Switzerland ranks among best countries for unicorn startups in the world
Money.co.uk can reveal that Switzerland is the 15th best country in the world for unicorn start-ups. With 5 businesses currently valued at over $1bn, it has taken Switzerland’s unicorn businesses an average of 14 years and 11 months to reach the valuation of $1bn.
For more information about Switzerland’s unicorn businesses, please see the spreadsheet in the Dropbox folder linked below titled ‘Money.co.uk Unicorn Businesses – Countries’.
Countries overview:
| Country | Total number of unicorn companies | Average years taken to reach $1B | |
| #1 | China | 155 | 5 years, 10 months |
| #2 | Hong Kong | 5 | 6 years, 1 month |
| #3 | Japan | 6 | 6 years, 3 months |
| =#4 | USA | 378 | 6 years, 11 months |
| =#4 | Singapore | 6 | 6 years, 11 months |
| =#4 | Australia | 6 | 6 years, 11 months |
| #7 | Israel | 17 | 7 years, 3 months |
| #8 | France | 16 | 8 years, 3 months |
| #9 | UK | 31 | 8 years, 7 months |
| #10 | India | 34 | 8 years, 9 months |
| #11 | Brazil | 12 | 8 years, 10 months |
| #12 | Canada | 12 | 10 years, 9 months |
| #13 | South Korea | 10 | 10 years, 10 months |
| #14 | Germany | 16 | 11 years, 5 months |
| #15 | Switzerland | 5 | 14 years, 11 months |
The country that produces the start-ups which reach a $1bn valuation fastest is China, with its 155 unicorn companies taking an average of just 5 years and 10 months to reach $1bn.
The second fastest country for unicorn businesses to reach $1bn is Hong Kong, whose businesses take an average of 6 years and 1 month, followed by Japan’s which take an average of 6 years and 3 months.
Fourth spot is taken by the USA, Singapore, and Australia, whose unicorn companies all took an average of 6 years and 11 months to reach $1bn.
The country that produces the most unicorn businesses is the USA (378 businesses), followed by China (155), and India (34).
Sectors overview:
| Sector | Total number of unicorn companies | Average years taken to reach $1B | |
| #1 | Auto & Transportation | 31 | 4 years, 5 months |
| #2 | Artificial Intelligence | 62 | 5 years, 6 months |
| #3 | Hardware | 27 | 5 years, 7 months |
| =#4 | Mobile & Telecommunications | 35 | 6 years, 4 months |
| =#4 | E-Commerce & Direct-to-Consumer | 82 | 6 years, 4 months |
| =#6 | Supply Chain, Logistics & Delivery | 42 | 6 years, 11 months |
| =#6 | Cybersecurity | 30 | 6 years, 11 months |
| #8 | Data Management & Analytics | 27 | 7 years, 0 months |
| #9 | Fintech | 131 | 7 years, 1 month |
| #10 | Travel | 13 | 7 years, 4 months |
Please find full data for both countries and sectors in this Dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ymm8il0m4lc3jjb/AABwhre0ZU_kQghC-0DwNSeOa?dl=0
Methodology:
- Money.co.uk sourced a complete list of unicorn companies from cbinsights.com. These are any privately owned companies that are valued over $1bn.
- They then researched the month and year in which each company was founded using crunchbase.com. In cases where the founding month was not listed, Money.co.uk then searched other credible sources, such as the company’s website. If a month was still unable to be located, then the month of July was used as a mid-point in the year to minimise the margin of error.
- Finally, the total months between the company starting and joining the list of unicorn companies (reaching a $1bn valuation) was calculated.
- Full data was then sorted by country to rank the average number of months and years it took for each company to reach a $1bn valuation. Any country with less than five start-ups was excluded at this stage due to insufficient data to draw a relevant conclusion.
- Full data was also sorted by sector to rank the average number of months and years it took for the companies to reach a $1bn valuation. Any business’ sector labelled ‘other’ was excluded at this stage.
