More than 1 in 4 venture capital-backed unicorns, startups valued at $1 billion or more, are in fact no longer unicorns, an analysis showed.

PitchBook’s latest valuation data show that even when VCs still carry these startups at $1 billion or more on their books, their actual values have fallen below that level. That means the number of so-called undercorns, once valued at $1 billion or more but now worth less, is rising.

The term undercorn, which emerged in 2014, was a new and rare phenomenon at the time, but has now become more common than unicorns.

An Axios report citing PitchBook data said undercorns are surging, and most have not raised new funding for years.

PitchBook said it reached the conclusion after developing a new valuation framework based on input data such as employee counts, private peers that raised new funding and listed peers. It can be seen as an indirect valuation of corporate value.

PitchBook analyst Andrew Akers said, "Unicorns are the crown jewels of the VC market." He added, "Many valuations could be at least 50 percent lower than their book marks."

The total estimated value of unicorns has not changed much. It edged down to $4.4 trillion from $4.7 trillion at the end of 2025, because the top 10 companies account for about 52 percent of the total value.