The World's Top eCommerce and Direct-to-Consumer Unicorns

Unicorns are the world’s most valuable private start-ups. Some of today’s leading tech and digital companies like Google, Facebook or AirBnB bore the prestigious name once, many are still rather unknown to the public when they reach the status, others have already made their mark in consumers’ awareness, but all have one thing in common: A valuation of at least US$1 billion. And the “herd” is growing rapidly. When venture capitalist Aileen Lee coined the term in 2013, the number of private start-ups which met the unicorn conditions was as low as 39. As of January 2022, there were more than 900 unicorn start-ups in the world, according to a recent analysis published by CBInsights. Many are from tech fields like software, FinTech or artificial intelligence. Another classic industry which regularly brings about promising unicorns is eCommerce. ecommerceDB presents today the current top 10 of unicorns in the eCommerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) field:

China is home not only to the currently most highly valued eCommerce start-up in the world, but also to another 5 companies in the top 10 eCommerce and direct-to-consumer unicorn list. Xiaohongshu, Chinese social media and C2C eCommerce platform, leads the list of the world’s top eCommerce unicorns with a current valuation of US$20 billion. U.S. sportswear and equipment online retailer Fanatics follows closely with a valuation of US$18 billion. The main online store fanatics.com constantly registered high double-digit growth rates over the past years. Valued at US$15 billion, Chinese online fashion retailer Shein reaches rank 3. Net sales growth of Shein’s main URL shein.com had regularly reached impressive rates above 200% year-on-year over the past few years, reaching total net sales of US$11 billion in 2021. The top 3 eCommerce unicorns are all among the top 20 in the overall ranking of 2022 unicorns. There is also one start-up in the eCommerce list which is neither from China, nor from the U.S.: The fast-growing Turkish on-demand grocery and restaurant deliverer Getir.

Note: The ecommerceDB online store database focuses on B2C online stores selling tangible products to end consumers. C2C or pure app business models, real estate or food delivery services are out of scope. Therefore, some of the eCommerce players in the top 10 eCommerce unicorns are not listed on ecommerceDB.