What Is a Decacorn? Meaning, Examples and How Companies Get There

A decacorn is a privately held startup valued at US$10 billion or more. The term builds on "unicorn", coined by investor Aileen Lee in 2013 to describe the then-rare startups valued at US$1 billion or more. "Deca" means ten, so a decacorn is worth ten unicorns. Companies valued at US$100 billion or more are sometimes called "hectocorns". In 2026, dozens of private companies are decacorns, many of them in artificial intelligence and fintech.

Unicorn, decacorn, hectocorn

• Unicorn: a private startup valued at US$1 billion or more. There are now well over a thousand worldwide. Our guide to Canadian unicorn companies covers one country's list.
• Decacorn: a private startup valued at US$10 billion or more.
• Hectocorn: a private company valued at US$100 billion or more, a very small group.

The terms apply only to private companies. Once a company goes public, it is usually just described by its market capitalisation.

Decacorns in our database

These companies in our database have a latest sourced valuation of US$10 billion or more (or the equivalent in another currency), as shown on their profiles:

Of these, Anthropic, OpenAI, ByteDance, Databricks, Stripe and Waymo are valued at more than US$100 billion, making them hectocorns. Valuations change frequently, and some figures come from tender offers or secondary sales rather than primary rounds; check each profile for details. Wealthsimple's C$10 billion valuation is just below US$10 billion when converted, so it isn't included.

How quickly companies become decacorns

Historically, reaching a US$10 billion valuation took most companies a decade or more. In the AI era, some have done it in two or three years. Examples from our profiles:

• Lovable, founded in 2023, reached US$13.3 billion in August 2026.
• Thinking Machines Lab, founded in February 2025, raised at about US$12 billion within months.
• Safe Superintelligence, founded in 2024, reached US$32 billion within a year.
• Harvey, founded in 2022, reached US$15.5 billion in 2026.

Others took longer and steadier paths: Stripe was founded in 2010, Revolut in 2015, Canva in 2013.

What it takes to become a decacorn

1. A very large market. Investors need to believe the company can eventually earn billions in revenue or profit.
2. Fast growth. Rapid revenue growth, or credible evidence that it will come, justifies high multiples. Our guide to valuation multiples explains why.
3. A leading position. Category leaders capture a disproportionate share of value.
4. Access to large investors. Reaching US$10 billion usually requires growth funds, crossover investors or sovereign wealth funds willing to write very large cheques.
5. Timing. Valuations are higher in hot markets; many decacorns of 2021 would have been valued lower a year later.

Decacorn status can be lost

A decacorn label reflects the last valuation, not a permanent status. After the 2021 boom, several companies saw their valuations fall below US$10 billion in later rounds or secondary sales. Checkout.com's internal valuation fell from a 2022 peak of US$40 billion to US$12 billion. Fintech and consumer companies were especially affected. Our guide to down rounds explains how and why valuations fall.

Where decacorns are

Most decacorns are in the United States, which has the deepest pools of growth capital. China historically produced many as well. Outside those two, the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, India and Australia each have a handful. In our database, non-US decacorns include Revolut, Nscale and ElevenLabs (UK), Helsing and Trade Republic (Germany), Mistral AI (France), Lovable (Sweden), Canva (Australia), Moonshot AI (China) and PhonePe (India).

What happens next: IPO or acquisition

Most decacorns eventually go public or are acquired, though many now stay private for years using tender offers to provide liquidity. Acquisitions at this size are rare because few buyers can afford them, though they do happen; Google agreed to buy Wiz for about US$32 billion in 2025. IPOs turn private valuations into market prices, which can be higher or lower. Our guide to investing in pre-IPO companies explains how investors gain exposure before a listing.

Why the label matters

Labels like unicorn and decacorn are shorthand, but they have real effects. Reaching decacorn status attracts press coverage, helps with recruiting, reassures large enterprise customers that a young supplier will be around for years, and signals to later investors that the company is a category leader. It can also create pressure: employees joining at a high valuation expect their equity to rise further, and a later round below US$10 billion can be reported as a setback even if the business is healthy. Some founders deliberately avoid raising at the highest possible valuation to leave room for future growth and protect employee morale.

Decacorns versus large public companies

A US$10 billion valuation would place a company in the mid-cap range on most stock markets, comparable to many established public companies. The largest private companies, such as OpenAI, are now worth more than the vast majority of listed companies worldwide. That shift reflects how much value creation in technology now happens before an IPO, which is why public market investors increasingly look for ways into private companies. Our guide to the largest private companies in the world explores that trend.

How to verify a decacorn claim

News headlines often describe companies as decacorns based on reported talks rather than completed rounds. Before relying on the label, check whether the valuation came from a closed and announced round, a tender offer or secondary sale, or only from reports of negotiations. Check the date too: a valuation set in 2021 may no longer reflect what investors would pay. Our company profiles record the source and date of each valuation and list reported talks separately, so you can see the difference. Our guide to tracking startup funding rounds explains how to verify valuations yourself.

Sectors producing the most decacorns

In our database, artificial intelligence accounts for the largest number of decacorns, followed by fintech, then defense technology, HR and workforce software, developer tools and e-commerce. A decade ago, consumer internet and ride-hailing companies dominated the list. The shift reflects where investors expect the largest future profits: AI's potential to automate knowledge work, fintech's huge markets, and defense's rising budgets.

Expect that mix to keep shifting as new technologies emerge.

Recent decacorns

New decacorns continue to appear outside AI model development. In 2025 and 2026, data platform VAST Data tripled its valuation to US$30 billion, wearable makers Oura and Whoop crossed US$10 billion, and online retailer Quince reached US$10.1 billion. These examples show that infrastructure for AI and strong consumer brands can also reach decacorn status.