A startup is a company that has just been started and is in the development stage. A start-up has to go through several stages in order to earn badges of honor like minicorns, unicorns, decacorns and finally hectocorns.
These are many words for startup companies, but some of the most important words are “unicorn”, “decacorn” and “hectocorn”. In this article, we will discuss these above technical terms which are used in various business news and articles.
Minicorn
Behind every business that exists, there is a vision that drives it every day to its ultimate goal.
Every startup starts with nothing but dreams, capital and aspirations to reach new heights. To take these startups to new heights, the entrepreneur has to travel less on the road, riskier and learn new things and this is the definition of new entrepreneur.
Minicornss are startups with a valuation of $1 million and above and these are companies that are fairly new in this field, but there are still some valuations that further prove that the company has the potential to become a unicorn in the coming future.
Soonicorn
Startups (soon to be unicorns) have growth potential and are likely to join the unicorn club called Soonicorn.
A Soonicorn Company is funded and financed primarily by an angel investor or a venture capitalist. They come up with the valuation for the business based on the future forecast about the market and firm valuation of the industry, and of course, it is always higher than the actual value of the startup.
Similarly, large organizations tend to acquire startups, and this gives them more value than their actual net worth. This is a favorable position to help startups rank first in these soonicorn clubs and reach an asset valuation of $1 billion.
Unicorn
The word unicorn is something that always gets the attention of investors. Unicorns are startups that have a venture capital value of $1 billion or more.
The Unicorn term was coined in 2013 by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures.
It is expected that there will be 100 unicorn startups in India by 2023. E-commerce, fintech and enterprise tech are among the popular categories of Unicorn Club in India.
For example, many corporations such as Facebook and Amazon. These corporations are very valuable. However, since each has gone public and has sold shares on the Facebook and Amazon stock exchanges, they are generally not called unicorns. The term unicorn only applies to corporations that remain privately owned.
According to 2024 startups reports, India has 108 unicorns and will likely have more in the future. Know the of List of Unicorn Startups in India 2024.
Decacorn
The term Decacorn is used when a startup company has a current valuation of more than $10 billion. Decacorns are evolved versions of unicorns.
What sets them apart is not just the funding, but the specific business model, revenue model and rates involved.
These decacorns startups have received such investments and have an after-money valuation of over $10 billion because they have shown the world a huge rate of growth that others cannot.
According to a January 2022 report, 46 companies worldwide have achieved Decacorn status. There are four startups in India, Flipkart, BYJU’s, Paytm and Swiggy, that have been added to the Decacorn cohort.
Hectocorn
A Tech or financial companies worth more than $100 billion are called hectocorn. These companies are also known for the term ‘Super Unicorn’.
Known names such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Oracle are examples of Heactacorn.
According to a 2022 report, only two companies ByteDance and SpaceX are part of this elite club of hectocorn companies.
Tik Tok’s parent company, ByteDance, was the first to become a hectocorn after being valued at over $100 billion in May 2020, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX became the second hectocorn to cross the $100 billion valuation mark in October 2021.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is the difference between Unicorn and Decacorn?
The Unicorn term is for startups that have a valuation of over 1 billion dollars and the startups that exceed the valuation of $10 billion are called decacorns.
How many Decacorns in India?
There are four startups in India, Flipkart, BYJU’s, Paytm and Swiggy, that have been added to the Decacorn cohort.
What is the next level of Unicorn?
Decacorns are evolved versions of unicorn companies.
