The United States and China are leading the “cheetah index” with 359 and 304 cheetah companies, together making up 71% of the world’s known cheetahs, startups most likely to “go unicorn” within five years, reaching a valuation of USD1 billion, according to the Hurun Research Institute. Based in 243 cities from 37 countries and regions, the research institute listed 928 cheetahs worldwide in the Hurun Future Unicorns: Global Cheetahs Index 2024, which was released in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. On average, the cheetahs were set up in 2016, with 66% of them selling software and services, led by fintech, biotech and health tech, followed by enterprise services, artificial intelligence (AI) and SaaS.
The companies mostly have a valuation of between USD300 million to USD500 million and are growing at an annual rate of about 20%. “Despite a marked slowdown, there is a vibrant startup ecosystem bubbling away under the surface,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report. China saw over 70 new cheetah companies in the past year, mainly in the fields of biotechnology, health technology, robotics, semiconductors and new energy, with 45 startups’ valuation upgraded, of which nine were upgraded to “unicorns”. Shanghai, with 68 companies, remains the first choice for global cheetahs. Other cities in China leading in the number of cheetah enterprises are Beijing with 56, ranking third globally, Shenzhen with 35, Hangzhou with 34 and Guangzhou with 26. Nansha, in the heart of the Greater Bay Area and widely considered to have some of the best policies and business environment for the development of high-growth industries in China, has seven companies included in the index. “The district provides a favorable environment for the development of high-growth industries, offering more support to emerging industries in areas such as technological research and development, industrial agglomeration, application scenarios and financial support,” said Hoogewerf.
The idea behind the cheetah index is to help them find more investors, strategic partners and service providers as well as encourage the founders to think bigger, grow faster and go further, according to Hoogewerf. “The cheetah is famous for being the fastest land animal, but can only run 400 meters at top speed, so if it does not catch its prey within that distance, then it will go hungry,” he said. “In much the same way, cheetahs in the index are some of the fastest-growing start-ups in the world, but they have to ‘catch their prey’ and hit their targets within a finite period”. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017 and future unicorns, or cheetahs, since 2020. It is the second year the institute has launched the index on a global level, the China Daily reports.
