The bar chart (A) below shows that billion dollar startups have grown at 81% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last 2 years lead by those in Asia. Asian startups have outpaced other regions growing at 126% CAGR. Across regions both the number of billion dollar startups and the average valuation has increased. Note that foreign exchange rates can also have an impact on valuations. For example, the Euro has become significantly weaker compared to the US dollar over the last two years.

The Mekko chart (B) below provides an overview of the Asian startups by industry. The area of each square is proportional to the valuation of the startup it represents.

Asian startups are largely focused on E-commerce and Hardware, which make up a larger portion of the total landscape than in other regions. E-commerce and Hardware comprise 60% of the total value of Asian billion dollar startups. Surprisingly, there is only one billion dollar startup, InMobi, in the Software industry. In other regions, Software is 26% of the total value but in Asia it only makes up 2%. However, these ratios are subject to significant fluctuation as startups are funded, experience growth, and potentially exit (e.g. go public, get acquired).

The stacked bar chart (C) below shows funding in these startups over the last 2 years. Overall funding has grown at 88% CAGR with the average funding per startup also increasing. Funding in Asian startups is growing significantly faster (128%) than the US (70%) but lagging the smaller Europe (162%).

The bar-mekko (D) below shows valuation-to-funding ratio (height of segment) and the total funding (width of segment). As such, the area of each segment is proportional to total value of all the startups in the region. US and Asian startups have similar valuation-to-funding ratios.

These charts were built with the Aploris PowerPoint add-in. Source data for these charts from the WSJ.