A Decacorn is a company valued at over $10 billion. The top ten Decacorn Companies in 2022, comprise Bytedance, SpaceX, Stripe, Klarna, Epic Games, Cana, Checkout.com, Instacart, and Databricks. With the rise of consumer technologies able to have worldwide traction, unicorns seem to be no longer the rule. In other words, a decade ago a billion-dollar valuation was a strong position to be which allowed the company in that position to create a long-lasting advantage.
Company – Credit: CB Insights | Valuation (Billions) |
Bytedance | $140 |
SpaceX | $100.30 |
Stripe | $95 |
Klarna | $45.60 |
Epic Games | $42 |
Canva | $40 |
Checkout.com | $40 |
Instacart | $39 |
Databricks | $38 |
Revolut | $33 |
Chime | $25 |
FTX | $25 |
BYJU’s | $21 |
Xiaohongshu | $20 |
J&T Express | $20 |
Fanatics | $18 |
Miro | $17.50 |
Yuanfudao | $15.50 |
DJI Innovations | $15 |
SHEIN | $15 |
Understanding decacorns
As we saw, a decacorn is a private, venture-backed company with a value exceeding $10 billion.
The first company to achieve decacorn status was Facebook, now Meta, which achieved a valuation of $10 billion in 2007 after a $240 million investment from Microsoft. Chinese giant Alibaba became the second to achieve the feat two years later.
Note that decacorns are startup companies that tend to be valued on their potential for growth and not on their previous financial performance. When a decacorn is acquired or goes public, it can no longer be called a decacorn.
Since Facebook, a further 84 decacorns have been created with 33 of those losing their status for whatever reason. This leaves a total of 51 companies – some of which we will discuss in the following section.
Examples of decacorn companies
Let’s take a look at five examples of decacorns operating today.
ByteDance
ByteDance is a Chinese mobile app developer with a portfolio of social media and content discovery apps such as TikTok and Douyin.
ByteDance has a team of over 60,000 employees and 15 research and development centers around the world.
Canva
Canva is an Australian graphic design platform that became a decacorn in September 2021 after raising $200 million in private equity investment to be valued at $40 billion. This made Canva the fifth most valuable startup in the world behind the likes of Klarna, SpaceX, and Stripe.
Canva has over 500,000 paying customers, many of those corporate clients such as PayPal, Zoom, and American Airlines.
Uber
Uber became a unicorn ($1 billion valuation) in 2009 and then a decacorn just five years later.
From a few select locations, Uber services are now available in over 10,000 cities around the world. The company plans to become a zero-emission, fully electric platform by 2040.
Didi Chuxing
Didi Chuxing is a Chinese provider of app-based transportation services, including social ride-sharing, taxi-hailing, chauffeuring, and bike-sharing. The company also allows consumers to rent or lease vehicles.
Didi Chuxing became a decacorn in 2014 after just two years in operation. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was still able to facilitate 60 million daily trips globally.
Revolut
Revolut is a British fintech company that offers a range of banking products and services.
Like Canva, Revolut became a decacorn in 2021 with an impressive funding round worth $800 million. Valued at $33 billion, this made Revolut the most valuable startup in the United Kingdom at the time.
Key takeaways:
- A decacorn is a private, venture-backed company with a value exceeding $10 billion. Facebook, now Meta, was the first company to achieve this status in 2007.
- Most decacorns are startup companies that tend to be valued on their potential for growth and not on their previous financial performance. When a decacorn is acquired or goes public, it relinquishes decacorn status.
- At the time of writing, there are 51 decacorn companies around the world. Some examples include Canva, Revolut, Didi Chuxing, Uber, and ByteDance.
Decacorns operate in the following industries:
- Digital Media/ AI
- On-Demand
- Facilities
- Fintech
- eCommerce/Marketplace
- Other Transportation
- Big Data
- Consumer Electronics
- Gaming
- Social
- Blockchain
- Biotechnology
- Computer Hardware & Services
- Internet Software & Services
- Hardware
From the list above you can appreciate the business models used by Decacorn Companies in 2022.
Who do you think will be the next Decacorn?
Read next: What Is A Unicorn Company? The Top 25+ Unicorns Business Models For 2019
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