Cracking the code of Southeast Asia’s unicorn founders

What kind of person creates a unicorn?

We’re not talking about the mythical creatures of legend, but startups with a valuation of US$1 billion or more.

We wanted to determine the demographics of the entrepreneurs who have guided their startups to unicorn status in Southeast Asia. For this, we analyzed the commonalities and differences in their path: Where did they study? Did they launch their company at home or abroad? What was their working life before they dove into the startup ecosystem?

To do so, we cross-referenced this list of Southeast Asia’s unicorns with publicly available biographical information on their founders from sources such as LinkedIn. The results include 79 founders or co-founders of the region’s 38 unicorns.

Before we dive in, here are some caveats on the data:

• Publicly listed companies, decacorns (companies valued north of US$10 billion), and acquired firms have been excluded from the dataset.
• Valuations of startups are based on data from Alternatives.pe and other publicly available sources as per the startups’ latest funding rounds.
• Employment and education history on LinkedIn is self-reported, so by nature it may not be 100% accurate.

Global citizens

Unsurprisingly, in our increasingly connected world, Southeast Asia’s unicorn founders are global citizens. A total of 54% come from a Southeast Asian country, and 79% are within the broader Asia-Pacific region.

Of the founders on our list, 52% launched a unicorn that is headquartered somewhere other than their country of origin.

In terms of education, 51% studied overseas at one point.

From those who studied abroad, a large majority did so in the US.

Is there a substitute for experience?

The region’s unicorn founders are a highly educated bunch. Nearly 60% of them have a postgraduate qualification.

That said, few have worked for a large bank, tech company, or consulting firm prior to launching their startup, with just 38% having such prior work experience on their CV.

Reflecting the nascency of the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, a hefty 70% were first-time founders. This also indicates that experience is no barrier to entry into the unicorn club.