Home     |     Startup Lists
Top San Mateo Startups

Top San Mateo Startups to Watch (and Work for) in 2023

July 14, 2023
      |      Kieran Ryan
Side-angle of a building with a fountain in front and greenery

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.

Verkada Logo

Verkada

A company that develops cloud-based building security and operating systems.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Security & Compliance, Hardware

Founded

2016

Funding

$343.9 million

Valuation

$3.2 billion

Traction

  • As of May 2023, Verkada has 17,000 enterprise customers, including Kogan, La Canada Unified School District, the City of Los Angeles, the City of Las Vegas, Torchy’s Tacos, Canada Goose, Union Station Homeless Services, GEM Supply, and Equinox.
  • As of September 2022, Verkada had 13,000 customers, including over 36 companies from the Fortune 500.
  • Between January 2020 and September 2022, Verkada grew its customer base by 4x.
  • From September 2021 to September 2022, Verkada did nearly 2x revenue YoY.
Sleeper Logo

Sleeper

Fantasy sports platform.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Sports

Founded

2015

Funding

$67.3 million

Valuation

$400 million+

Traction

  • In 2021, Sleeper had 3 million active users, doubling its user base from the previous year, and boasts top 50 user retention in the app store.
Zero Acre Farms Logo

Zero Acre Farms

Cooking oil that’s better for you.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Food & Beverage, Climate

Founded

2020

Funding

$40.6 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Zero Acre Farms claims its cooking oil saves 222 sq. feet of land compared to olive oil.
  • As of June 2023, Zero Acre Farms has 16.6K Instagram followers, 5.5K Twitter followers, and 763 Facebook followers.
Helix Logo

Helix

Population genomics and viral surveillance company.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Healthcare, Biotech

Founded

2015

Funding

$403 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2021, Helix sequences ~20,000 protein-coding genes and 300,000 informative non-coding regions to create robust genomic profiles.
Cyera Logo

Cyera

Automatically discover and classify your data, protect it from exposure, and maintain a resilient posture.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Cybersecurity, Data

Founded

2021

Funding

$64.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Cyera already has multiple Fortune 500 customers. Cyera customers include LifeLabs, ACV Auctions, Cboe Global Markets, Mercury Financial, and United Talent Agency.
Boom.tv Logo

Boom.tv

E-sports entertainment platform.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Gaming, Consumer

Founded

2015

Funding

$24.8 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In 2022, Boom.tv produced 500 Twitch and Youtube broadcasts and reached 50+ million fans.
  • In 2022, Boom.tv’s Code Red series drew a peak viewership of 5 million+ with 15 million+ impressions.
  • As of May 2023, Boom.tv has hosted 50,000+ events and tournaments and given out $50 million+ in prize money.
Sagimet Biosciences Logo

Sagimet Biosciences

Developing a portfolio of novel therapeutics called fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitors.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Healthcare, Biotech

Founded

2006

Funding

$293.7 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In June 2023, Sagimet Biosciences presented a positive Phase 2B of FASCINATE-2 clinical trial for denifanstat.
Rockset Logo

Rockset

Real-time analytics at cloud scale.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Analytics

Founded

2016

Funding

$61.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of October 2020, Rockset reported 290% revenue growth in the last quarter and a 313% growth in the number of queries on its platform.
  • Rockset customers include Allianz Direct, Meta, Whatnot, Command Alkon, SeeSaw, eGoGames, Ritual, DataBrain, Rumble, Matter, Decore.
JetInsight Logo

JetInsight

The modern operating system for business aviation.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Aerospace

Founded

2014

Funding

Undisclosed

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In November 2015, JetInsight participated in NFX’s Class 2 Cohort.
Cobalt Robotics Logo

Cobalt Robotics

Seamless robotics safety for all situations.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Robotics, Hardware

Founded

2016

Funding

$53.3 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Cobalt Robotics was named a 2017 ASIS Accolades Winner and Judges Choice.
  • Cobalt Robotics serves clients in various sectors spanning Technology, Defense, Finance, and Manufacturing.
Notable Labs Logo

Notable Labs

A clinical-stage precision therapeutics company developing a new class of oncology medicines: Predictive Precision Medicines.

Headquarters

Foster City, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2014

Funding

$54.8 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Notable’s predictive precision medicine platform identifies responders with 92% accuracy in a study conducted at Stanford in 2020.
  • As of May 2023, NBL-001, a molecule in Notable’s pipeline, is at phase 1 for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) indication, preclinical for pediatric leukemia indication, and preclinical for solid tumors indication.
  • As of May 2023, Fosciclopirox, a molecule in Notable’s pipeline, is pre-clinical for AML indication.
Skydio Logo

Skydio

Professional drones and autonomous drones.

Headquarters

San Mateo, California

Industry

Drones

Founded

2014

Funding

$562 million

Valuation

$2.2 billion+

Traction

  • As of February 2023, Skydio is used by every branch of the US Department of Defense, over half of the US State Departments of Transportation, and 200+ public safety agencies.
  • As of February 2023, Skydio has 1,200+ enterprise customers and reported 30x growth over the past three years.
  • In February 2022, Skydio won the US Army contract for its Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Program of Record, which has a total contract value of up to $99.8 million.

Explore More Startups Lists

Painted ladies in SF

Top SF Startups

Aerial view of Palo Alto

Top Palo Alto Startups

Truck with yellow remora carbon technology attached to it driving in the desert

Top Climate Startups

black hand holding iphone with stock interface

Top Fintech Startups

computer logo with a bunch of icons coming out of it

Top Dev Tools Startups

dog laying on its back smiling with "giving our best friends more time" written in the background

Top Biotech Startups

100 Thieves cash app compound

Top Creator Economy Startups

photo of a nice home with a sunset in background

Top Travel Startups