241 Chinese companies named cheetahs: Hurun report

Business magazine Hurun released its latest China cheetahs 2022 half-year report on Tuesday, with 241 companies claiming spots by June 30, increasing 19 from six months ago.

The list collected startups that were set up after the year of 2000 and have great opportunity to go "unicorn", which means hit a valuation of $1 billion, within five years. Currently, the cheetahs normally have a valuation of between $300 million and $500 million.

These cheetahs come from 30 Chinese cities, mainly in Shanghai (54 cheetahs), Beijing (49 cheetahs), Shenzhen (30 cheetahs), as well as Hangzhou (30 cheetahs), that are engaged in biotech, healthtech, enterprise services and e-commerce industries.

Among these cheetahs, 53 percent offer software or similar services, 47 percent sell physical products, and 71 percent are B2B companies.

According to the Hurun report, 3 cheetahs have directly become unicorn companies, and 18 cheetahs have become gazelle companies, or high-growth companies, last year, which shows fast growth.

A city with more cheetah companies is more likely to also have more gazelle and unicorn companies, which means the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem is more complete, said the Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf.

Hoogewerf said that he hoped the list would help young entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs under 30, to find role models for their businesses and help young people understand which cities in China have a better startup environment.