The International Unicorn Club: 106 Private Companies Outside The US Valued At $1B+

Today’s global unicorn club is comprised of 214 private companies that are each valued at $1B+. Collectively, this cohort of the world’s most valuable private enterprises is worth approximately $745B.

The lion’s share of that value is held by companies that are located in the US. In fact, just over 50% of the world’s unicorn companies are located in the US, and US unicorns comprise 51% of the cumulative valuation of the global unicorn club.

However, in recent years, more and more unicorns have been popping up outside of the US. In 2014, 37% of all companies that achieved their first $1B+ valuation were based outside the US. In 2015 that number rose to 53%, and last year rose again to 58%. So far in 2017, there have been 42 companies added to the global unicorn club; of those, 24 are based outside of the US.

Using CB Insights data, we mapped the locations of private companies currently valued at $1B+ that are based outside of the US. We also charted the share of unicorns that have been added to the club each year since 2013 by location (US vs. non-US).

See the map and full list of all non-US unicorns, their select investors, and the date each reached unicorn status below.

Please click to enlarge. 

In 2013, over 70% of companies that achieved unicorn status were US-based. Each year since 2013 – 2016, that share of unicorns has gone down, and last year, less than half of the unicorns added to the club (42%) were based in the US.

This year to date, the most highly valued non-US based companies to reach unicorn status include China-based companies Toutiao (most recently valued at $11B), Mobike ($3B), NIO ($2.9B), and e-shang Redwood ($2B), Germany-based Otto Bock healthcare ($3.5B), and the first ever Maltese unicorn, VistaJet ($2.5B).

unicorns by country 

Outside the US, China has far and away the greatest number of private unicorn companies, at 55 total. The country is also home to the world’s top 3 most highly valued private non-US companies, led by $50B ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing. Rounding out the top 3 are electronics company Xiaomi ($46B) and online lending platform Lu.com ($18.5B).

Following China, the most unicorn-rich countries are India and the UK, respectively. No “Other” country takes more than 2% of the world’s unicorns located outside the US.

At present, there are 3 unicorns in Africa: Africa Internet Group in Nigeria and Promasidor Holdings and Cell C in South Africa. There are also 3 unicorns in the Middle East (ironSource and Infinidat in Israel, and Careem in the United Arab Emirates), and 2 in South America (LifeMiles in Colombia and Decolar in Argentina).

Outside of the US and China, the most valuable private companies are the Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart (most recently valued at $11.6B), followed by music streaming service Spotify in Sweden ($8.5B) and daily deal site Snapdeal in India ($7B).

Companies list