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Soaring through the clouds - unafraid of floating clouds obscuring one's vision.

On April 24th, the 8th Annual Everything Growth Conference was held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center.

At this annual event rooted in Hangzhou and radiating across the country's innovation and entrepreneurship sector, the "2024 Hangzhou Unicorn & Quasi-Unicorn Enterprise List" was released.

The list shows that as of April 2024, Hangzhou has a total of 43 unicorn companies (valued at no less than 1 billion USD) and 382 quasi-unicorn companies (valued at no less than 100 million USD), representing an increase of 1 and 28 companies respectively compared to last year.

Among this year's unicorn list, three companies made their debut: BabyCare, Pinpianyi, and Xianlin 3D. These three newly-listed unicorn companies belong to the fields of e-commerce, local life, and advanced manufacturing respectively.

In 2013, Aileen Lee, a renowned American venture capitalist, compared some fast-growing, rare, and investor-pursued start-up companies to unicorn companies. Today, the number of unicorn companies is considered to represent a region's new economic vitality, entrepreneurial environment, corporate incremental prospects, and industry development trends.

Recent data released by the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics shows that in the first quarter of 2024, Hangzhou's GDP reached 511.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%.

The convening of this year's Everything Growth Conference and the release of the "List" have further consolidated Hangzhou's strength as a "city of dreams" and an "innovative and vibrant city," as well as its tremendous development potential.

That auspicious mythical beast with horns on its head, running in mythology, has once again brought us a new legendary story.

1

Unicorns Clouding Together in the "Specialized, Refined, Innovative, and Unique" City

This year's list has a highlight that has attracted countless people's attention, namely the "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprise label.

The list shows that there are 13 "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique unicorn" companies, accounting for 30.2%; and 206 "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique quasi-unicorn" companies, accounting for 53.9%.

Especially in the field of artificial intelligence, "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises have performed particularly well. Among the "quasi-unicorn enterprises," there are 28 "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises, accounting for 82.86%.

In March 2022, the term "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" was first written into the government work report.

The 2023 government work report provided specific progress: there are over 70,000 specialized, refined, innovative, and unique small and medium-sized enterprises.

On January 31, 2024, Hangzhou released the "Implementation Opinions of the General Office of the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government on Building a National Specialized, Refined, Innovative, and Unique City." The opinions emphasize adhering to innovation leadership and supporting enterprises to enhance their R&D capabilities.

Among the unicorns and quasi-unicorns with high growth potential and strong innovation capabilities, the reason why there are so many "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises is precisely because they share commonalities.

"Specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises basically possess the following characteristics:

First, most of them are concentrated in emerging industries, such as artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, enterprise services, and healthcare, which dominate the "quasi-unicorn enterprise" list;

Second, most of them are distributed in economically active regions with an innovative soil, such as the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei;

Third, most of them play an active role in solving "bottleneck" issues and are positively promoting the industrial chain and supply chain of related industries.

Zhou Kaibing, Rotating President of the Hangzhou Venture Capital Association

Zhou Kaibing, Vice President of the China Investment Development Promotion Association and Rotating President of the Hangzhou Venture Capital Association, said in his speech at the conference, "'Specialized, refined, innovative, and unique' enterprises highly overlap with quasi-unicorn and unicorn enterprises, which aligns with the national trend of developing new quality productivity."

"Specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" is more like a long-term industry trend, further boosting China's economy and productivity. In recent years, regulators have strongly supported these "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises that can make up for shortcomings to go public and raise funds.

Therefore, it is natural and logical for more and more "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises to join the ranks of "quasi-unicorns" and "unicorns".

As a city full of innovation and vitality, Hangzhou naturally has an affinity for attracting "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises and has the soil to give birth to them.

The presence of so many "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises on the list also corresponds to Hangzhou's strength and efforts in actively building a "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique city".

2

Multi-field Efforts Show New Potential in Entrepreneurial Fertile Soil

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The "2024 Hangzhou Unicorn & Quasi-Unicorn Enterprise List" is not only a report card but also an instruction manual.

From 2018 to 2024, the number of unicorn companies in Hangzhou has grown from 26 to 43, with an average annual growth rate of 10.9%; the number of quasi-unicorn companies has grown from 105 to 382, with an average annual growth rate of 44.0%.

These eight years, fleeting as they are, have demonstrated the speed of a city's development and a foreseeable broad future.

In 2023, Hangzhou became China's eighth "two-trillion GDP city".

