the process of investigation, EqualOcean found that new leaders still need to face some risks and opportunities.
The company valuations given by Chinese databases in the same field are all higher than those provided by foreign databases. Unicorn companies need to be alert to the risk of breakage caused by abnormally high valuations
Companies incubated and split by Chinese Internet giants are more likely to become unicorns in the short term. However, for these companies, obtaining a large amount of capital injection in a short period of time can easily lead to excessive reliance on the external financing environment while their own business models, technological development, and moat barriers are not growing at the same time. Once the external financing environment deteriorates, it will be difficult for companies to cope...
For more information, please refer to the "New Tech Leaders 2020: Global 50 " report.
About WIM
Hosted by EqualOcean, the World Innovators Meet (WIM) (click to watch the online event on December 9-11, 2020) is a global event for innovators. It provides limitless opportunities to learn from and connect with the most sought-after technology pioneers.
About WIA
The World Innovation Awards (WIA) are announced at WIM to recognize game-changers across various industries and geographies. Selected by a committee of distinguished experts, entrepreneurs and investors, WIA are designed to acknowledge technology disruptors striving to make a positive impact on a global scale.
See this year's WIA lists and download the research reports in English and Chinese on EqualOcean and 亿欧智库 respectively.