Evolving in the startup ecosystem, weare usually asked who are top players of this tech industry, best of that,Chinese unicorns valuation list, details about Meituan, Ele.me and others.
We've done our homework and found ithard to find a decent detailed ranking of top 20 unicorns in China.
Beside this article or that, they all givea fragmented answer to the question. So we've done the job and here you are, adetailed article about top 20 unicorns in China.
Hope it helps! Merry Christmas.
The electronics hardware manufacturer isoften known as the Apple of China and was the world’s most valuable unicorn in2014 with a valuation of $46 billion. The company’s main gig is producingelectronics hardware, low-budget smartphones, however it has also tried itshand in other technology such as smart TVs, sports cameras, and VR devices. Asthe low-cost new kid on the block the brand is particularly popular amongstmillennials and tech-savvy consumers.
Lately however, Xiaomi has fallen out ofits position in the top 5 global brands for smartphones and in Q2 of 2016 it’ssales dropped 38% from Q2 of the previous year. This slump can be seen as aresult of Xiaomi’s limited focus on the young tech-savvy consumer demographic.The company also has a limited number of smartphone models and competitorsOppo, Vivo, and Huawei have also released their own low-budget models. Xiaomi’ssuccess was initially derived from it’s social media hype and non-traditionalmarketing techniques however it has struggled to maintain this brand hype overtime.
Biblio:
https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies
Known famously as the unicorn thatslayed Uber in China, Didi Chuxing is a taxi-hailing and ridesharing app basedin China. After buying out Uber’s stake in China, the app now clocks 20 millionrides on average each day as of October 2016. The company is also flying highafter completing a $7.3 billion round of investing in June of this year.
Didi Chuxing has recently emerged from abitter 2 year war in China with Uber after it acquired Uber’s China unit thisyear in a deal worth USD $35 billion. In addition Didi has invested $ 1 billionin Uber’s global company.
Didi has announced plant to take overthe rest of the world and has begun partnering with domestic rid-sharing appsLyft and Grab to compete with Uber on a global-scale, including a recent sharedinvestment of $ 600 million into South-east Asian ride-sharing app Grab and anundisclosed investment in the Indian counterpart Ola.
However there may be tough times aheadfor Didi Chuxing in China after the Chinese government proposed strict new lawson the use of interregional migrant drivers in major cities. Rural migrantdrivers are required to have a city residency permit in order to driver forcar-hailing apps and this could badly hurt Didi which relies heavily on cheapmigrant drivers.
Biblio:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-01/uber-said-to-merge-china-business-with-didi-in-35-billion-deal
https://www.techinasia.com/didi-grab-investment-600m
http://fortune.com/2016/10/28/didi-chuxing-uber-china-brand/
https://www.ft.com/content/ac21babe-91f8-11e6-a72e-b428cb934b78
Lufax is the second largest peer-to-peerlender in China and made its name dealing as an online internet financemarketplace platform that matches borrowers with investors. It is also China’slargest internet finance company, a feat it achieved in less than 4 years.Lufax has some heavy weapons in it’s arsenals making use of big data and ITtechnologies whilst also leveraging the most advanced risk assessment models toprovide the best FinTech platform to Chinese investors and borrowers.
Lufax is cruising having raised $18.5billion in its latest round in January, whilst also eyeing an IPO within thenext year. Additionally, the Chinese P2P sector is swelling and could reach 1.5trillion Yuan by the end of 2018, according to Nomura. Lufax’s trading volumein the first half of 2016 was also at a record 3.2 trillion Yuan (USD$480billion) compared to 512 million Yuan in the first half of 2015.
New government regulations regardingIPOs have made a domestic IPO difficult for Lufax but the company has been intalks with Hong Kong banks to make an IPO in the southern metropolis. So far,Thomson Reuters predicts that an IPO in Hong Kong could raise $5 billion forlufax.
