Meanings
plural decacorns
- businessA private startup with a valuation of US$10 billion or greater.
It's not the only domestic decacorn (a unicorn at least ten times over) targeting a 2019 debut.
2018 November 26, Alex Wilhelm, Savannah Dowling, “2019 Could Be The Year Of The Decacorn IPO”, in Crunchbase3 more examples
Today, the delinquent decacorn of Silicon Valley announced Uber Freight, a bid to bring the ride hailing model to trucking.
2017 May 18, Alex Davies, “With Uber Freight, Travis Takes On Trucking”, in WiredIndonesian ride-hailing service Go-Jek's value was estimated at $10 billion by a U.S. market intelligence company, putting it in the ranks of startups called decacorns.
2019 April 6, Karlis Salna, “Go-Jek Joins 'Decacorn' Ranks With $10 Billion Valuation”, in BloombergMany of the biggest so-called decacorns, or privately held companies with valuations of at least $10 billion, have filed to go public in the past several months. Among them are Lyft, the ride-hailing company, and Pinterest, the digital pin board.
2019 April 29, Michael J. de la Merced, Andrew Ross Sorkin, “WeWork Files for I.P.O., Joining Wave of Cash-Burning Start-Ups in Going Public”, in New York Times
Origin
From deca- (“ten”) + -corn (“horns”), by analogy with unicorn (literally “one horn”).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French décacorne
- décacorneTranslations
Cite this entry
decacorn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decacorn
“decacorn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decacorn. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “decacorn,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decacorn.
Source: decacorn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.