Recently, the Hurun Research Institute has released the Global Unicorn Index 2023, a ranking of the world's non-listed start-ups founded in the 2000s, worth at least 1 billion U.S. dollars each. 316 Chinese enterprises are on the list, with a total valuation of nearly 9 trillion yuan. 93 invested enterprises of Shanghai Sci-tech Capital (SSC) were selected into the list, accounting for 29% of the Chinese unicorns on the list, and they registered a total valuation of 2.74 trillion yuan, accounting for 30% of the total valuation of the Chinese unicorns on the list. 11 enterprises with direct investment from SSC also made the list, including JD Industrial Products, Zhaoxin Semiconductor, Yitu Technology, Rong Semiconductor, SemiDrive, Sensors Data, BYD Semiconductor, Metax, i-Space, Keenon and SJ Semiconductor.

    According to statistics, there had been a total of 1,361 unicorns in the world by late 2022, based in 48 countries and 271 cities. These unicorns are valued at 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars in total; 79% of them sell software and service, mainly from the sectors of fintech, SaaS, e-commerce and AI; and 21% of them sell physical products, mainly from the sectors of new energy, biotech, food & beverage and semiconductor.

    In terms of locations, the U.S. leads with 666 unicorns, up 179 from the previous year; China is ranked second with 316, up 15; and 379 are in the rest of the world. In terms of cities, San Francisco remains the world's unicorn capital with 181 unicorns, up 30 from the previous year, followed by New York with 126, up 41; Beijing with 79, down 12; Shanghai with 66; London with 42; Bangalore and Shenzhen with 33 apiece.

    In terms of industries, fintech, with 171 unicorns, is the industry with the most unicorns, followed by SaaS (136), e-commerce (120) and AI (105). In terms of the number of unicorns, the fastest-growing industry is fintech, followed by enterprise services, blockchain, logistics, cyber security and AI.

    Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, "The three years since COVID began have been the most dynamic years in history when it comes to unicorns, with the world minting one unicorn every day for the past three years to take the total of known unicorns in the world to over 1,360. Despite the slowdown in the economy, the world has minted over 500 new unicorns in the past year, just under ten a week."

    List of the SSC-invested enterprise on Global Unicorn Index 2023:

    SSC is a market-oriented FoF initiated by SIG according to the plan of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. Its key investors include Guosheng Group, SIPG, Guotai Junan Securities, Shanghai Trust, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, China Pacific Insurance Group, Jiading State-Owned Assets Group, etc. With the mission of serving the building of Shanghai Sci-tech Innovation Center, it has a target scale of 30 billion yuan and now has over 12 billion yuan under management.

    SSC has invested in more than 70 sub-funds to date, with a total contract amount of over 200 billion yuan, covering over 2,000 enterprises. Among the invested enterprises, 101 have been listed, including 59 listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and nearly 100 have been approved. Over 100 SSC-invested enterprises plan to apply for listing in the coming year or two.