Startup Terms Explained: What are Minicorn, Soonicorn, Zombie, Unicorn and others?

India has the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, expected to witness year-on-year (YoY) growth of a consistent annual growth of 12-15 per cent. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recognised over 1.80 lakh startups nationwide. Notably, the percentage of female entrepreneurs increased to 14 per cent from 10 per cent and 11 per cent over the last two years. Fintech, edtech, healthtech, and ecommerce are the most prominent sectors experiencing rapid growth.

Meanwhile, India placed third internationally in tech startup funding despite the year-over-year downturn, surpassing Germany and Israel but falling short of the US and the UK, according to a recent report. India raised $4.8 billion in the first half of this year (H1 2025), propelling it to third place globally in global tech startup fundraising. Read more

Startups have also become an important part of the business landscape, and almost every startup aims to become a 'unicorn' one day. There is a variety of milestones that startups can achieve, such as becoming a minicorn, soonicorn, unicorn, decacorn, or hectocorn. Apart from these, one more category is there called 'Zombie'.

These terms may sound like cartoon characters, but every term has a different meaning. In this article, we will discuss these startup terms, right from Minicorn to Zombie.

Minicorn: Startups with a valuation of $1 million or more are called Minicorns. These firms have a solid vision and aspire to become unicorns soon.

Soonicorn: As the name says, Soonicorn means 'soon to become Unicorn'. They calculate the business's value based on future industry market projections and company values. This is a favourable situation that will allow startups to join these Soonicorn groups early and move closer to a $1 billion asset valuation. 

Unicorn: A unicorn is a startup that generates more than a billion dollars. Getting into the unicorn club is not simple.

This word was coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, and first appeared in 2013.

Decacorn: A company that has a valuation of more than $10 billion is called 'Decacorn'. Facebook, the first Decacorn, achieved the status in 2017. It had crossed the $10 billion valuation after receiving $240 million in funding from Microsoft.

Hectocorn: Hectocorn refers to a tech, financial, or fintech company with a valuation of more than $100 billion. These firms have another name called "Super Unicorn". Heactacorn is used by several well-known companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, and Cisco.

Zombie: A zombie startup is a firm that is neither dead nor living. It's a startup that has enough money to function but isn't expanding or producing much income.