Unicorn Startups

A unicorn startup is a privately held startup that has reached a valuation of $1 billion or more. The term was coined to highlight how rare these companies once were. Today it describes any private technology or high-growth company that investors have priced at ten figures, usually through a venture-capital funding round.

Well-known examples include OpenAI, Stripe, SpaceX, Revolut and Databricks during their private-market phases. Reaching unicorn status does not mean a company is profitable or that it will succeed long term — it simply means the market has assigned it a billion-dollar price tag.

The leaderboard is a live, community-powered ranking of the startups, companies and projects that people believe are on track to become the next unicorns. Every candidate can be:

• Nominated by anyone who knows a promising company or project.
• Supported with paid boosts that add voting power to the candidate.
• Tracked as valuations change, so candidates automatically graduate to unicorn status when verified data shows they crossed $1B.

The public score combines unique supporters, paid boost votes and recent momentum, so the ranking reflects both breadth of belief and current buzz.

1. Browse the ranking. Open the live leaderboard to see which candidates are leading the race right now.
2. Filter by collection. Use filters like Revolut Mafia, Spain Tech or sector tags such as Quantum, Cybersecurity and Cryptography to narrow the list.
3. Pick a candidate. Click any candidate to see its profile, description and current support.
4. Boost your favourite. Choose a boost package in EUR or USD and add voting power to push it up the ranking.
5. Share your prediction. Every candidate has a shareable link so you can rally others to support the same pick.

If you know a company or project that is not on the leaderboard yet, you can add it in under a minute. Head to the nomination form and enter the name, website, category and a short description. You can submit as a guest or from your account; if you pay for a boost and later sign up with the same email, your activity is linked automatically.

When our valuation monitor confirms a publicly reported post-money valuation of $1 billion or more, the candidate is promoted to Unicorn tier. It remains visible on its own page and in the benchmark section, but it stops competing in the Next Unicorn ranking because it has already reached the finish line.

Read more about how tiers and valuation checks work on the methodology page.