New Delhi, June 26 -- FANTASTIC BEASTS roam Silicon Valley. Locals are familiar with the unicorn, a startup valued at more than $1bn, the decacorn ($10bn) and even the hectocorn ($100bn). Lately, however, another creature has been stalking the land: the "zombie" unicorn, a firm once worth $1bn-plus but now a mere shadow of its former self. Their spread is keeping venture capitalists (VCs) awake at night.

By May 2026, 332 of the 1,900 unicorns in a database maintained by Ilya Strebulaev of Stanford University had raised money at a valuation at or below their peak (see chart). Of those, 212 were valued at under $1bn. As many as 383 had disclosed no new funding in the previous three years; 41 of these had lost unicorn status. As Mr Strebula...