As of the end of 2023, the number of registered enterprises in Hangzhou has climbed to 942,000. Meanwhile, the annual number of newly registered enterprises has continuously maintained a growth trend over the past five years, reaching a peak at the end of 2023 with an additional 145,400 enterprises.

So many emerging enterprises, like countless vibrant seeds, are thriving on the fertile soil of Hangzhou.

Eventually, the cream of the crop appeared on this list.

And this list covers eleven major fields, namely healthcare, advanced manufacturing, enterprise services, big data, artificial intelligence, automotive transportation, technology finance, local life, e-commerce, entertainment and sports, and education.

The 43 unicorn companies are concentrated in areas such as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, technology finance, healthcare, e-commerce, and enterprise services.

These achievements hang on important nodes of Hangzhou's key industrial structure, and their accomplishments represent the status of Hangzhou's most innovative, vibrant, and potential areas.

As we all know, cities that can nurture so many unicorn and quasi-unicorn companies usually have advantages such as a good innovation ecosystem, abundant industrial resources, rapid economic development, a concentration of research institutions, and numerous higher education institutions.

At the same time, a good innovation ecosystem can promote the continuous emergence and development of unicorn and quasi-unicorn enterprises, thereby promoting the vibrant development of the city's related innovative technology industries, promoting the digital transformation of traditional industries, attracting more talents, and generating more scientific research achievements.

Zhou Kaibing believes that "a significant portion of entrepreneurs now come from universities like Zhejiang University and Westlake University, possessing independent intellectual property rights and their own innovation capabilities. These people add a new color to the entrepreneurial community and have been recognized by investors."

In addition to "specialized, refined, innovative, and unique" enterprises, the industries populated by unicorns and quasi-unicorns exhibit a flourishing characteristic.

This also illustrates the inclusiveness of Hangzhou as a city.

Hangzhou's support for innovative and entrepreneurial companies, whether in terms of funds, land, or incentive policies, has clear preferential policies. This can be seen from the "Implementation Opinions of the General Office of the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government on Building a National Specialized, Refined, Innovative, and Unique City".

Moreover, Hangzhou's open, favorable, and vibrant business environment is also conducive to the development of enterprises.

It is worth noting that the conference also released the "2024 China Future Unicorn TOP 100 List".

Cai Hua, the founder and CEO of Weilian, interpreted the list. He believes that the list closely aligns with the national strategic emerging industry development policy, focusing on ten key areas including marine aerospace, integrated circuits, enterprise services, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, new overseas ventures, new energy and materials, new consumption, healthcare, and the metaverse (AIGC). It aims to identify 100 companies with the most potential to become future unicorns nationwide, targeting companies that have been actively financing or have raised large amounts of capital in recent three years, especially those that have performed well in terms of new quality productivity.

Among their "predecessors," those "graduates" include outstanding members such as industry "first stocks".

On March 28th of this year, "Lianlian Digital" was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming China's "first cross-border payment stock".

With successful predecessors, proactive peers, and promising successors, this benign development trend is a reflection of Hangzhou's adaptation to local conditions in developing new quality productivity.

Year after year, the "Everything Growth Conference" and the release of the unicorn and quasi-unicorn lists have demonstrated the momentum and potential of Hangzhou's rapid economic development.

New quality productivity is a new type of productivity that differs from traditional productivity. It is productivity based primarily on technological innovation and is a new type of productivity that breaks away from traditional growth paths and meets the requirements of high-quality development.

This year's Chinese government work report proposed vigorously promoting the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerating the development of new quality productivity.

Sun Dongsheng, a member of the Standing Committee and Deputy Secretary-General of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the full-time vice chairman of the China Democratic National Construction Association, said at the opening ceremony that with the emergence of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, new quality productivity will become the core driving force for leading high-quality economic development and promoting Chinese-style modernization.

As important carriers of technology industrialization, unicorns and quasi-unicorns, relying on the comprehensive advantages of China's manufacturing industry, can transform innovation into productivity and realize the industrialization and marketization of scientific and technological achievements.

With the boost of new quality productivity, Hangzhou will undoubtedly give birth to more new industries, new models, and new momentum.

This year's conference also launched the "Global Ecological Partner Plan" for the first time, inviting well-known innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, institutions, and pioneers from around the world to participate. On this stage, not only are global cutting-edge innovation trends showcased, but also Hangzhou's urban international characteristics are reflected, laying the foundation for further strengthening exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign innovation and entrepreneurship forces.

Hangzhou, where everything grows, has already broken through the clouds and soared to new heights.