China’s leading start-ups — from fintech and drone companies to vegetable-sourcers for restaurants — make up one of the world’s biggest pools of unlisted companies with billion-dollar valuations.
Like their peers in Silicon Valley, these “unicorns” bleed money in the aggressive battle to win market share. But their funding keeps flowing, and the latest way to cash out has given eager investors one more reason to pile in.
Even before Ant Financial’s headline-grabbing $150bn valuation last week, China’s government claimed the country was home to 168 unicorns worth a total $628bn. Independent assessments, though more modest, still demonstrate the sector’s scale: CB Insights, which does not include Ant in its rankings, rates China second worldwide with 64 businesses valued at $277bn against America’s 114 at almost $400bn.