Research: Where are the startups – “unicorn”?

Experts of the Russian Cluster Observatory Institute of Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge HSE came to the conclusion that there is not a single company with an estimate of more than $ 1 billion in Russia. Despite the fact that in the USA and China 77% of such Unicorns are registered. We are talking about young successful companies, mainly from the IT-sphere.

“Unicorn” is a startup, the cost of which has reached a billion dollars during ten years. At the same time, the company does not go on the stock exchange, and its two thirds remain in the property of the founders. The startup assessment is made when minority shareholders appear who believed in its success.

The leader in the number of Unicorns is the United States (441 companies), in second place – China – 253, on the third – India. Experts believe that the availability of such companies speaks of the effectiveness of the national innovation system of the country.

Why the “unicorns” do not live in Russia?

In Russia, there is no a term as the “unicorn” in a full understanding of such. There are startups established by people from Russia, but registered in other countries. Among them, Singapore Acronis or American taxi service Indriver. At one time, the Unicorn was “Yandex” registered in the Netherlands. Its becoming began in cold yakutia from mass protests in social networks of local students, when taxi aggregators shared the prices of transportation in frost minus 45 degrees. Then an algorithm that allowed drivers and passengers to negotiate prices on their own invented it. The idea began to be successful. Then began the process of introducing into other regions, the service appeared in Moscow. Then the aggregator came to the international level. And today it works in 33 countries on five continents.

Alexander Galitsky – the managing partner of Almaz Capital Partners believes that the perception of innovation in Russia is poorly developed, respectively, abroad can be allocated companies that will be unprofitable.

For example, Amazon was unprofitable for a long time, but he inspired confidence in people in terms of sales volumes and in all growth indicators. Now Amazon is the world’s largest company in the markets of electronic commerce platforms and public-cloud computing on revenue and market capitalization. Founded on July 5, 1994 as an online store selling books, but later diversified by starting to sell video, mp3, audiobooks (both streaming and through the possibility of downloading), software, video games, electronics, clothing, furniture, food, toys and jewelry.

The leader in the “unicorn” – USA. Their total cost is estimated by almost 1.5 trillion dollars. However, this figure is achieved due to the fact that the venture economy of the United States today is 50 years old, and the Russian venture capital economy from the force of 15 years, so the viability of startups in our country is also incorrect.

What are the companies – billionaires?

Most of the unicorns are engaged in electronic commerce and artificial intelligence. After the popularity of uniologists, application developers and other companies from IT-technologies are used.

Does the “Unicorn” insurance need?

Like all that is associated with IT technologies may be subject to cyber risks. In addition, the popularity of this area contributes to the attraction of a large number of fraudsters; therefore, it is worth thinking about the conclusion of the Cyber Insurance Agreement in this industry.

About how startups work, we wrote in the following articles:

Comments and opinion of the editors

Unfortunately, the domestic mentality does not allow young firms to break through. There is also not enough support measures from the state – including information and legal.

For better development of startups, unicorns should pay attention to the degree of participation of the state in the company, to look for like-minded people, as well as attract investors within the country, and not to take out the idea to the West.

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Neo-Volunteer Tatyana P.