A Record 42 Startups Have Reached $10B Valuations in 2026, PitchBook Data Shows
The count tops 2021's previous peak of 34, while the average timeline to reach decacorn status dropped to 5.5 years in 2025.
A record 42 startups have crossed the $10 billion valuation threshold to become decacorns so far in 2026, according to PitchBook data aggregated by Techmeme (https://www.techmeme.com/261009/p21#a261009p21) from reporting by Axios's Lucinda Shen.
The tally surpasses the previous record of 34 new decacorns established during the venture capital boom of 2021.
Alongside the rising volume of $10 billion valuations, PitchBook's figures show that the time required for privately held companies to reach the milestone has shortened significantly. The average duration from founding to a $10 billion valuation fell to 5.5 years in 2025, compared to 9.4 years in 2020.
The data underscores a continuous compression in growth and fundraising cycles for top-tier private companies, with businesses attaining mega-valuations nearly four years faster than they did five years earlier.
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The Company Wire
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