CB Insights recently posted its list of 197 world unicorns, also known as a private company valuing more than USD 1 billion. Here is the top 10 unicorn companies in China that AllChinaTech has picked by valuation from CB Insights’ list.
Didi Chuxing
Founded in: 2012
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: USD 5.5 billion in pre-IPO financing in April 2017
Didi Chuxing is China’s largest ride-hailing app and possessed 93.1% of the market share in August last year when it acquired Uber China.
The app has attracted 400 million users and offered services including taxi hailing, private car hailing, car pooling, car rental, and so on. In 2016, as many as 20 million rides were completed on DiDi on a daily basis.
Xiaomi
Founded in: 2010
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: undisclosed Series E round in April 2015
Xiaomi is founded by veteran engineer Lei Jun, who was previously the CEO of office software giant Kingsoft.
Xiaomi started its business by manufacturing smartphones at extremely low cost performance ratios and coined the term “Xingneng Guaishou”, which literally means “performance monster”. Its first batch of users are geeks and hardcore gadget buyers who are attracted to these high tech performance parts. Over the last few years, the company gradually added more products such as smart televisions, air purifiers, and e-scooters to its line.
Lu.com
Founded in: 2011
Headquarters: Shanghai
Financing status: USD 1.2 billion Series B round in January 2016
Shanghai is the financial center of China, and Lujiazui is the financial center of Shanghai. Lu.com is a fintech company based in Lujiazui, offering peer-to-peer personal loan services to its users.
Its latest investors include BlackPine Private Equity Partners, CDH Investments and China International Capital Corporation’s private equity division, according to a news release featured on Lu.com.
Meituan Dianping
Founded in: 2010
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: Undisclosed financing round of more than USD 100 million in July 2016
Meituan Dianping, or China Internet Plus Holdings Ltd (CIP), was formed when group buying platform Meituan and Dianping, also known as China’s Yelp, announced their merger in October 2015.
After that, the new company enjoyed 80 percent of China’s group purchasing market, and became the biggest online-to-offline company in China.
Toutiao
Founded in: 2012
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: USD 1 billion Series D round in April 2017
Toutiao is a Flipboard-like news aggregator app that recommends news content using computer algorithms based on deep learning and data mining technology. When you read Toutiao, Toutiao also reads you, keeping track of your browsing history, your clicks, your comments, and time spent on every article.
The company claimed that it had more than 47 million daily active users in May 2016, having served more than 480 million users. It was valued at USD 500 million when it closed a Series C financing round worth USD 100 million, as reported by Tencent Tech in June.
DJI
Founded in: 2006
Headquarters: Shenzhen
Financing status: USD 75 million Series C round in May 2015
This company is a world leader in camera drones and quadcopters, taking up 70 percent of the global consumer drone market. It has up to 3,000 employees in its Shenzhen headquarters and has branched out to Beijing, Hong Kong, the U.S., Germany and Japan.
Its official website says it now makes different types of drones that can be used in aerial photography, filmmaking, agriculture, search and rescue, energy infrastructure, remote sensing mapping and more.
Zhong An Insurance
Founded in: 2013
Headquarters: Shanghai
Financing status: USD 934 million Series A round in June 2015
This online insurance provider offers more than 200 insurance products and has written over 3.6 billion policies for over 300 million customers by the end of 2015. It is the first company that obtained an internet insurance license in China.
Zhong An Insurance is backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, top Internet company Tencent and leading insurance provider Ping An.
Lianjia
Founded in: 2001
Headquarters: Beijing
Financing status: RMB 3 billion (USD 441 million) Series D round in April 2017
Lianjia – or Homelink – is China’s leading real estate service platform. It has expanded its network to large Chinese cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu via acquisitions and investments.
As of April 2016, it has covered 24 cities with 5,000 physical stores and 100,000 agents, achieving an annual Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) of RMB 709 billion.
Meizu Technology
Founded in: 2003
Headquarters: Shenzhen
Financing status: RMB 200 million (USD 29 million) Series B round in October 2016
Meizu started manufacturing MP3 players before it transformed itself to a smartphone company in 2007.
In February 2015, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba bought shares in Meizu for USD 590 million to promote its “YunOS” operating system. Meizu sold more than 20 million phones in 2015.
Ele.me
Founded in: 2008
Headquarters: Shanghai
Financing status: RMB 1.25 billion (USD 285 million) Series F round in April 2016
Alibaba-backed Ele.me is a leading Chinese food delivery app. According to data released in December 2015 by Ele.me, its daily transaction volume has amounted to RMB 100 million with more than 3.3 million daily orders by the end of 2015.
According to Zhang Xuhao, CEO of Ele.me, the company has covered 1,000 cities in China and has a user base of 70 million people. Domestically, it competes with Meituan-Dianping and Baidu Delivery in food delivery.
(Top photo from Pixabay.com)