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More and more startups worldwide achieved unicorn status in the last few years, taking over the venture capital world. It all started in 2013, when Aileen Lee, a well-known venture capitalist, introduced the “unicorn” name to talk about tech startups with a valuation of $1B or more. From 2013 until now, 1,200+ companies have become unicorns, according to The Crunchbase Unicorn Board.
We previously published a thorough collection of lists with the top unicorns from each industry, country, and city. However, with the rise of unicorns in the venture capital world, it seems that startups are targeting a new level, and decacorns are now the new unicorns.
This is why we want to dive deeper into understanding what decacorns are and what’s so unique about them.
Below, we’ll explore
What are decacorns
The complete list of 41 decacorns in the world.
Differences between unicorns and hectocorns.
Which company was the first decacorn.
Some companies with the potential to become decacorns in 2024.
What are Decacorns?
A decacorn company is a private company with more than a $10 billion valuation. Among them, we can find many tech startups from around the world.
Note that I wrote “private.” This also applies to unicorns and hectocorns.
When people and media talk about unicorns, they generally mention all kinds of companies with valuations higher than $1B, including several public ones.
Once a company IPOs, it becomes public and stops being a unicorn, decacorn, or hectocorn.
The Complete List of 41 Decacorn Companies
25 Decacorns in The United States
1) SpaceX
SpaceX is an aerospace transportation company that designs, manufactures, and launches rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded by the well-known tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Databricks is a software platform that helps customers have a central place for their analytics systems, enabling data teams to collaborate with new lines of business.
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company. They’ve delivered useful incredible products like ChatGPT and DALL-E that demonstrate the positive potential of AI.
Airtable is a low-code platform for creating relational databases. It has the flexibility of a spreadsheet, plus powerful features like integrations and automation.
ByteDance is a company with a wide range of content platforms focused on educating and entertaining people worldwide. Their most famous platform is TikTok.
BYJU’S is an ed-tech solution addressing the needs of India’s national education system and offering tutoring services for teachers, and educational content for students.
Swiggy is a food ordering and delivery platform focusing on the Indian market, similar to what Glovo, Bolt, or Foodpanda offer in Europe and the United States.
Unicorns are valued at +$1B, while decacorns have a valuation of over $10B.
Discord, Reddit, and Figma are three examples of unicorns.
Decacorns vs. Hectocorns
We just saw that decacorns have a $10 billion valuation. Hectocorns, instead, are valuated at +$100B.
Bytedance and SpaceX are the two existing hectocorns.
The Rise of Decacorn Startups
As we previously saw here on Failory, the current number of unicorns is continuously rising, and last year 500+ companies in the world achieved unicorn status. But what about decacorns?
Many signs show that being a decacorn is the new unicorn. The term startup unicorn originates from the rarity of mythological creatures, and becoming a unicorn has lately become more common in the market.
The first decacorn in the world was Facebook (now Meta), which achieved this status in 2017, crossing the $10B valuation after Microsoft's investment round of $240 million.
How Many Decacorns Are There?
We spent the last months collecting a ton of data from different sources about unicorns, which you can find here. From this list, we’ve found that, as of April 2022, there are 41 decacorns out there.
Below you can find a compiled list with the main information about each of them, sorted by valuation and divided by the major continents and countries.
Which Companies Might Be the Next Decacorns?
In their most recent fundraising rounds, many startups were valued just below $10B. This means they should reach the Decacorn startups in the following months or years. Three of these startups are:
OYO Rooms: It’s an Indian hospitality chain of hotels with 43K properties and 1M rooms across 80 countries. The company was valued at $9.6B in August 2021, when it raised $5M from Microsoft.
N26: It’s a German neobank with a wide range of banking solutions for customers in the European Union. In October 2021, N26 closed a $900M Series E funding round at a $9B valuation.
Klaviyo: Klaviyo is a marketing platform that allows businesses to automate their SMS and email marketing campaigns. In May 2021, they raised $320M, doubling their valuation to $9.5B just in seven months.
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