Biblio:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/lufax#/entity
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ping-an-ins-lufax-ipo-idUSKCN11T0TB
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-26/lufax-ceo-says-ipo-is-probably-a-year-away-amid-market-tumult
Formerly known as the Meituan Group, thecompany is the world’s largest O2O lifestyle services e-commerce platform andis behind China’s hugely popular Meituan food delivery and group buying websiteapp and the daily deals platform app Dianping. As of June 2016 the company hasapproximately 600 million users and has accumulated over 20 million points ofinterest across China.
In January of this year the companycompleted its Series B financing of USD $3.3 billion, an earth-shattering dealthat became the largest private fundraising in China’s internet industry aswell as the world’s largest fundraising round in O2O.
Biblio:
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=114128173
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/internet-plus-holdings-to-form-strategic-cooperation-with-china-resources-300301893.html
DJI Innovations is the bees knees whenit comes to drones as the world’s leading consumer drone producer according tothe Economist. In 2015 the start-up accounted for 70% of the drone market.
Over the past year the start-up isopening bricks and mortar stores across China and South Korea in order to makea name for itself as a consumer drone.
However DJI has new competitors on theblock from Xiaomi and Wechat (to name a few) who have also released their ownconsumer drones. Xiaomi’s new drone is set at a dramatically cheaper price thanDJI’s equivalent model whilst Tencent has launched a WeChat partnered livestream video drone that is the cheapest out of both competitors making DJI themost expensive out of the 3. Additionally, GoPro has also launched its ownconsumer video drone.
However, according to most droneindustry analysts, DJI is still the most innovative company in the consumerdrone industry, and it’s large model range and strong brand name makes it theleader of the pack. For example, the company has introduced a new agriculturaldrone on November of this year to help diversify its product range beyondconsumer goods. The global consumer drone industry itself is set to grow to $37billion by 2022, of which DJI is expected to take a large sector according toForbes.
Biblio:
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21647981-chinese-firm-has-taken-lead-promising-market-up
https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-drone-tencent-ying-launch
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/28/13088086/here-comes-china-silicon-valley
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2016/05/12/chinas-flood-of-cheap-flying-cameras-is-little-threat-to-dajiang/#24764ee47044
The first of its kind, Zhong AnInsurance is an insurance company, which has disrupted the traditional ways ofselling insurance by selling their insurance premiums solely online. Thestart-up specializes in selling a wide-range of traditional and non-traditionalpolicies. It sells online business and property insurance as well off-beat andquirky insurance policies such as it “high heat” policy which reimbursescustomers of the temperature reaches 37 degrees.
Since its founding in 2013 the companyhas sold 5.8 billion insurance policies and $ RMB 8 billion in total assets;not bad for a 3 year-old insurance company. Recently Zhongan it has begunconsidering an IPO within the next 12-18 months with Hong Kong and the US beingits two top picks.
Biblio:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zhongan#/entity
https://www.ft.com/content/bee51a52-accd-11e6-9cb3-bb8207902122
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-29/ant-financial-tencent-backed-zhongan-favors-ipo-in-hong-kong
If you take a walk down a street in anybig city in China you will probably find a Lianjia store. The startup is aagency service provider for Online-2-Offline real estate. It’s active in 22 ofChina’s major cities and has used a mixed offline-online approach to theproperty market to set itself apart from the wide range of online real estateagents in China.
Lianjia, like many other unicorns iseyeing an IPO in China, Hong Kong, or the US and received a $926 million SeriesB funding round back in April. The real estate company is also swimming inprofits after it recorded revenues of RMB 15.5 billion in 2015.
Ele.me has taken China by storm and maybe the reason that restaurants are more empty these days. The start-up is anon-demand platform that offers customer-to-customer meal ordering services.Users can order a meal from their favourite restaurant and have it delivered totheir door within an hour.
As of June 2016 business has beenbooming after the start-up announced it was delivering more than 5 millionorders per day. It is currently based in more than 700 Chinese cities and allegedlyhas a user base of 70 million. To get this far the start-up has had a greatdeal of help including a receiving an eye-watering $1.25 billion in fundraisingfrom Alibaba.
