Move aside unicorns as we put the focus on decacorns. Over 35 privately-owned start-ups globally now command a valuation of over $10 billion dollars.
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With TikTok parent ByteDance tipping the scale at $140 billion, one Indian company has also made it to the rankings.
Here are 5 decacorns that caught the EJ eye!
1. First up the obvious - Dancing away to a $140 billion valuation is the creator of TikTok, ByteDance. The video-sharing platform has reached 1 billion monthly users worldwide, adding 300 million users in a year. But bear in mind this China-based platform's valuation is speculated to be north of $300 billion as per market buzz of the latest share sale in the unlisted market.
2. Staying within the creative space, a start-up from Downunder was a surprise entry- the graphic creation platform Canva. The company achieved a $40 billion valuation in September, triple the figure from five months before, making the entrepreneur Melanie Perkins one of the world’s richest women.
Perkins reportedly started Canva from her mother’s living room in 2012 with a vision that anyone, with a little help, could become a decent graphic designer. Canva’s freemium software is used by more than 60 million monthly users. But more than 500,000 paying teams now use Canva, too.
3. From social and design platforms to gaming! The trinity of the pandemic push ...Epic Games, developer of the popular video game Fortnite makes it to the list with a $28 billion valuation.
Epic’s latest market value represents a 66% increase from what it was worth last year. Outside the gaming world, Epic is best known for it' battle with Apple and even Google as it drags the tech giants to court over 'uncompetitive' practices on their respective App Stores.
4. China's crackdown on Edtech funding may have been India's gain as the only Indian start-up to make the list is Edtech giant Byju's with a valuation topping $21 billion. India’s most valuable start-up, the online education provider Byju’s has acquired 10 companies in just the last year.
Byju’s, which became a unicorn in 2018 has doubled its valuation in 3 years and spent over $2.5 billion in buyouts in 2021 alone. Byju’s currently has more than 100 million registered students and 6.5 million paid subscribers.
5. Good grammar pays ..well at least for Grammarly, this US-based popular grammar checking tool is now valued at $13 billion. Two Ukrainian-born entrepreneurs started the subscription-based automated writing assistant called Sentenceworks in 2009 to help students with their grammar and spelling.
The product later evolved into Grammarly, which is now the 10th most valuable US startup as 30 million people use the writing software each day, according to the San Francisco-based company.