October 13, 2026 · 5 min read
What Is a Decacorn? Definition, How It Works and Examples
Learn what makes a private company a decacorn, how the $10 billion valuation is set and why it is not the price your shares would sell for.
- Venture capital
What is a decacorn? It is a private company valued at more than $10 billion. That is ten times the $1 billion line that defines a unicorn. The value comes from the price of the latest funding round. Nobody appraises it, and no regulator defines the word. Investors and data trackers use it as a size label.
If you hold stock options at such a company, or own its shares through a fund, the label tells you what the last round implied. It does not tell you what your own shares would fetch. Employees of these companies often wait years for a listing, so the gap between the headline and the price you can get matters.
Over $10B
The valuation a private company needs to be called a decacorn
$190B
Databricks’ valuation on CB Insights’ list, a decacorn in the top five of the tracker
$965B
Anthropic’s valuation after its Series H round, about 97 times the decacorn line
16 years
How long Stripe had been private when a tender offer valued it at $159B
What Is a Decacorn Company, and Where Does the Label Come From?
The word builds on “unicorn.” Investor Aileen Lee coined that term in a November 2013 TechCrunch article. She counted 39 US software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion. She called them rare, like the mythical animal. “Deca” is the Greek prefix for ten, so a decacorn is a company worth ten times as much as the first rung. CB Insights, which keeps a widely used list of these companies, puts the line at over $10 billion.
The ladder has three steps. A unicorn is a private company valued at $1 billion or more. A decacorn is valued at over $10 billion. A hectocorn is valued at over $100 billion. A company that lists on a stock exchange or is bought stops being counted. Then it is a former decacorn.
Every step uses the same yardstick. It is the post-money valuation of the latest priced round, which is the price per share multiplied by all shares after the new money arrives. Revenue, profit and headcount play no part. Two decacorns can be very different businesses.
What Is a Decacorn Startup, and When Does a Company Become One?
A decacorn startup is a venture-backed company, usually started within the last twenty years, that has crossed the $10 billion line. It gets there on the day a round closes. The new investors agree on a price per share, and that price times every share in the company is the new valuation. The table shows the arithmetic for an invented company.
Illustrative example with an invented company. The $20 price lifts the company above $10B. At the earlier price of $14.30 per share, the same 560 million shares were worth about $8B
Illustrative. The post-money method is standard venture-round arithmetic.
Many decacorns stay private for a long time. Stripe was in its sixteenth year as a private company when a tender offer valued it at $159 billion in February 2026. A tender offer is a sale run by the company in which employees and early investors sell some of their shares to new buyers. Others list. SpaceX listed on Nasdaq in June 2026 at a $1.77 trillion valuation, and Anthropic confidentially filed an IPO prospectus with the SEC four days after its May 2026 round closed. The prospectus is the document a company files before it sells shares to the public. What is a pre-IPO company covers how that stage works.
Decacorn Examples: Which Companies Are on the List in October 2026
CB Insights’ list shows how wide the tier is. The table takes the top of the list and two companies at the lower end. The first five are far above $10 billion, so they are also hectocorns. VAST Data and Revolut sit in the decacorn band itself.
Valuations are the figures on CB Insights’ tracker on the day it was read. Other sources show different numbers for the same company, because they pick different rounds and dates
Read 10.13.2026 · CB Insights, The Complete List Of Unicorn Companies
For OpenAI, Bloomberg reported $852 billion on March 31, 2026, after a $122 billion round. The tracker shows $840 billion. The gap comes from the dates and the way each source counts shares. Check the date of any valuation before you compare two companies.
What Is a Decacorn Founder, and What Does One Own?
A decacorn founder started a company that has reached a $10 billion valuation. The label says nothing about what that person owns or can sell. Founders hold common stock, the basic class of shares. Investors hold preferred stock, which comes with extra rights such as being repaid first in a sale. Every funding round also issues new shares, so each founder’s percentage shrinks over time. That shrinkage is called dilution.
Illustrative example with an invented founder. At the common price the stake is worth 40% of the headline figure, and it is not cash until the shares can be sold
Illustrative. The 409A figure is an assumption for the example.
