Shanghai tops 2024 Hurun list with 68 cheetah companies

english.shanghai.gov.cn| December 20, 2024
Shanghai remains the first choice for global cheetahs..png
A view of Lujiazui, the financial center in Shanghai. [Photo/VCG]

Shanghai has emerged as the leading city for global cheetah companies, with 68 enterprises making the Hurun Future Unicorns — Global Cheetahs Index 2024, released on Dec 18.

Cheetah companies are defined as high-growth firms founded after 2000 that are most likely to achieve unicorn status, with a valuation of $1 billion, within the next five years.

After Shanghai, San Francisco ranked second with 65 companies, followed by Beijing with 56, New York with 39, and Shenzhen with 35.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is home to 68 cheetah companies, surpassing the combined total of the United Kingdom and France. Within the region, Guangzhou ranked eighth globally with 26 companies.

This year's list identified 928 cheetah companies worldwide. The report revealed that the average age of Hurun cheetah companies is just 8 years, with an average valuation of $400 million.

Biotechnology and health technology are the most popular sectors for global cheetah companies, with 144 and 123 enterprises, respectively, followed by fintech, artificial intelligence, and enterprise services. In addition, over a quarter of global cheetah companies have adopted AI as part of their core products.

China ranked second globally with 304 enterprises, up 4 percent from the previous year.

China and the United States, which is home to 359 companies of its own, combine to account for 71 percent of the global total.

China saw the addition of over 70 new cheetah companies in the past year, primarily in the fields of biotechnology, health technology, robotics, semiconductors, and new energy.