The next stop on our technological journey to China is to explore the country’s innovation ecosystem. Here we will not touch on the topic of venture capital investments, as we discussed it in the previous article. However, we will find out the exact number of unicorns in China, their main habitats and study the activities of the Chinese government in the development of innovations.
MoreHere are some interesting points resulting from this study:
- There are fewer unicorn companies on the list compared to the previous period. One in eight fintech companies (13%) on the list are valued at at least $1 billion (as of their last round of funding). In 2018, the share of such companies was 15%.
- As of August 26, 2020, startups from the list have attracted funding in the amount of $10.3 billion based on the results of 120 deals ($22.9 billion for 247 deals in the previous reporting period).
- Since 2019, 87 mega-rounds (deals with an investment of more than $100 million) have been held, 35 of which were already this year.
- 54% of the companies represented in the top are based in the United States. The UK takes second place with 38 companies, followed by India represented by 20 startups from the Fintech 250 list.
- According to CB Insights, the most active investor in fintech companies is Ribbit Capital. Since 2018, Ribbit has been involved in 45 deals with companies such as Hippo, Nubank, Upgrade, Robinhood, and BharatPe.
- CB Insights gives the title “Deal of 2020” to Grab, which raised $856 million in the first quarter of 2020 with the participation of such investors as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and TIS INTEC Group.
- Analysts drew attention to the outstanding success of Grab, which has raised about $9.7 billion since 2014 in 22 rounds.
Read more about the study at the website.