Biblio:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/18/alibaba-confirms-1-25b-investment-in-food-delivery-service-ele-me/
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ele-me
This largely unknown company producesthe world’s most flexible electronic screen displays for consumer electronics,computing, solar, and automotive goods. From small-size flexible panels forhandheld electronics to huge screens with high-resolution panels Royole’sbusiness puts electronic displays front and centre.
In 2014 Royole broke records by creatingthe world’s thinnest flexible full-color AMOLED screen display with a thicknessof 0.01 mm.
Recently the company received $80million in series Pre-D funding which it hopes to direct into research anddevelopment.
Biblio:
https://www.techinasia.com/new-startup-unicorns-2016
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/royole-corporation-receives-80m-in-series-pre-d-funding-with-3b-market-valuation-300363002.html
Once the darling of China’s onlineapparel and lifestyle market, VANCL has been falling off the radar in recentyears. From it’s heydays in 2011, inventory issues have led to a decline inbusiness from 7.7% of China’s online apparel market in 2011 to just 2% in 2015.
Issues with margins and management ofits inventory have seen VANCL dwindle in relevance as rivals JD.com and VIPShoptake the lead.
Biblio:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-15/china-s-tech-unicorns-look-increasingly-cursed
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vancl#/entity
A little known brand even within China,Huimin is a convenience store Online-2-Offline start-up which operates 450,000convenience stores across China. Additionally, the company also has its ownlogistics infrastructure (equipped with 50 delivery centres) and maintains asupply chain and delivery service for other convenience stores that connectsstores with suppliers. Through a specially designed app, convenience storeowners can manage their inventories more efficiently and order supplies fromHuimin.
Although it has been flying under theradar, Huimin has been having a ball raising $192 million in series B fundingthis year whilst also cracking $1.5 billion in sales as of August of this year.
Biblio:
https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2016/11/03/chinese-convenience-store-o2o-player-huimin-raises-192m-in-series-b-round
http://www.sramanamitra.com/2016/10/11/billion-dollar-unicorns-online-to-offline-focus-helps-huimin-enter-the-club/
A simple app that makes user’s look palerand slimmer, Meitu has gone on to greater things since its humble beginnings in2008, opening up many other apps over the years. Much like SnapChat is to therest of the world, Meitu is a photo-editing and sharing app used in Asia thatnow has a user base of 456 million users with 6 billion photos being sent everymonth.
Several days ago, Meitu broke the bankwith an IPO in Hong Kong that valued the start-up at $4.6 billion. Meitu’sshares will start trading in Hong Kong from the 15th of December. However Meituhas been struggling since 2013 and posted a loss of $320 million for the first6 months of 2016.
Biblio:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/14/technology/meitu-selfie-app-ipo-china/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/business/dealbook/meitu-beauty-app-ipo.html?_r=0
The Trendy International Group is aChinese multi-fashion powerhouse brand selling both men and women’s casual andfashion apparel. It has 4 brands in the Chinese market including Ochirly andFive Plus and owns stores in most major shopping centres in China.
This year the Group was seeking an IPOtowards the end of the year however this IPO has since been delayed. Still, thestart-up expects to seek a valuation of $ 5 billion with an IPO in either Chinaor Hong Kong.
Biblio:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-22/miss-sixty-s-chinese-owner-said-to-plan-ipo-at-5-billion-value
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/trendy-international-group#/entity
Weiying took a simple idea and managedto make a unicorn out of it. The start-up began with a simple movie ticketbooking platform within WeChat and has since exploded its business to cover awide range of other services and apps based on buying and selling sport sandentertainment tickets to users.
In April of this year, the companymanaged to raise $694 million in a post-Series C round of fundraising withbacking from web giant Tencent Holdings to boot. Weiying is so cash strappedthat is has recently combined with Tencent Holdings to invest $55 million ofits own capital (along with $30 million from Tencent) into YG Entertainment,the Korean K-pop company and record label of PSY.
Biblio:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7393377/tencent-weiying-invest-85-million-yg-entertainment
http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/38963-38963/
The fastest rising healthcare start-upunicorn in China, Guaho.com is a “ministry of health”-approved platform formedical guidance and health consultation in China. It also happens to be aworld-leading mobile medical service platform, the first of its kind. The appconnects patients with hospitals and doctors to give users efficient access tohealthcare services without having to wait in China’s notorious hospitalqueues. At present it has 1600 hospitals, 190,000 specialist doctors, and 100million users on its platforms.
