Unicorns, soonicorns and decacorns: what the labels mean

What is a unicorn?

A unicorn is a startup that is not listed on a stock exchange and has been valued at $1 billion or more by its investors. The word was coined in 2013 by the American investor Aileen Lee, who chose it because a billion-dollar private company was so rare that it seemed like the mythical animal. The rarity has faded, but the name stuck.

The key point is that the number is a valuation, not money in the bank and not yearly sales. A valuation is the price investors agree to pay for a share of the company, multiplied by the number of shares. It is set in a funding round, usually by a few investors negotiating in private, and it can be much higher than what the company would fetch if it were sold on the day.

What do soonicorn and decacorn mean?

A soonicorn is an informal label for a startup that looks likely to cross the $1 billion line in the near future. There is no official definition. Different writers draw the line at different valuations, and some use the term only for companies that have already raised a large round. Treat it as a loose description, not a ranking.

A decacorn is a startup valued at $10 billion or more. Flipkart, Paytm and Byju's were each described as decacorns at their peaks, though valuations moved and in some cases fell sharply later. A hectocorn, valued at $100 billion or more, is a term that exists but applies to very few companies in the world. These words are shorthand used in news stories, not terms of law.

How does a startup become a unicorn?

It needs investors who will pay a high price for a share in a round. That usually happens when a company shows fast growth in revenue or users, in a large market, with a plausible path to a strong business. The step to unicorn status often comes at a Series C, D or later round, though a few companies reach it earlier, especially in hot sectors such as artificial intelligence.

Valuation depends on the mood of the market as much as on the company. In 2021, when global money was cheap, many Indian startups crossed the line within a few years of founding. After 2022, higher interest rates led investors to pay less, and fewer new unicorns appeared. The same company can be worth very different amounts in different years.

Which Indian companies have been unicorns?

Over the years the Indian list has included companies in e-commerce, payments, food delivery, mobility, software and education. Well-known examples include Flipkart, Paytm, Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, PhonePe, Razorpay, Zerodha's peers in fintech, and Byju's. Several of these have since listed on the stock exchanges, which means they are no longer unicorns by definition, because unicorn status applies only to private companies.

Others have seen their valuations cut, merged or got into trouble. The StopDown cards below show the latest unicorn-related stories, and any count of how many unicorns India has depends on who is counting and which date they use, so this guide does not quote a single number.

Why can the unicorn label mislead?

The label tells you nothing about profit, cash or whether the business is healthy. A company can be a unicorn and still lose money on every order. Valuation is also an opinion. Late investors often get special protections, such as a right to be paid back first, which means the headline valuation may not match what ordinary shareholders and employees would receive in a sale.

Valuations can also fall. A company that raises money at a lower price than its last round is said to have had a down round, and it can lose its unicorn status without any change in its sales. The honest way to read a unicorn headline is to ask what the company earns, how much it spends and how much cash is left, not only what it is worth.

What happens when a unicorn goes public?

When a unicorn lists on the stock exchange through an IPO, it gets a market price that anyone can see each day. That price may be above or below the last private valuation. Several Indian technology companies have listed since 2021, and their share prices have moved a lot, which showed that private valuations and public prices can differ.

Listing also brings strict disclosure rules and regular results. For employees with ESOPs it can make their options sellable after a lock-in period. For investors it is one way to exit. The route from private unicorn to listed company is covered in the IPO guides.

What should you remember?

Remember three things. A unicorn is private and valued at $1 billion or more. The value is a price set in a funding round, not a measure of cash or profit. And the label can come and go as valuations and markets change.

If you read a story that calls a company a unicorn, check the date of the valuation, who set it and whether the company has since listed or raised at a lower price.

How is a unicorn different from a company with big sales?

A company can have large sales and no unicorn label. A grocery chain with thousands of crores in turnover may be worth less than a young software firm with small sales, because investors value growth and future profit, not just today's revenue. They often compare a company's valuation to its revenue, called a revenue multiple, and accept high multiples only when growth is fast and the market is large.

This is why the same headline number can mean very different things. A valuation of ₹8,500 crore on ₹100 crore of yearly sales says investors expect a great deal more to come. The same valuation on ₹2,000 crore of sales says something calmer. When you see a unicorn story, look for the sales figure beside the valuation and ask what growth is being priced in.

Does the government count unicorns too?

Government bodies and industry groups publish their own counts and sometimes disagree, because they use different cut-off dates, exchange rates and rules for which companies to include. Some count companies founded in India but headquartered abroad, and others do not. Some drop a company once it lists, and others keep a running total of all that ever crossed the line.

For that reason, treat any single number with care and look at who published it and when. The trend, such as many new unicorns in 2021 and fewer after, is a safer thing to take from the data than an exact figure.

For a reader following funding news, a better question than whether a company is a unicorn is how it got there and how it is doing now. Look at the investors behind the round, the stage it was raised at, whether sales are rising faster than costs, and what the company has said about profit. These details tell you much more than the label does.

In short, treat the unicorn label as a starting point for questions and not as an answer.

Recent examples on StopDown

• Ola investors see holdings lose value 3 October 2026
• Carzbazzar reaches Rs 150 crore valuation after stocking 1,000 cars 23 September 2026
• FirstCry market valuation falls below one billion dollars 1 September 2026
• Temple seeks five hundred million dollar valuation 21 August 2026
• Astrotalk hits $1 billion valuation via ESOP buyback 12 August 2026
• Temple doubles valuation to $375M in secondary sale 27 July 2026

Read next

• How startup valuation works
• What is a startup? The Indian definition and the real one
• A short history of Indian startups, from Infosys to AI
• Startup funding stages explained, from pre-seed to IPO
• What is a down round?