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Unicorn, Decacorn or Hectocorn – Tipalti Uncovers Which Region Has the Most Billion-Dollar Companies

New research from Tipalti analysed the billion-dollar valued companies around the world to find out which countries and industries have the most, and most valuable, unicorns.

In the past year and a half 711 companies have joined the unicorn list, meaning that new entries account for almost 62 per cent of all unicorn companies. Thirteen of these can also call themselves ‘decacorn’ companies, meaning they have a value of over $10billion.

FTX is the most valuable new unicorn company, valued at $32billion. The Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange joined the unicorn club just under a year ago in July 2021. Cryptocurrency companies account for some of the newest unicorns, as OpenSea, KuCoin, and Alchemy all rank in the top 15 most valuable new decacorn companies.

The countries with the most unicorns

The majority of the new unicorns are from the United States, as 424 or just under 60 per cent are American, which is higher than the 53 per cent of companies that are American in the all-time list of unicorns. Contrastingly, Chinese companies make up around 15 per cent of all unicorn companies, but less than seven per cent of the new additions.

In the previous unicorn companies report, the US companies made up just under half (48 per cent) of the list, but now they are the majority, as around 54 per cent of the companies are American. 16 of the top 30 largest companies are from the US, including SpaceX, Stripe, and Instacart.

China still has the second-highest percentage of unicorn companies, but its share of the total has dropped from 24.30 per cent to 15.17 per cent. This is because there have only been 55 new Chinese companies joining the club since the start of 2021. Two of the three hectocorn ($100billion) companies are Chinese, with Bytedance and SHEIN ranking 1st and 3rd respectively.

The number of countries which have companies on the unicorn list has also increased, with 31 countries featuring in late 2020. This has increased to 47 today, but only 11 of them account for more than one per cent of the total number of unicorn companies.

The countries with the most unicorns
RankCountryNumber of Unicorn companiesNumber of Unicorn companies (%)
1United States61553.62%
2China17415.17%
3India655.67%
4United Kingdom433.75%
5Germany292.53%
6France242.09%
7Israel211.83%
8Canada191.66%
9Brazil171.48%
10Singapore131.13%
10South Korea13
1.13%
The industries with the most unicorns

The vast majority of unicorn companies are involved in some form of the technology industry, although there are companies from a massively varied number of sectors.

Fintech is still the industry with the most Unicorn companies, however, there are now 242 rather than 70. This means that 21.1 per cent of all unicorn companies are involved in fintech.

Internet software and services companies now account for the second-largest amount, with 217 (18.92 per cent) of all unicorns. E-commerce companies now only have the third-largest percentage of unicorn companies, with 10.03 per cent, down from 14.3 per cent two years ago.

List of industries with the most number of unicorn companies.
The World’s most valuable unicorns

The average value of all 1,147 Unicorn companies is $3billion. There are just 59 of them who fall into the decacorn club with values of over $10billion, and just three hectocorns with values over $100billion.

Rank

Company

Valuation

1

Bytedance

$140billion

2

SpaceX

$125billion

3

SHEIN

$100billion

4

Stripe

$95billion

5

Klarna

$45.6billion

6

Checkout.com

$40billion

6

Canva

$40billion

8

Instacart

$39billion

9

Databricks

$38billion

10

Revolut

$33billion

1 – Bytedance, valued at $140billion:

Bytedance has held its value since two years ago, and is still the most valuable company on the list, although its lead is dwindling. The Chinese tech company focuses on artificial intelligence and created the global social media giant TikTok.

2 – SpaceX, valued at $125billion:

SpaceX has leapt up in value over the past two years, previously it was just $46billion, but now it has increased by just under $80billion. It has moved up from third place to second in the rankings and is still the most valuable American unicorn company.

3 – SHEIN, valued at $100billion:

Another Chinese company is the only other with a 12-figure valuation, fast-fashion retailer SHEIN has jumped from 11th to 3rd place in the most valuable rankings.

Author

  • Francis is a journalist and our lead LatAm correspondent, with a BA in Classical Civilization, he has a specialist interest in North and South America.

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