Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone has a total of 132 high-growth enterprises. [[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

More and more startups in Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone have been developing into high-growth enterprises in recent years.

High-growth enterprises include gazelle enterprises that have overcome challenges and entered a fast-growing period, and unicorn enterprises (startups with valuation exceeding $1 billion).

The zone has 132 high-growth enterprises, including 83 gazelle enterprises, 43 prospective gazelle enterprises, one unicorn enterprise, and two potential unicorn enterprises, according to a report released by the administrative committee of the zone and GEI, a professional consulting institute.

With strong growth, creativity and potential, high-growth enterprises have become an important force driving the zone's economic development.

Seen as a new engine of innovation, the 132 high-growth enterprises gained total revenue of 26.67 billion yuan ($3.93 billion) in 2017, accounting for 11.6 percent of total revenue of enterprises in the high-tech zone. The high-growth enterprises also saw a compound growth rate of 41.7 percent in total revenue from 2015 to 2017, 4.8 times the average among all enterprises in the zone.