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

Chinese start-ups are the frontrunners and on average only need almost six years to achieve unicorn status. In Germany, it takes considerably longer.

German start-ups take an average of eleven years and five months to achieve a billion-euro valuation. This puts Germany in 14th place worldwide, according to an analysis by the British credit broker "money", which evaluated data from the analysis platform CB Insight. According to the study, founders from China are the fastest, turning their start-ups into unicorns 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).

Start-ups in the automotive and transportation sectors are making the fastest progress. Across all countries, these companies only need 4.5 years to become a Unicorn, followed by start-ups dealing with artificial intelligence and hardware start-ups, which each need just under 5.5 years. A total of 16 Unicorns are based in Germany. By comparison, there are 378 start-ups in the USA and 155 in China with a valuation of at least one billion US dollars. There are currently 750 unicorns worldwide. Germany's share is therefore just under two percent.