The capital city of China Beijing has been recognized as the city with the second largest number of valuable tech startups in the world, next to the US' Silicon Valley.

The number of tech startups (also known as unicorn companies) in Beijing worth over $1 billion has reached 40. The Zhongguancun Unicorn List released on Monday, was compiled by the Great Wall Enterprise Institute.

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According to China Daily, these 40 startups account for half of such companies in the mainland, with a combined value at $146.2 billion - along with three other tech startups worth over $10 billion each.

Beijing-based smartphone marker Xiaomi ranked first at $46 billion. Trailing behind is the biggest group deal site in the country Meituan-Dianping at $18 billion. In the third spot is the largest taxi-hailing app in the mainland Didi Kuaidi at $16.5 billion.

iResearch Consulting Gorup analyst Lin Renxiang claims that Beijing is the heart of China's Internet sector as many Internet giants are based in the city. Not only that, the city is also the center of the country's best universities and research institutes, making it a breeding ground for technical talents for these firms.

Lin anticipates that more unicorn companies are likely to sprout in the service fields such as cloud computing, big data and mobile health. According to the Unicorn list, these tech startups operate in e-commerce, consumer electronics, big data, transportation and Internet finance.

With over 30 of these firms formed since 2010, unicorns firms are experiencing robust growth in China. By December last year, there were already 70 unicorn companies listed across China. Of that number, 40 are in Beijing, Shanghai 15, Hangzhou 4 and Shenzhen 3.  Fortune magazine's February issue reported a global unicorn company count of 173 - 35 of which are in China.

Tagstech startup, Beijing, Silicon Valley, china business, Innovation