In business, a unicorn is a startup companyvalued at over US$1 billion which is privately owned and not listed on a share market.[1]: 1270 [2] The term was first published in 2013, coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures.[3][4][5][6]
CB Insights identified 1,172 unicorns worldwide as of June 2022[update].[7] Unicorns with over $10 billion in valuation have been designated as "decacorn" companies.[8] For private companies valued over $100 billion, the terms "centicorn" and "hectocorn" have been used.[9]
^Lee, Aileen (2013). "Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 December 2015. 39 companies belong to what we call the 'Unicorn Club' (by our definition, U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors)... about .07 percent of venture-backed consumer and enterprise software startups
^Griffith, Erin & Primack, Dan (2015). "The Age of Unicorns". Fortune. Retrieved 26 December 2015. Subtitle: The billion-dollar tech startup was supposed to be the stuff of myth. Now they seem to be... everywhere.