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.
Crossing $10 billion changes a company. Governance scrutiny intensifies, the eventual exit has to clear a valuation public markets may not support, and the pool of potential acquirers shrinks to a handful. For investors, one correct decacorn bet can return an entire venture fund — which is why late-stage capital concentrates on the companies most likely to get there.
Like the unicorn label, the number comes from the per-share price of the most recent preferred round multiplied across all shares, not from public trading. Preferred shares carry liquidation preferences and other rights, so the economic value of common stock in a decacorn can be well below what the headline implies, and two companies with the same headline valuation can be worth very different amounts to common holders.
Many decacorns now provide liquidity through tender offers rather than listings, which is why tender-offer mechanics matter as much as IPO mechanics at this tier. Counts also differ by tracker because methodologies differ — name the source and date whenever you quote one.
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.
What is a hectocorn?
Slang for a private company worth over $100 billion. The label is informal and not tied to any tracker's methodology; the Unicorn entry covers where the animal names came from.
Do all decacorns eventually go public?
No. Some are acquired, some stay private for years with tender offers for liquidity, and some lose the status when a later round prices lower. A decacorn valuation is a snapshot from one round, not a permanent rank.
Is a decacorn profitable?
Not necessarily — many are still burning cash to grow, and the valuation reflects expected future scale rather than current earnings. That's exactly why scrutiny of the path to profitability rises at this size.
Related terms
Run the numbers yourself: dilution, SAFE conversion, and fund-returner calculators.