Unicorn, Decacorn and Hectocorn Companies

In the world of business, the term ‘unicorn’ denotes a private company, many times a start-up with a stock valuation of over $1 billion. The term unicorn is of a recent origin in the business world and was coined by Aileen Lee in 2013. Such companies are called unicorn so as to equate them with the mythical animal thereby denoting the rarity of such successful businesses. Similarly, Decacorn and Hectocorn are other terms used to depict companies valued over $10 billion and $100 billion respectively.

In the past few years, India has seen rapid growth when it comes to start-ups especially the technology and internet startups. At present India is home to 10 unicorn companies out of 177 such companies across the world. These companies are including Flipkart, Mu Sigma, Quikr etc.

With the recent initiatives by the government in the form of schemes like Start-Up India, Stand-Up India etc., this number is bound to see a further increase in the coming times.