China ranked second globally with a total of 301 unicorn companies, or startups valued at more than 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, according to a new report released by a Shanghai-based research institute.
This is massive progress as the kingdom aims to become a leading tech innovation globally and overtake the US, the jump is significant as compared with a year ago, as it just added 74 new unicorn companies to the list.
Globally, there are a total of 1,058 unicorn companies, up 80 percent year on year, the data showed, this shows how disruptive innovation is growing.
The United States topped the list with 487 unicorn companies in total, while India has surpassed Britain to grab the third spot with 54 startups.
Top unicorns in China include tech giant Bytedance, the parent company of video platform TikTok, and its Chinese sister app Douyin, which came in as the most valuable unicorn worldwide, with its valuation surging to about US 350 billion this year.
In terms of cities, Beijing is home to 91 unicorn companies in 2021, second largest in terms of the number of unicorns globally, while Shanghai ranked fourth with 71. Shenzhen maintained its fifth place with 32 unicorn companies.
