China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has announced the 2017 China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report (in Chinese) and the Zhongguancun Unicorn Enterprise Development Report. 164 companies have made the top unicorn list, with a total valuation of $628.4 billion. Ant Financial took the crown with a valuation at $75 billion. Didi Chuxing and Xiaomi were placed second and third with $56 billion and $46 billion valuation, respectively. Other unicorns in the top ten are Alibaba Cloud, Meituan-Dianping, CATL (宁德时代), Jinri Toutiao, Cainiao, Lufax (陆金所), Jiedaibao, many of which had a big jump in valuation in the past year. iQiyi, Shenzhou Zhuanche, ofo, and many other big-name startups have also made the list.
To no surprise, most unicorns come one of the five categories: e-commerce, internet finance, health, culture and entertainment, and logistics. And over 84% of the unicorns come from Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen.
Alibaba invested in most unicorns in 2017 among Chinese tech behemoths with a total of 29 startups making the list, followed by Tencent (26), Xiaomi (12), Baidu (8) and JD.com (4).
Sequoia Capital invested in 35 unicorns last year thereby winning the title of 2017’s “Best unicorn investor.” IDG, Matrix Partners China, and Qiming Venture Partners have also invested in a number of unicorns.
There are also a couple of “former unicorns” who went public last year and have graduated from the list, including China’s first online-only insurer Zhong An Online Property and Casualty Insurance, China’s e-book seller Zhangyue, and financing and loan services Rong360.
Other honorable mentions are WeBank, Ping An Healthcare, and Technology—gearing up for an IPO this year—Koubei, JD Finance, Ele.me, and automakers including WM Motor and NIO are among those who have reached the $5 billion valuation mark.