What is a unicorn company?

Any private company achieves the status of ‘unicorn’ when they bag a valuation of $1 billion from venture capital.

This term was coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, in 2013.

Here, she discovered that only 0.07% of the startups born in the 2000s hit the $1 billion milestone.

Seeing only 39 software companies achieving the status, a rarity in itself, she named them unicorns.

But “unicorn” is not the only term for startups with a particular valuation.

Apart from unicorns, you also have: Decacorn: A startup with a nearly $10 billion market cap.

Soonicorn: They aspire to and possess the ability to become a unicorn soon.

Minicorn: As the name suggests, these companies are in the nascent stage of becoming a unicorn. They hold a valuation of over $1 million.

Hectocorn: The most superior of all, also known as “super unicorns,” are companies with a valuation of over $100 billion.