Pitchbook, the private equity data provider, is out with a fascinating new look at the companies headquartered in China with a valuation of $1 billion or more. These companies are entities that surpassed the $1 billion valuation mark sometime in 2018.
Before looking, take a guess at which companies you think would show up on the list? How many companies would you guess show up on the list? Just a couple or hundreds?
If you don’t know the names of companies headquartered in China, take a guess at which sectors companies headquartered in China would achieve billion dollar status. Would you guess most of the companies are tech companies? Perhaps personal services companies? Perhaps financial services companies? Take your last guess, because Pitchbook’s data follows.
The List
The list follows. Interestingly, the top spot is a company most readers here have probably never heard of – Meicai. Meicai provides an e-commerce platform designed for farmers and restaurants. Bet you didn’t see that one on top of your list! Meicai reached unicorn status on January 11, 2018, with a valuation of $2.8 billion and raising $477 million on the funding round.
In second place is Caocao Zhuanche. Founded in 2015, Caocao Zhuanche offers transportation services that create zero emissions and zero pollution, with the help of an electric vehicle. The company was worth an estimated $1.6 billion in its latest funding round of $380 million.
In third place is Douyu. Douyu provides a service similar to Youtube, offering a live-stream platform designed to share and add commentary videos. Amazingly, the company raised $1.1 billion March 8, 2018, giving the company a value of $1.5 billion.
In fourth place is Qutoutiao. Qutoutiao offers customers a personalized news recommendation intended for light reading. The company was founded in just 2016, and as of March 15, 2018, had a valuation of $1.6 billion on a $200 million funding round.
Rounding out the top five is Youxia, with an estimated valuation as of March 31, 2018 of $1.9 billion on a funding round of $975 million.
The other seven members of the “China Group of 12” include Cambricon ($2.5 billion valuation), Youdao ($1.11 billion valuation), Jollychic ($1.0 billion valuation), Luckin Coffee ($1.0 billion valuation), Babytree ($2.2 billion valuation), Bitmain ($12.0 billion valuation), and LinkDoc ($1.0 billion valuation).
Source: Pitchbook
Conclusion
Overall, the private equity and venture capital business in China is growing, as evidenced by list of companies headquartered in China that have achieved unicorn status since the start of 2018. In total, 12 China-based companies have grown to a valuation of $1 billion or more this year so far. Presuming the global economy continues to grow and China continues to be a partial leader of that growth, there’s no doubt that this list will become larger in the coming years.
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