Recently, the startup is looking totakeover the whole of China with a national online platform for diagnosis andtreatment and 5 surgeries that will work with China’s best medical companies.The company is also making it rain after receiving $495 million in funding frominvestors early this year. However companies such as Alibaba and Tencent havebegun investing in healthcare rivals such as Wanliyun Medical InformationTechnology in a bid to kick start the healthtech industry.
Biblio:
http://www.sramanamitra.com/2016/06/17/billion-dollar-unicorns-guahao-targets-chinas-healthcare/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chevybeh/2016/10/03/why-asias-healthcare-startups-dont-need-vc-to-disrupt-the-market/#3b5d75f3237b
Although China seems to be swamped bycountless online eCommerce marketplaces, Koudai sets itself apart as anintelligent online shopping software which analyses users’ shopping preferencesin order to recommend targeted products. The startup sells everything fromclothing, electronics, to food.
The company has not been making wavesrecently, however, ever since it received a $350 million Series C funding backin 2014.
Biblio:
https://www.techinasia.com/chinese-mobile-shopping-app-secures-350m-led-tencent-pose-biggest-threat-alibaba
With a burgeoning middle-class, China’swealthy are increasing their interest in alcohol and startups like Jiuxian arecapitalising on the Chinese market’s thirst for foreign wine, whilst alsoproviding the Chinese alcoholic staple “baijiu”. Jiuxian is an online eCommerceplatform that focuses on importing high-grade wine. The startup sells about10,000 alcoholic beverages and casts its net over 260 of Chinese cities.
Recently, Jiuxian has begun raisingfunds to buy a Bordeaux chateau worth 10 million euros.
Biblio:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/winebibber#/entity
https://www.decanterchina.com/en/news/chinese-online-liquor-retailer-jiuxian-set-to-boost-imported-wine-business
For top-tier professional and high-endcareer development, Liepin is the leading platform in China connectingemployers to headhunters and managers filling top jobs across the nation.Instead of operating like Seek with an online information distribution model,Liepin focuses on paid and offline services to customers.
Liepin has started to expand globallyand recently held its first career fair in the US in the hops of findingChinese talent in the US. Recently Liepin has close a $100 million Series Dfundraising Round in June of this year despite a slowdown in the Chinese VCmarket.
Biblio:
http://www.sramanamitra.com/2016/09/01/billion-dollar-unicorns-liepin-chinas-homegrown-recruitment-platform/
http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/china-digest-broadlink-raises-10-5m-liepin-gets-100m-growingio-bags-20m-45763/
https://www.techinasia.com/new-startup-unicorns-2016
Miaopai is a Chinese video app similarto Vine. Formerly known as Xuanyixia, the startup runs a video app that notonly films short videos but also manages live streaming. The app boasts 70million daily active users with users viewing 2.5 billion videos on theplatform each day.
Last month, the app also raised $500million in funding recently to shoot the app further above the clouds.
Biblio:
https://www.techinasia.com/china-miaopai-500million-funding-weibo
http://www.allchinatech.com/unicorn-startups-of-2015/
Although fairly low-key, the startup isone of the world’s leading Android app developers with 920 million users acrossthe globe, with much of its user base in India. APUS is known to geeks aroundthe world for its Android-complimenting APUS User System, which is a suite ofproducts for online searches, messenger centres, and browsers.
The company has also received $116million in two rounds of investments. In 2015 the APUS Group made headlineswhen it launched a $45 million investment fund for tech startups in India.
In terms of revenue, APUS’s fire isburning hot after it reached $15 million in revenue as of June 2016.
Biblio:
https://yourstory.com/2016/08/apus-revenues-growth/
http://www.businessofapps.com/android-app-maker-apus-group-forecasts-revenue-to-surpass-70-million-this-year-bolstered-by-strong-user-growth/
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