Shanghai
Metro area · China · Pop. 29.9M · #12 city by EV
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in Shanghai
A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one round into Shanghai-headquartered companies, grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in Shanghai - 2026
VC investment
How much venture capital flows into Shanghai
VC investment into Shanghai-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.
Academia
Shanghai's academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to Shanghai.
| # | University | City | Based here | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇨🇳Tsinghua University | Beijing | 36 | 906 |
| 2 | 🇨🇳Peking University | Beijing | 28 | 659 |
Location comparison
How Shanghai stacks up
Compare Shanghai with peers from the same country (China) — switch between combined EV, EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top cities in China ranked by combined EV. Shanghai's row is highlighted (#5).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yangtze Delta Region | $2T | 2.7× | 210 | $9.9B | 7,038 |
| 2 | Jingjinji Metropolitan Region | $1.7T | 3.6× | 178 | $6.9B | 4,520 |
| 3 | Beijing | $1.6T | 3.6× | 174 | $6.7B | 4,331 |
| 4 | Shenzhen | $1T | 1.9× | 53 | $2.4B | 2,240 |
| 5 | Shanghai | $1T | 5.2× | 135 | $4.5B | 3,583 |
| 6 | Hangzhou | $623B | 1.2× | 37 | $2.2B | 1,443 |
| 7 | Guangzhou | $182B | 14.5× | 16 | $891.8M | 1,543 |
| 8 | Nanjing | $108B | 6.2× | 10 | $338.4M | 489 |
| 9 | Chengdu | $33.7B | 27.0× | 5 | $410.2M | 401 |
| 10 | Wuhan | $32B | 4.6× | 8 | $420.9M | 345 |
| 11 | Chongqing | $25B | 11.5× | 5 | $1B | 177 |
| 12 | Changzhou | $18.7B | 4.2× | 2 | $45M | 113 |
Sector concentration
Where Shanghai punches above its weight
Sectors in which Shanghai's share of the global unicorn pool is bigger than its overall share. A 5× over-index means Shanghai is 5× more represented in that sector than in the global average. Source: top-hub aggregation across the 18 simplified sectors.
More data
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Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.