This year’s new herd of unicorns

2017 saw its fair share of new unicorns in Asia – up by three from last year. Out of the 19 companies that crossed the US$1 billion threshold, almost all hailed from China, according to data from Tech in Asia’s database.

Only three companies broke from the herd: Indonesian ecommerce company Bukalapak, Japanese AI startup Preferred Networks, and Revolution Precrafted, a startup in the Philippines that sells prefabricated homes – and the country’s first-ever unicorn.

“The unicorn landscape has changed tremendously from five years ago, when it was the US and Europe producing billion-dollar companies. Today, China is quickly catching up to the US and has far surpassed Europe,” said Arik Speier, head of technology at KPMG Israel, in the consulting firm’s third quarter report on global venture capital trends.

Here are all the new Asian unicorns from 2017, grouped by vertical and product category:

Transportation

1. NIO

Following the collapse of Tesla wannabe Faraday Future – bankrolled by former billionaire Jia Yueting – NIO has taken over as China’s rising electric car company.

See: How Jia Yueting almost ran LeEco into the ground 

Backed by Tencent, Baidu, and Sequoia Capital, NIO (previously known as NextEV) is also entering the self-driving space. By 2020, the startup plans to launch fully autonomous cars.

This year, NIO made a slew of announcements, from Eve – its autonomous concept car – to a showroom in Beijing that also doubles as a private club space for NIO users. In December, the company also launched the ES8 – NIO’s answer to Tesla’s Model X.

2. Mobike

One of the leading bike-rental startups in China, Mobike is flush with capital from investors like Tencent, Sequoia Capital, and Temasek. That’s important as bike companies figure out their business model – so far a mix of advertising and rental fees.

See: Shock as $140m bike-share startup on the verge of collapse – and its CEO has gone AWOL3. Ofo

Real estate

Artificial intelligence and big data

Education

Media

See: China’s most addictive news app Toutiao eyes world domination with AI feeds 

Ecommerce

See: Bukalapak CEO: Our rivals may have a ton of money, but we’re ‘the most efficient’ 

Social media

Fintech