New investment terms are showing up every day. Some of them fade but the one we’re about to review is becoming more common. As the market continues to grow, so will the number of investment unicorns. That’s why I’ve put together this short guide and a list of unicorn startups.

What is an Investment Unicorn?

An investment unicorn is a privately held startup with a valuation of at least $1 billion. And most unicorns have come from the tech sector thanks to their ability to scale their business. For example, unicorns like Stripe and Databricks can reach millions of customers with their software.

Why give them the name unicorn? Reaching $1 billion is no small feat. It used to be very rare for a private company, some would even say mythical. Thus, the name unicorn… but thanks to inflation and a long bull market, investment unicorns are more common.

The number of unicorns has increased dramatically over the last few years. As a result, there are more than 900 globally as of January 2022. In addition, over 340 United States startups became uniorns by mid-December.

Going one step further, the number of private companies to reach $10 billion has also climbed. They’re sometimes called decacorns. In fact, all 10 unicorn startups on this list have now reached decacorn status. However, as of now, SpaceX holds the title of the only U.S. super unicorn on the list: a hectocorn. A hectocorn is a private companies that has reached a $100 billion valuation.

In a way, super unicorns are the new unicorns. They’re still very rare. However, Stripe is climbing toward the hectocorn title with a $95 billion valuation. Let’s take a look…

Top 10 Unicorn Startups List

The list below is hand-selected and only includes companies based in the United States. The startups are technology-focused but serve different industries. There’s a little overlap but it’s still a good mix…

Unicorn Startup	Valuation	Industry
SpaceX	$100.3 billion	Aerospace
Stripe	$95 billion	Payment Processor
Epic Games	$42 billion	Video Games
Instacart	$39 billion	Food Delivery
Databricks	$38 billion	Data Management & Analytics
Chime	$25 billion	Fintech
Fanatics	$18 billion	E-Commerce & Direct-to-Consumer
Miro	$17.5 billion	Internet Software & Services
GoPuff	$15 billion	E-Commerce & Direct-to-Consumer
Plaid	$13.4 billion	Fintech

Since these are private companies, we don’t have much insight into their financials. We have to use past funding rounds to determine valuation. As a result, some of the valuation numbers above are a bit delayed.

Unicorn Spotlight: Stripe

One highlight from the investment unicorn list is Stripe. Stripe specializes in business-directed online payment processing. It gives merchants the ability to securely accept credit card payments using its software.

The company is a major player in fintech. It’s growing rapidly – in less than a year, the company increased its valuation by more than 160% from $36 billion to $95 billion. And it will continue to grow as the push to transition online continues.

Thousands of companies utilize Stripe’s services. Some of these brands include Amazon, Slack and Shopify. Furthermore, the company’s investors include SpaceX’s Elon Musk and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

The company is on its way to becoming a super unicorn. However, many investors are eager for Stripe stock. You can learn more about the Stripe IPO and plans to go public here.

How to Invest in Unicorns

Unfortunately, average investors can’t buy shares in most investment unicorns. Although, if and when they IPO, you can buy a stake in each business. There’s a lot of speculation as to when these startups will go public. To keep up with the latest updates on these companies going public, check out the IPO calendar. We update it daily to give you the latest news on upcoming and filed IPOs.

In the meantime, you can follow each company for updates. Or if you want to start investing sooner, you can check out our recent investment opportunities research.