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Top Palo Alto Startups

Top Palo Alto Startups to Watch (and Work for) in 2023

July 15, 2023
      |      Kieran Ryan
Aerial view of Palo Alto

My Background

Hi, I'm Kieran! I worked in startups for five years at On Deck and Wefunder. Some of my favorite things that I've worked on during my career include:

  • Wefunder Workaway: 12 founders working on a new idea, 7 days, 1 mansion in Hawaii. One of the teams we picked raised a Series A from Andreessen Horowitz, and two people who met during the trip got married...
  • On Deck: As employee #15, I contributed to the startup's growth from no revenue to a $20 million run rate in less than a year. I led the team that built the admission infrastructure to support and scale ~20 fellowships for founders, capital allocators, operators, and creators.
  • XX: Worked on a pre-YC accelerator program that invested $125K on an MFN SAFE into 8-10 teams per cohort.
  • ODX: Worked on a $100 million accelerator program that invested $125K for 7% into 100s of startups. We partnered with leaders like Flexport to build vertical industry tracks around supply chain & logistics, etc.
  • Ryan Marketing: Created an influencer marketing startup (2 million+ Instagram followers) during college with my twin brother and realized early that monetization for creators was broken. I learned a lot, and it paid enough to cover my schooling, rent, and meals.

The Methodology

I considered several data points to arrive at the startups selected on this list, including company traction, funding raised, valuation, and investors. From my initial list, I then referenced each startup with my personal network to narrow down the list to the one you see below. I take my credibility seriously, so I do not take any money from startups who want to be included on this list to remain impartial. If you want to understand my analysis of startups and prefer long-form content, read my research on the top startups of 2023 afterward.

Salt Security Logo

Salt Security

API security across build, deploy, and runtime.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Security & Compliance

Founded

2016

Funding

$271 million

Valuation

$1.4 billion

Traction

  • As of February 2022, Salt Security reported 500% growth in revenue, 300% growth in its customer base, and 900% growth with signed customers among Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies.
  • Salt Security’s customers include Equinix, Amway, OneMain Financial, Finastra, Aon, Telefónica, City National Bank, Live Oak Bank, Health Equity, and Navan.

CloseFactor Logo

CloseFactor

Your GTM operating system.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Sales Software

Founded

2020

Funding

$20 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of January 2023, CloseFactor reported 5411% revenue growth over the last ten quarters.
  • As of June 2022, CloseFactor reported customers were seeing a 2-4x increase in high-quality pipeline and the resulting closed deals, and over $1 million in sales productivity savings. 
  • CloseFactor customers include Turing, LaunchDarkly, Zuora, Observe, Chronosphere, Kentik, Stardog, Alteryx.
Cresta Logo

Cresta

Generative AI for the intelligent contact center.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Founded

2008

Funding

$151 million

Valuation

$1.6 billion

Traction

  • In 2022, Cresta’s net revenue retention was 210% and increased its revenue 3x from the previous year.
  • Cresta customers see an average increase of 15% in customer satisfaction rating, reduced ramp time by 3x, and agents save 3-5 hrs weekly on repetitive tasks.
  • Cresta’s technology processes 100 million conversations per year.
Glean Logo

Glean

Enterprise AI search and knowledge discovery.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI), SaaS

Founded

2020

Funding

$155 million

Valuation

$1 billion

Traction

  • Glean saves its average customers 2-3 hours per week.
  • As of May 2022, Glean had 70 customers, including Confluent, Grammarly, Contino, Cro Metrics, Gainsight, Super, Upside, and Wealthsimple.
  • Glean connects with 100+ applications, including Gmail, Figma, Jira, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Okta, GitHub, Confluence, Salesforce, and Slack.
Point Logo

Point

Home equity platform.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Real Estate, Fintech

Founded

2015

Funding

$175 million+

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In 2021, Point surpassed $1 billion in capital commitments from financial institutions buying the Home Equity Investments product.
  • As of May 2023, Point has helped 10,000+ homeowners.
EarnIn Logo

EarnIn

Track and cash out wages in real-time.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Fintech

Founded

2012

Funding

$190.1 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of January 2021, EarnIn claims 49% of users can cover an emergency of $400 since using EarnIn, 73% can budget better and more effectively with EarnIn, and 66% can now pay bills on time with the help of EarnIn.
  • As of December 2018, EarnIn had 1 million+ downloads and was used by employees at 50,000 companies.
  • As of May 2023, EarnIn has rated 4.7/5 stars from 245.8K ratings on the Apple App Store and 4.6/5 stars from 207K ratings on the Google Play Store.
Next Insurance Logo

Next Insurance

Small business insurance quotes online.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Insurance

Founded

2015

Funding

$881 million

Valuation

$4 billion

Traction

  • As of May 2023, Next Insurance has 420,000+ customers, up from 200,000 in March 2021, including small business owners across entertainment, pet care, consulting, contractors, and more.
  • In 2020, Next Insurance reported the number of customers holding one policy increased by 10x, increased the amount of premium written by agent partners by 3x, and hit over $1 million in written premiums in one day for the first time.
Mighty Networks Logo

