Decacorn
A privately held startup valued at $10 billion or more, ten times the unicorn threshold.
A decacorn is a private company whose most recent funding round valued it at $10 billion or higher — an order of magnitude beyond standard unicorn status, and a milestone reached by a much smaller number of companies globally. The term follows the same naming logic as unicorn, just at a higher valuation tier (with 'hectocorn' occasionally used informally for $100B+ companies).
Decacorns are almost always backed by a mix of traditional late-stage venture funds, crossover investors, and sometimes sovereign wealth funds, given the scale of capital required to sustain that valuation tier privately for an extended period before an eventual IPO or acquisition.
Decacorn status typically brings intense scrutiny of governance and path to profitability, since staying private at that valuation scale for years draws far more public and media attention than a smaller private company ever attracts.
How many decacorns exist globally?
The exact number shifts as valuations and funding rounds change, but it's a much smaller, more exclusive group than unicorns overall, typically numbering in the dozens rather than the hundreds.
Related terms
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