The same gap applies to you if you hold options. A 409A valuation is an independent appraisal of the common stock, and it prices employee options. Two researchers, Gornall and Strebulaev, studied 135 US unicorns in 2017. Reported valuations averaged 50% above fair value, and common shares were overvalued by 58%. The study looked at unicorns. The same share-class logic applies at $10 billion.
The Decacorn Thresholds and Common Mistakes as of October 2026
Every threshold is a convention among trackers and investors. The valuation behind it is the post-money value of one round
As of October 2026 · CB Insights, The Complete List Of Unicorn Companies (read 10.13.2026)
Common Mistakes
- Treating $10B as a price tagIt is the newest share’s price times all shares, including classes that have fewer rights.
- Valuing your options at the round priceCommon stock is priced by the 409A, usually well below the preferred price.
- Reading the label as qualityRevenue and profit play no part in the definition.
- Comparing valuations from different datesA round, a tender offer and an IPO each price the same company differently.
- Assuming the status is permanentA down round, priced below the one before, can take a company under $10B. A listing or a sale ends the status too.
A decacorn is a private company whose latest round valued it above $10 billion. Read the figure as the price of the newest share multiplied by all shares. It does not show what the company or your shares would sell for.
The Terms This Page Uses
- Decacorn
- A private company valued at over $10 billion.
- Hectocorn
- A private company valued at over $100 billion.
- Unicorn
- A private, venture-backed company valued at $1 billion or more in its latest priced round.
- Post-money valuation
- The round’s price per share multiplied by all shares after the new money. It reflects one negotiation and is not an appraisal.
- Tender offer
- A sale run by the company in which holders sell some shares to new buyers.
- 409A valuation
- The independent appraisal of a private company’s common stock used to price employee options.
- Dilution
- The fall in each holder’s percentage when a company issues new shares.
What People Ask About Decacorns
Where Every Figure on This Page Comes From
Figures were last checked on October 13, 2026. Private valuations are the post-money value of the most recent priced round or sale. They are not appraisals, and they change. The companies pages show company-by-company valuation histories.
- 01CB Insights10.13.2026The Complete List Of Unicorn Companies: decacorn and hectocorn thresholds, valuations of seven companies
- 02Aileen Lee, TechCrunch11.02.2013Welcome To The Unicorn Club: origin of the term, 39 companies
- 03Gornall & Strebulaev, NBER Working Paper 2389510.2017Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality: reported valuations average 50% above fair value
- 04Anthropic05.28.2026Series H announcement: $65B raised at a $965B post-money valuation
- 05Bloomberg03.31.2026OpenAI valued at $852B after completing a $122B round
- 06CNBC02.24.2026Stripe valued at $159B after a tender offer
- 07CNBC06.11.2026SpaceX prices its IPO ahead of its Nasdaq debut, at a $1.77T valuation
- 08CNBC06.01.2026Anthropic confidentially files an IPO prospectus with the SEC
This page explains how a market works. It is not investment advice, not a recommendation of any security, strategy or company, and not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy anything. Private companies may never list or be acquired, positions in them can be illiquid for years, and the entire amount invested can be lost. Figures are accurate as of the dates shown and change. Requirements for investor status, and the tax treatment of a private holding, differ by jurisdiction — the jurisdiction is named wherever this page discusses either. Prepared by the AXEVIL Capital research team.
What closed on the private market in the past two weeks
The rounds that priced, the tender offers that opened and the listings that filed — with the structure of each deal and the date on every figure. Written by the team that reads the paperwork.
Where to go from here
Venture capitalWhat Is a Unicorn Company? Definition, How It Works and ExamplesA unicorn is a private, venture-backed company valued at $1 billion or more. Where the term comes from, how the valuation is set and what it does not tell you.
Pre-IPO basicsWhat Is a Pre-IPO Company? Definition, Stage and SignalsA pre-IPO company is a late-stage private company expected to list within one to three years. What the stage means, the signs to watch and real examples.
Pre-IPO basicsWhat Are Pre-IPO Shares? Unlisted Equity ExplainedPre-IPO shares are stakes in a private company whose stock does not trade on an exchange. Types, who holds them, how they change hands and how they are priced.