List of Unicorn Companies in 2026

A unicorn is a privately held startup valued at US$1 billion or more. The term was coined in 2013 by investor Aileen Lee, when such companies were rare enough to deserve the name of a mythical creature. Today there are well over a thousand unicorns worldwide, and the largest private companies are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. This page lists every unicorn in the CapFinch database, 346 companies, ranked by their latest sourced valuation, with links to full profiles showing where each number comes from.

We include companies whose most recent valuation we can source at US$1 billion or more, converting other currencies roughly to US dollars for ordering. Some valuations come from secondary sales, tender offers, employee buybacks or older funding rounds, and each profile labels the type and date. Companies that have gone public or been fully acquired are removed.

The full list

How to read this list

Valuations in this list are snapshots from different dates. A figure set in 2021, at the height of the venture boom, isn't directly comparable with one set in 2026, and some companies that raised at peak prices would likely be valued lower today. Equally, fast-growing AI companies can double their valuations within months, so a figure from last year may already be out of date. Always check the date in the "As of" column and the profile for context.

The type of transaction matters too. A primary funding round, where a company sells new shares to investors, is the most common basis for a headline valuation. A secondary sale, where existing shareholders sell to new investors, can be priced higher or lower. A tender offer or employee buyback is usually set by the company or a lead buyer. A 409A valuation, used for employee stock options, is typically lower than a preferred share price. Our guides to post-money valuation and 409A valuations explain the differences.

Unicorns by size

The largest private companies are no longer just unicorns but "decacorns", valued at US$10 billion or more, and a handful are "hectocorns" worth US$100 billion or more. In our database, Anthropic, OpenAI, ByteDance, Databricks, Stripe and Waymo are all hectocorns. Our guide to decacorns explains the terminology and lists companies above the US$10 billion mark.

• Above US$100 billion: six companies, led by AI labs.
• US$10 billion to US$100 billion: dozens of companies, spanning fintech, AI, defense, developer tools and consumer internet.
• US$1 billion to US$10 billion: the majority of unicorns, including many that last raised in 2021 and 2022.

Unicorns by sector

Fintech

Fintech is the largest group in our list by number of companies, with more than 55 unicorns. They include payment companies such as Stripe, Checkout.com and Razorpay; digital banks such as Revolut, Monzo and N26; spend management companies such as Ramp and Pleo; and crypto and prediction market companies such as Ripple, Kalshi and Polymarket. See our guide to the largest private fintech companies.

Artificial intelligence

AI is the fastest-growing group and holds the largest valuations. It includes model developers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Mistral AI and Moonshot AI; application companies such as Harvey, Sierra, Lovable and ElevenLabs; and infrastructure companies such as Crusoe, Nscale, Baseten and Together AI. New research labs such as AMI Labs, Humans& and Unconventional AI reached multi-billion-dollar valuations with their first rounds. See the most valuable AI startups, new AI labs, AI cloud providers and AI infrastructure companies.

Defense technology

Defense has become one of the hottest categories for venture investment, led by Anduril, Helsing, Shield AI, Castelion, Saronic and Hadrian. Our defense tech startups guide covers them in detail.

Software, data and security

Enterprise software unicorns include Databricks, ClickHouse, Grafana Labs, Celonis, Notion and Rippling. Cybersecurity unicorns include Cyera, Island, Abnormal AI, Chainguard, Snyk and Vanta.

Consumer, commerce and health

Consumer unicorns range from Xiaohongshu and Whatnot to Vinted, Zepto and Canva, along with direct-to-consumer brands such as Oura, Whoop, Quince and Skims; see the most valuable DTC brands. Health technology unicorns include OpenEvidence, Abridge and Hippocratic AI; see healthcare AI startups.

Unicorns by country

The United States accounts for about 190 of the unicorns in our list, reflecting the depth of its venture capital market. The UK follows with 27, India with 21 and Canada with 19; Canada ranks high because our database covers Canadian companies in depth; see our list of Canadian unicorn companies. Germany has 16, France 15 and Mexico 6. China, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Sweden, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Mexico, Australia and Argentina also appear. China has many more unicorns than our database currently covers. Regional guides include the largest European startups and the largest Indian startups.

How companies become unicorns

Most companies reach a US$1 billion valuation through a series of venture capital rounds: seed, Series A, Series B and later rounds, each at a higher price as revenue and growth improve. The fastest AI companies have reached unicorn status within months of launch, sometimes before earning meaningful revenue, because investors bet on the team and the size of the opportunity. Others, such as Surge AI or Zerodha, grew large without venture capital at all, and their value is set by private transactions or estimates rather than funding rounds. Our guides to Series A versus Series B and what VCs look for in a Series A explain the early stages.

What happens to unicorns

• IPO: many eventually list on a stock exchange, as Cerebras, Klarna, Fervo Energy and several Indian startups did in 2025 and 2026.
• Acquisition: others are bought by larger companies, sometimes at prices well below their peak valuations, as with Miro's agreed sale to Bending Spoons.
• Staying private: some, like ByteDance and Stripe, stay private for many years and give shareholders liquidity through tender offers and buybacks.
• Decline: some lose most of their value or fail, as with several 2021-era unicorns whose business models didn't survive higher interest rates or regulation.

Using this list

Sales and business development teams can use unicorns as target accounts, since large funding rounds often lead to spending on software, services and hiring; see funding announcements as sales triggers. Job seekers can compare funding stability. Investors can track valuations and potential IPOs, and our guide to investing in pre-IPO companies explains how to gain exposure. Researchers can use the profiles as starting points; see how to research a private company.

Methodology

This list includes only companies with a published CapFinch profile and a valuation we can source at US$1 billion or more. Currencies are converted to US dollars at approximate rates only to order the table; each profile shows the original figure. We don't include reported talks that haven't closed as valuations, but we mention them on profiles. Because unicorn counts from different trackers use different methods, totals here won't match other lists.