Mighty Networks

Community platform.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Creators, Edtech

Founded

2017

Funding

$66 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In 2020, Mighty Networks achieved 200% annual growth in new customers, 400% in payments, and 2.5x in annual recurring revenue.
  • As of May 2023, Might Networks has rated 4.8/5 stars from 46K reviews.
  • As of May 2023, Mighty Networks has 50,000+ customers, including brands, founders, and creators like Sophia Amoruso, Fortune, Marisa Peer, Yoga with Adriene, and TED Talks.
Anomalo Logo

Anomalo

Complete data quality platform.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Data

Founded

2018

Funding

$39 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In Q2 2021, Anomalo surpassed $1 million in annualized recurring revenue, 3x over Q1 2021.
  • Anomalo customers include BuzzFeed, Included Health, Discover Financial Services, Substack, Carta, Faire, Block, Aritzia, Fandom, and Notion.
Aisera Logo

Aisera

Generative AI platform for enterprises.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Founded

2017

Funding

$164.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of May 2023, Aisera claims its product saves companies 90% on cost, has a 75% auto-resolution rate, and 85% improvement in CSAT & ESAT.
  • As of August 2022, Aisera has 75 million users across companies like Zoom, Carta, Chegg, Snowflake, Quizlet, Grant Thorton, Dave, and Autodesk.
  • As of August 2022, Aisera has grown 300% YoY.
Instrumental Logo

Instrumental

Manufacturing optimization platform.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Manufacturing

Founded

2015

Funding

$80.3 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of February 2022, Instrumental has 30 customers, including Axon, FLIR Systems, Puffco, and Motorola.
  • In 2021, Instrumental reported 150% net revenue retention.
Legion Logo

Legion

Workforce management platform.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Workforce Management Software

Founded

2016

Funding

$85.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of May 2021, Legion has 20+ customers accounting for 500,000+ employees on the platform.
  • Legion customers include Rite Aid, Barry’s, Dollar General, Panda Express, The RealReal, MUJI, SoulCycle, and Mattress Firm.
  • As of May 2023, Legion claims to save an average of $14.3 million for companies with 10K employees over a three-year period that invests $260K annually in the product.
Limbix Logo

Limbix

Digital therapeutics for adolescent mental health.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Healthcare

Founded

2016

Funding

$31 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Limbix’s product, SparkRx, showed a clinically meaningful reduction in depression symptoms (≥ 5 point symptom reduction across the intervention) when sampling 63 patients with moderate to severe depression symptoms against a control group.
  • Limbix’s product, SparkRx, led to a statistically significant reduction in depression symptoms compared to the active control when sampling 86 patients with moderate to severe depression symptoms against a control group.
Houzz Logo

Houzz

Connect homeowners with home professionals.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Real Estate

Founded

2009

Funding

$613.6 million

Valuation

$4 billion

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Houzz has 25 million+ interior design photos, decor, and decorating ideas on its platform.
  • As of March 2021, Houzz has 2.7 million home professionals on its platform.
  • As of June 2019, Houzz has 40 million monthly users.
Navan Logo

Navan

Corporate travel management.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Travel, Fintech

Founded

2015

Funding

$2.2 billion

Valuation

$9.2 billion

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Navan has thousands of customers, including Lyft, Box, Okta, Snowflake, Lennar, Axios, Yelp, Heineken, and Amplitude.
  • In Q2 FY23, Navan reported 5x YoY gross bookings growth and 7.5x spend volume growth.
Curai Health Logo

Curai Health

AI tech enabling 24/7/365 primary care.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Founded

2016

Funding

$57 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of December 2020, Curai Health has supported 350,000+ patient visits on its platform, and its AI has nearly a 90% diagnosis rate.
Robust.AI Logo

Robust.AI

We make robots work for people.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Robotics

Founded

2019

Funding

$42.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In April 2023, Robust.AI raised $20 million to scale robot deliveries for its pilot customers.
Inflection AI Logo

Inflection AI

Personal AI for everyone.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Founded

2022

Funding

$1.5 billion

Valuation

$4 billion

Traction

  • As of July 2023, Inflection AI has rated 4.6/5 stars from 514 reviews on the Apple App Store.
  • As of June 2023, Inflection AI has access to 22,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, which cost $40,000 apiece.
ClickHouse Logo

ClickHouse

A fast open-source column-oriented database management system.

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Industry

Data, Dev Tools

Founded

2009

Funding

$300 million

Valuation

$2 billion

Traction

  • As of July 2023, ClickHouse has 100,000+ developers on its platform.
  • As of July 2023, ClickHouse’s GitHub has 29.8K stars, 5.9K forks, and 1,276 contributors, up from 20K stars and 800 contributors in October 2021.
  • As of July 2023, ClickHouse has 4,025 developers in its Slack community.
  • As of July 2023, developers have made 32,000+ pull requests, up from 20,000 in October 2021.
  • ClickHouse customers include Cloudflare, eBay, Uber, Comcast, and Cisco.

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