Data from US-based a study by CB Insights reveal that non-US unicorn start-ups warrant a 50% share of global unicorns since August 2017, a steady increase from just 37% since 2014, suggesting the United States is no longer a player in nurturing start-ups.

China now leads with 56 unicorns and followed by India with 10, with both nations being prime targets for international investment funds. Korea ranks 3rd with 3 unicorns, and Singapore and Indonesia have 2 each. On the contrary, those unicorns in the two Southeast Asian nations all require financial backing from China's technology titans.

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Currently, 1/4 of global VCs emerge from Silicon Valley. However, as China already invested US$ 72 billion or 21.4% of total global VC funds in 2016, the nation is expected to dethrone the United States as the world's leading source of funding. 

In reality, China's technology titans for example, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have actually been proactively funding start-ups, with Tencent especially, having actually invested in 19 unicorns, exceeding the 13 companies invested by Sequoia Capital of Silicon Valley.

In May 2016, Google and Singapore-based Temasek Holdings collectively released a review on the digital economy of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), revealing that overall digital investments by ASEAN countries currently exceeded US$ 200 billion.

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Start-ups in the ASEAN amassed fundings of US$ 3.1 billion in 2016 and taken in far more new investments of almost US$ 5 billion in the first 7 months of 2017 alone. Singapore-based on-demand ride-hailing platform, Grab, has actually acquired US$ 3.44 billion in funding, and the on-demand Indonesian motorcycle start-up Go-Jek has acquired US$ 1.75 billion in funding, with both companies currently on the name list of international unicorns.

Besides Japan's Softbank, China's big 4 Internet giants BATJ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com) have actually invested majority of the funds.

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