*Not only are they "unicorns," they are into some heavy, out-there tech stuff.
Wired Silicon-Roundabout gazing wistfully at super-rich dynamic Chinese
Since the beginning of 2017, China has seen its fair share of unicorns. No, not the national animal of Scotland. We're talking about startups valued in excess of $1 billion.
In 2017, 41 global technology companies have reached unicorn status, according to data intelligence platform CB Insights. Of those, 15 are from China. Europe, by contrast, has hatched just five unicorns this year....
2. Cambricon
Cambricon is developing a brain-inspired processor chip that simulates human nerve cells and synapses to conduct deep learning. The Beijing-based startup was valued at $1bn on August 18. It's six investors include Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund.
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4. Sense Time
This AI startup provides text, vehicle and face recognition to mobile internet companies, financial services and security companies. Based in Beijing and founded in 2015, it joined the unicorn club on the July 11 and is currently valued at $1.47bn. It has 19 investors, all based in China and Hong Kong. They include, Star VC, IDG Capital and Infore Capital.
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15. Zhihu
Zhihu is an internet search engine that uses a voting system to find the best answers. Founded in 2012 by Lǐ Shēnshēn, Huáng Jìxīn, Zhōu Yuán and Li Shenshen, it has six Chinese investors including Tencent Holdings, Sinovation Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners. It was valued at $1bn on January 12, 2017.
