It’s not every day you hear about a unicorn prancing about in your neck of the woods. This week in Australia, a new one horned beast was spotted, with B2B cross border payments startup Airwallex crowned (or should I say horned) with the enviable title of fastest ever unicorn status downunder.
There are now 326 Unicorns in the world, according to CB insights, or I guess 327 now, given Airwallex’s announcement.
Fintech Unicorns are rarer than some others, occupying 4th place by category:
| Category | Count |
| Internet Software Services | 82 |
| Other | 45 |
| e-commerce | 44 |
| Fintech | 32 |
| Healthcare | 30 |
| On Demand | 23 |
| hardware | 14 |
| Social | 11 |
| Data Analytics | 11 |
| Auto Tech | 11 |
| Media | 8 |
| Travel Tech | 7 |
| Cybersecurity | 7 |
| dataanalytics | 1 |
The US dominates as the home country for Unicorns, followed by China, the UK and India, and then a very long tail.
| Country | Count |
| United States | 156 |
| China | 91 |
| United Kingdom | 17 |
| India | 13 |
| Germany | 8 |
| South Korea | 6 |
| Indonesia | 4 |
| France | 3 |
| Hong Kong | 3 |
| Israel | 3 |
| Switzerland | 3 |
| Brazil | 2 |
| Colombia | 2 |
| South Africa | 2 |
| Australia | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Estonia | 1 |
| Japan | 1 |
| Luxembourg | 1 |
| Malta | 1 |
| Nigeria | 1 |
| Philippines | 1 |
| Portugal | 1 |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Sweden | 1 |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 |
You’re most likely to be a Unicorn if your cap table contains SoftBank Group, Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China and Tiger Global Management. I cut funds with 1 or 2 Unicorns from the list.
| Funder | Count |
| SoftBank Group | 29 |
| Tencent Holdings | 29 |
| Sequoia Capital China | 21 |
| Tiger Global Management | 20 |
| Fidelity Investments | 19 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 18 |
| DST Global | 18 |
| Goldman Sachs | 16 |
| Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 16 |
| Sequoia Capital | 16 |
| Institutional Venture Partners | 15 |
| Tiger Global Management | 15 |
| GGV Capital | 14 |
| Google Ventures | 14 |
| Temasek Holdings | 14 |
| Sequoia Capital | 14 |
| Hillhouse Capital Management | 13 |
| Index Ventures | 13 |
| Baillie Gifford & Co. | 12 |
| Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. | 12 |
| Sequoia Capital China | 12 |
| Tencent Holdings | 12 |
| Wellington Management | 12 |
| GIC | 12 |
| Goldman Sachs | 12 |
| Accel | 11 |
| Coatue Management | 11 |
| Founders Fund | 11 |
| ICONIQ Capital | 11 |
| Khosla Ventures | 11 |
| T. Rowe Price | 11 |
| Accel | 11 |
| capitalG | 10 |
| General Atlantic | 10 |
| Alibaba Group | 10 |
| New Enterprise Associates | 9 |
| Qiming Venture Partners | 9 |
| Alibaba Group | 8 |
| Bessemer Venture Partners | 8 |
| J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. | 8 |
| Shunwei Capital Partners | 8 |
| Spark Capital | 8 |
| Y Combinator | 8 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 8 |
| General Atlantic | 8 |
| New Enterprise Associates | 8 |
| Battery Ventures | 7 |
| General Catalyst | 7 |
| IDG Capital | 7 |
| Insight Venture Partners | 7 |
| Morningside Venture Capital | 7 |
| IDG Capital | 7 |
| Ant Financial Services Group | 6 |
| CMC Capital Partners | 6 |
| Data Collective | 6 |
| Matrix Partners China | 6 |
| Sequoia Capital India | 6 |
| Yunfeng Capital | 6 |
| Qiming Venture Partners | 6 |
| Warburg Pincus | 6 |
| CDH Investments | 5 |
| Greylock Partners | 5 |
| Lightspeed Venture Partners | 5 |
| Redpoint Ventures | 5 |
| Ribbit Capital | 5 |
| Silver Lake Partners | 5 |
| Thrive Capital | 5 |
| Warburg Pincus | 5 |
| Baillie Gifford & Co. | 5 |
| T. Rowe Price | 5 |
| Temasek Holdings | 5 |
| Daimler | 4 |
| DCM Ventures | 4 |
| Greenoaks Capital Management | 4 |
| JD.com | 4 |
| JOY Capital | 4 |
| Legend Capital | 4 |
| Polaris Partners | 4 |
| Primavera Capital Group | 4 |
| Qualcomm Ventures | 4 |
| SIG Asia Investments | 4 |
| SoftBank Group | 4 |
| Source Code Capital | 4 |
| TPG Growth | 4 |
| Venrock | 4 |
| ZhenFund | 4 |
| Founders Fund | 4 |
| Lightspeed Venture Partners | 4 |
| Altos Ventures | 3 |
| Benchmark | 3 |
| BlackRock | 3 |
| Capital Today | 3 |
| CCB International | 3 |
| China International Capital Corporation | 3 |
| China Renaissance | 3 |
| DFJ | 3 |
| EDBI | 3 |
| FirstMark Capital | 3 |
| Foundry Group | 3 |
| Foxconn Technology Company | 3 |
| Gaorong Capital | 3 |
| Genesis Capital | 3 |
| GIC | 3 |
| H Capital | 3 |
| Intel Capital | 3 |
| K2VC | 3 |
| Matrix Partners | 3 |
| Ping An Insurance | 3 |
| Revolution | 3 |
| RRE Ventures | 3 |
| Shenzhen Capital Group | 3 |
| Silicon Valley Bank | 3 |
| True Ventures | 3 |
| Valor Equity Partners | 3 |
| Access Industries | 3 |
| GGV Capital | 3 |
| HSBC | 3 |
| Insight Venture Partners | 3 |
| J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. | 3 |
| Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 3 |
| Silver Lake Partners | 3 |
But if you’re chasing Fintech Unicorn Status, while Tencent and Sequoia Capital China are still a good name for the cap table, landing money from Accel, General Atlantic, ICONIQ Capital and Kleiner Perkins are the names to look for, compared to the general VC population.
| Name | Count |
| Sequoia Capital China | 5 |
| Tencent Holdings | 4 |
| Accel | 3 |
| General Atlantic | 3 |
| ICONIQ Capital | 3 |
| Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | 3 |
There is over $1 Trillion worth of value that’s been created in the birth of these Unicorns, for founders and shareholders. It would be fascinating to calculate what value has been delivered per dollar invested/created in productivity gains or cost savings for the community of users they serve.
Daily Fintech Advisers provides strategic consulting to organizations with business and investment interests in Fintech. Jessica Ellerm is a thought leader specializing in Small Business and the Gig Economy and is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zuper, a new superannuation startup in Australia.