Here's how long it takes startups to reach billion-dollar valuations

Chinese start-ups are frontrunners and only need an average of almost six years to achieve Unicorn status. In Germany, it takes much longer.

German start-ups take an average of eleven years and five months to make it to a billion-dollar valuation. This puts Germany in 14th place worldwide, according to an evaluation by the British credit broker "money", which analysed data from the analysis platform CB Insight. According to the report, founders from China are the fastest, trimming their start-ups to unicorn status in just five years and ten months on average. Second place goes to Hong Kong (six years, one month), followed by Japan (six years, three months).

Startups in the auto and transportation sectors are doing the fastest. Across countries, these companies take just 4.5 years to become Unicorns, followed by artificial intelligence startups and hardware startups, which each take just under 5.5 years. In total, there are 16 Unicorns in Germany. By comparison, there are 378 start-ups in the US and 155 in China, with a valuation of at least one billion US dollars. Worldwide, there are currently 750 Unicorns. Germany's share is therefore just under two percent.