Home  Contact Us
  Follow Us On:
 
Search:
Advertising Advertising Free Newsletter Free E-Newsletter
NEWS

10 Chinese unicorns you haven't heard of yet, but will soon enough
Published on: 2018-02-13
Share to
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 
These Chinese startups with valuations of more than £1 billion are on track to conquer markets in the west:
 
Zhihu

 
Zhihu, meaning “do you know?”, is a Chinese question-and-answer website, where questions are created, answered and edited by a community of 65 million registered users, 18.5 million of which are active daily. Between its launch in 2010 and 2016, the site has had six million questions asked and 23 million answers posted. Zhihu attracts Chinese-language internet users seeking expert knowledge and insight into wide-ranging topics. At the start of 2017, the company was valued at £750 million after attracting investment from Capital Today, Tencent, Sogou, SAIF Partners, Qiming Venture Partners, and Sinovation Ventures.

VIPKID

 
VIPKID’s founder, Cindy Mi, wanted to reinvent the classroom for Chinese students. “The classroom as we know it has not really changed in 200 years,” she says. Her Beijing-based education startup provides students aged five to 12 in China with access to English-language teachers in North America, via one-on-one video sessions, at a level that matches top-tier schools in the US. Mi founded VIPKID in 2013, and it has since grown into a global virtual school of 200,000 students and 30,000 teachers. In August 2017, it reached unicorn status with a valuation of £1.12 billion after a £562 million investment round led by Sequoia Capital China and Tencent Holdings. Mi predicts more growth: “We expect to have one million students in 2019 and we’re growing at about 4,000-5,000 new teachers per month. We believe we’ll have ten million students in less than a decade.”
 
Tujia

 
Tujia is China’s answer to Airbnb. Co-founded in 2011 by CTO Melissa Yang and CEO Luo Jun, it successfully harnesses China’s growing tourism industry, which has been propelled by rising disposable incomes and government support for the sector. The site lists 300,000 properties in 345 locations around China, tailored to Chinese travellers. Private homes include the amenities you would find in a hotel: all properties are expected to have regular cleaning services, luxury villas come with a butler, and customers can choose to rent other items, such as bicycles, during their stay. The short-term property rental firm is the country’s biggest, and is valued at more than £1.12 billion. The latest investment round raised £225 million from Chinese travel agent Ctrip.com, All-Stars Investment, China Renaissance’s New Economy Fund, and G Street Capital.
 
Cambricon

 
Cambricon is developing a brain-inspired processor chip that simulates human nerve cells and synapses to conduct deep learning. The Beijing-based startup, founded in 2016, was valued at £750 million in August following a commitment by the Chinese Academy of Sciences of £1.05 million for R&D. If successful, the chip will be the first processor to conduct deep learning by simulating human nerves. What sets the chips apart from existing neural networks that require thousands of GPU-based accelerators, is a more efficient design that uses less power. In 2016, it released its first chip, 1A, designed for smartphones, security surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, wearables and autonomous driving vehicles. The company, founded by brothers Chen Yunji and Chen Tianshi, has six investors, which includes Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund.
 
NetEase Cloud Music

 
NetEase Cloud Music launched in 2013 as a music streaming service where users could create playlists of their favourite songs and videos. It then added a social media aspect that encouraged listeners to learn about the music and performers, and engage with friends. The Beijing-based startup, founded by William Lei Ding, has since grown to unicorn status – it’s now valued at £870 million, attracting investment from China International Capital Corporation, Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary and Shanghai Media Group. As of April 2017, NetEase has 400 million users who have created around 600,000 playlists.
 
Meituan-Dianping

 
Meituan-Dianping is a little-known startup (at least in the west) that is best described as a mashup between Yelp, Groupon and Uber Eats. The company, formed through a 2015 merger, is now the world’s fourth most valuable tech firm, coming in at £22 billion. Its platform delivers food, provides reviews, sells groceries, clothes and movie tickets, and has proved attractive to investors such as Tencent Holdings and Sequoia Capital, who contributed to its latest £3 billion funding round.
 
NIO

 
Beijing-based NIO, formerly known as NextEV, manufactures smart, electric and autonomous vehicles. Beside making cars for consumers, the company also participates in the FIA Formula E Championship, the world’s first single-seater, all-electric racing series. Their NIO EP9 is a track-only, electric-powered, two-seater all-wheel drive supercar, which debuted in the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2016. In April 2017, NIO announced it would produce ten further EP9s for pre-order to public customers with £1.11 million to spare. Its concept car, scheduled for release in 2020, includes an AI digital assistant that learns and adapts to the needs of both driver and passenger. The auto-tech startup was founded by William Li in 2014, and it’s now valued at £2.16 billion, with backing from 24 mainly Chinese investors.
 
Xiaomi

 
Since its first handset release in August 2011, Xiaomi has become the world’s fifth-largest smartphone maker. The electronics company, which also designs, develops and sells laptops, mobile apps and smarthome devices, manufactured more than 60 million smartphones in 2014. That same year, Xiaomi was briefly the most valuable startup in the world – until it was surpassed by Uber. It’s currently third, behind Uber and Didi, with a valuation of £35 billion.
 
SenseTime

 
SenseTime is an AI startup that provides text, vehicle and face recognition to mobile internet financial services and security companies – and now, to Honda. The car manufacturer is focusing on AI and, in 2017, announced a partnership with SenseTime to power its autonomous cars in the future. The technology has also been used by Chinese authorities to track and capture suspects by identifying them using cameras in public spaces such as airports and at festivals. SenseTime was valued in July at £1.10 billion after raising a £307 million funding round through 19 investors, including Qualcomm, Star VC, IDG Capital and Infore Capital. Founded in 2014 by Xiaolan Xu, the startup is expected to expand overseas in the near future.
 
Mogujie

 
Mogujie has carved out a niche in the fashion e-commerce market by blending a social network with online shopping. Founded by Chen Qi in 2011, the app sells clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, make-up and beauty for young women, who interact by creating photo collages of the products they like. Hangzhou-based Mogujie targets young audiences in the western market and was officially launched in the US and Europe in 2015. Since then, the site has attracted 130 million users, with eight million active daily users. After its latest funding round, the company was valued at £1.27 billion.
 
Comments (0)Add Comment

Write comment

security code
Write the displayed characters


busy
    Subscription    |     Advertising    |     Contact Us    |
Address: Magnetic Plaza, Building A4, 6th Floor, Binshui Xi Dao.
Nankai District. 300381 TIANJIN. PR CHINA
Tel: +86 22 23917700
E-mail: webmaster@businesstianjin.com
Copyright 2024 BusinessTianjin.com. All rights reserved.