As of 2021, almost half of unicorns worldwide were headquartered in North America. The two regions that headquartered the fewest unicorns were the Oceania, and Africa, with only 5 and 3 unicorns based in each of these regions. Additionally, most of the highest valued 20 unicorns globally were based in North America or Asia.
What are the world’s leading unicorn companies?
As of 2021, the China-based tech company ByteDance was the highest valued startup worldwide. This was followed by ANT Group, a fintech giant also based in China. The third place ranking is completed by SpaceX, an aerospace company based in the United States. Space X is the highest-valued unicorn in the U.S.. These three world leading startups were all valued at over 100 billion U.S. dollars.
Market valuations of unicorns
As of 2021, the finance and insurance sector, transportation and logistics, and technology and communication sectors proved the most promising for unicorns operating in these industries. Unicorns in these three sectors had a combined market value of over 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars, higher than the market values of unicorns in all other sectors put together. Similar to the regions with the highest number of unicorns, unicorns headquartered in Asia-Pacific and North America also had the highest cumulative market valuations.
Number of unicorns worldwide as of 2021, by region
A unicorn company is a privately owned startup that has a current valuation of one billion U.S. dollars or over. Once a company has gone public (IPO) or has been acquired it is no longer termed as a unicorn.
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Hurun Research Institute. (December 21, 2021). Number of unicorns worldwide as of 2021, by region [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092626/number-of-unicorns-in-the-world-by-region/
Hurun Research Institute. "Number of unicorns worldwide as of 2021, by region." Chart. December 21, 2021. Statista. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092626/number-of-unicorns-in-the-world-by-region/
Hurun Research Institute. (2021). Number of unicorns worldwide as of 2021, by region. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: May 23, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092626/number-of-unicorns-in-the-world-by-region/
Hurun Research Institute. "Number of Unicorns Worldwide as of 2021, by Region." Statista, Statista Inc., 21 Dec 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092626/number-of-unicorns-in-the-world-by-region/
Hurun Research Institute, Number of unicorns worldwide as of 2021, by region Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092626/number-of-unicorns-in-the-world-by-region/ (last visited May 23, 2022)
