The "Migration Chronicles" of Shanghai's Unicorns: Who's Flocking In? Who's Moving Out?

According to the data from the IT Juzi Unicorn Club, as of July 30, 2025, there are a total of 86 unicorn enterprises on the list in Shanghai. In this article, we will focus on the relocation situation of Shanghai's unicorn enterprises.

*The following content is excerpted from "The Report on Chinese Urban Unicorns from 2024 - 2025: Shanghai".

IT Juzi's observation shows that, in recent years, as a global science and innovation center, Shanghai has attracted many unicorn enterprises to settle down. At the same time, it has also witnessed some enterprises relocating due to policy adjustments, changes in the market environment, or strategic layout needs.

This dynamic flow not only reflects the openness and competitiveness of Shanghai's business environment but also shows the diverse needs of enterprises for resources, talents, and markets at different stages of development.

In this article, we focus on the cases of enterprises that have relocated their headquarters from Shanghai.

A small number of unicorns have moved their headquarters from Shanghai to other cities in the Yangtze River Delta, such as Yangzhou, Wuxi, and even Wuhu in Anhui, to reduce costs, expand production capacity, or obtain policy support. The main cases in recent years include Kuaicang Intelligence, Kungen Bio, and Coolwalk Technology.

1. Kuaicang Intelligence relocated its headquarters from Shanghai to Wuxi, Jiangsu in 2024

Formerly known as Shanghai Kuaicang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Kuaicang Intelligence was founded in 2014. Its founder, Yang Wei, graduated from Peking University with both a bachelor's and a master's degree. In its early days in Shanghai, the company stood out in the field of intelligent warehousing robots. After obtaining Series A financing in 2015, it entered the fast - track of development.

In August 2024, Kuaicang Intelligence officially relocated to Liangxi District, Wuxi, and the business entity of its parent company was simultaneously changed to Wuxi Kuaicang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. As early as 2018, when undertaking the Cainiao Wuxi Intelligent Warehouse project, Kuaicang Intelligence forged a connection with Wuxi. And Cainiao Network was also the main investor in Kuaicang Intelligence's Series B financing disclosed in 2017.

Wuxi's emphasis on and active layout of the robot industry provided a good opportunity for Kuaicang Intelligence to settle down. In April this year, Wuxi issued an implementation opinion on future industries, focusing on new tracks such as humanoid robots. Liangxi Science and Technology City is building an intelligent robot production base with a "digital + manufacturing" ecological layout. Kuaicang Intelligence will invest a total of 1 billion yuan here to build "one headquarters + three centers".

One month after relocating to Wuxi, in September 2024, Kuaicang Intelligence announced the completion of Series D financing, raising a total of over 100 million US dollars. The financing was jointly participated in by Golden Cuckoo Capital, Farglory Group, and Weifang Yuanfei Industrial Fund. Among them, Wuxi Liangxi Science and Technology Innovation Industrial Investment Fund contributed to this financing. This fund will be used by Kuaicang to strengthen its overseas market layout and improve its global service capabilities.

2. Kungen Bio relocated its headquarters from Shanghai to Yangzhou, Jiangsu in 2023

The relocation process of Kungen Bio was not accomplished overnight but was implemented in stages, presenting a gradual path of "core business first, registration address later". The timeline was clear and deeply bound to the local industrial planning in Jiangsu.

First of all, since 2021, Kungen Bio has started the off - site layout of its core business. In April 2021, the R & D and industrialization base for early cancer screening of Kungen Bio started construction in the Bio - health Industrial Park of Yangzhou High - tech Zone. In September 2021, the Cancer Screening and Testing Center of Kungen Bio was established in Taizhou Medical High - tech Zone, marking the company's transfer of key links such as technology transformation and production and manufacturing to Jiangsu.

At this time, Shanghai was still the company's registration address, mainly undertaking functions such as initial R & D exploration and market connection, forming a preliminary collaborative model of "R & D in Shanghai + production in Jiangsu".

