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Covid-19 has been a shot in the arm for e-commerce, with lockdowns forcing a significant portion of shopping online — and many consumers plan to maintain the habit, even after the pandemic subsides.
This digital shift is creating fresh opportunities for e-commerce companies in the consumer space. In the second half of 2020, e-commerce funding grew by 68% compared to the first half of the year, while a number of new unicorns (private companies valued at $1B+) have also emerged in the space.
Using CB Insights data, we visualized the world’s most valuable private e-commerce companies focused on consumers.
Our analysis includes only private, active, VC-backed companies. We exclude subsidiaries and majority-owned companies. This analysis focuses on consumer-facing e-commerce companies, and we exclude companies focused on e-commerce enablement.
Key takeaways
- San Francisco-based Instacart takes the top spot on our graphic. The grocery delivery unicorn reached a $17.7B valuation in 2020, following a Series H by Valiant Capital Partners and D1 Capital Partners.
- A number of the most valuable e-commerce companies operate consumer-to-consumer (C2C) or business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplaces. Examples include Indonesia-based Tokopedia, India-based Snapdeal, and China-based Chehaoduo.
- These 10 companies have raised a combined total of $21.4B in disclosed equity funding.
- A majority of the companies in our graphic are based in Asia. China leads in the region with 3 of the top private e-commerce companies, while South Korea, Indonesia, India, and Germany are each home to 1. The US rounds out the top 10 with 3 companies.
- Eight of these 10 companies raised funding rounds amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Fresh produce chain Xingsheng Selected raised an $800M round in July and then a $700M round in December, while general delivery service GoPuff raised a $380M Series D in October.
- Among investors, SoftBank has the most unique investments in this group of companies, having participated in 8 deals. It is followed by Temasek (4), Sequoia Capital China (3), and Alibaba Group (3).
For more on the consumer e-commerce space, dig into our latest State Of Retail report.
The post The 10 Most Valuable Private E-Commerce Companies appeared first on CB Insights Research.