According to the enterprise information query results, Kungen Bio completed the business registration change in January 2023, adjusting its enterprise registration address from Shanghai to Yangzhou City, Jiangsu, officially realizing the full - chain implementation of "R & D - production - registration".

After settling in Jiangsu, Kungen Bio relied on the hardware advantages of the local industrial base to rapidly expand the production scale of its early cancer screening products.

After the relocation, Kungen Bio completed a strategic investment of 100 million yuan in July 2024. The investors included Dingxin Capital, Yangzhou Guojin Group and other local state - owned background institutions in Jiangsu, which reflected the recognition of its industrial prospects by local capital and provided Kungen Bio with a more convenient financing channel.

Currently, Kungen Bio has R & D centers in Shanghai, San Diego in the United States, and Yangzhou; production bases in Yangzhou and Shanghai; and medical testing laboratories in Taizhou and Chengdu. The total area of its factories and medical laboratories is more than 30,000 square meters, covering more than 100 cities. Kungen Bio's choice to relocate its headquarters from Shanghai to Jiangsu is essentially an accurate match between the enterprise's development needs and the local industrial ecosystem. As a unicorn enterprise, its brand effect has also attracted more foreign biomedical enterprises to pay attention to the Jiangsu market.

As a high - ground for biomedical R & D, Shanghai provided the enterprise with technical accumulation, talent reserves, and initial market resources in the early stage. However, as the enterprise entered the large - scale production stage, the land costs and production factor prices in the core areas of Shanghai were relatively high, while Jiangsu/the Yangtze River Delta had more advantages in production and manufacturing support, policy support (providing tax incentives and industrial space), and industrial chain integrity.

This relocation also reflects the trend of gradient division of labor in the biomedical industry within the Yangtze River Delta region - Shanghai focuses on front - end R & D and innovation, while Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places undertake pilot - scale testing, production, and application implementation, forming an industrial ecosystem with complementary advantages.

3. Coolwalk Technology changed its registration address from Shanghai to Anhui in 2016

Coolwalk Robotics was founded in 2015, focusing on the R & D of autonomous driving technology in complex urban scenarios and the application of intelligent and connected urban services. As early as August 2016, in its startup period, Coolwalk Company changed its registration address from Shanghai to the Free Trade Pilot Zone in Wuhu City, Anhui. In 2023, Anhui Coolwalk Robotics Co., Ltd. was changed to Coolwalk Technology Co., Ltd.

It is reported that currently, Coolwalk has 4 R & D centers in Xuhui (algorithm R & D center), Jiading in Shanghai, Changsha, and Xi'an, and 5 experimental bases across the country. Wuhu, Anhui mainly serves as the production base and the registration address of the parent company.

As early as 2019, the first unmanned sanitation vehicle put into commercial operation in China was cruising on the streets of Wuhu, autonomously cleaning up garbage. According to the information disclosed by Wuhu Release, this unmanned sanitation vehicle was developed by Coolwalk Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Coolwalk Technology). It can be seen that Coolwalk Technology has been deeply involved in segmented fields such as sanitation.

According to IT Juzi data, from 2018 to 2022, Coolwalk Technology successively completed Series B, C, and D financing. The investors included Wuhu Science and Technology Investment in Anhui, Creation Partners Venture Capital, and BAIC Industrial Investment.

In addition to the above relocation cases, some enterprises have also moved their headquarters from other parts of the country to Shanghai. According to IT Juzi statistics, in the past five years, unicorn enterprises such as Kunling Medical, Unisoc, Fusion Energy, Silang Technology, and Airwallex from Tianjin, Beijing, and Hong Kong have moved from other places to Shanghai, which also benefits from Shanghai's industrial ecosystem and policy support.

This article is from the WeChat public account "IT Juzi" (ID: itjuzi521), written by Wu Meimei, and published by 36Kr with authorization.