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Top SF Startups to Watch (and Work for) in 2023

August 2, 2023
      |      Kieran Ryan
Painted ladies in SF

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.

blue background with white circle with three lines going through left bottom halfside

Linear

A better way to build products.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Product Management Software

Founded

2019

Funding

$52.2 million

Valuation

$400 million

Traction

  • Hundreds of startup product teams are customers of Linear, including Ramp, Cash App, Vercel, Retool, Loom, Descript, and Watershed.
  • In 2021, the Linear team documented 4,387 issues and completed 2,489. That’s an average of 7.17 issues completed per day.

Rippling logo

Rippling

Workforce management platform.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Human Resources & Benefits, SaaS, Cloud

Founded

2016

Funding

$1.2 billion

Valuation

$11.25 billion

Traction

  • Rippling rates as 4.89/5 on Software Advice, 4.8 on G2, 4.9 on Capterra, and 4.9 on GetApp by customers.
  • Rippling helps customers save time and money by reducing admin hours and the number of tasks required for HR & IT teams. Compass Coffee reduced HR & IT admin tasks by 96% by using Rippling. Double Good saves $50K annually by cutting onboarding and payroll time by 10x.
OpenAI logo

OpenAI

An AI research and deployment company that created ChatGPT.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Founded

2015

Funding

$11.3 billion

Valuation

$27-$29 billion

Traction

  • As of August 2023, OpenAI surpassed a $1 billion revenue run rate.
  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT reached 100 million users in 2 months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer app ever.
  • ChatGPT attracted close to 1.6 billion visits in March 2023.
  • OpenAI jumped 15 spots since last quarter, up to 3rd overall for most in-demand shares in the venture capital secondary market, according to Setter Capital.
Pave logo

Pave

The leading data-driven compensation platform.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Compensation, Data

Founded

2019

Funding

$163 million

Valuation

$1.6 billion

Traction

  • Pave supports 2,500+ customers, including Airtable, Affirm, Miro, Faire, Discord, Hubspot, Sweetgreen, Attentive, Snackpass, Credit Karma, Ro, Checkr, and Dropbox.
Deel logo

Deel

The future of global HR.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Human Resources & Benefits, SaaS, Cloud

Founded

2018

Funding

$679 million

Valuation

$12 billion

Traction

  • Deel supports 15,000 businesses, processed $5.5 billion payments, helped companies hire 150,000 workers, and is available in 150 countries. Customers include Nike, Dropbox, Shopify, Notion, Reebok, Forever 21, and Revolut.
Loom logo

Loom

Async video messaging for work.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Online Audio & Video Media

Founded

2015

Funding

$203.6 million

Valuation

Acquired by Atlassian for $975 million

Traction

  • More than 21 million users at 200,000 organizations use Loom. Customers include Amazon, Disney, Tesla, Brex, Ford, and Goldman Sachs.
White letter "F" on a black background

Faire

Online wholesale marketplace for retailers and brands.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Marketplace

Founded

2017

Funding

$1.7 billion

Valuation

$12.59 billion

Traction

  • 70,000 retailers in 50,000 cities buy from 100,000 brands selling on Faire. The company has facilitated 6 million introductions between retailers and brands.
  • Open with Faire, a program to help retailers with inventory financing, distributed $60 million in its first year.
  • 3/4 of Faire’s customers have other sales channels outside physical retail, which allowed them to continue to grow during the pandemic and keep growing through the downturn.
Scale AI logo

Scale AI

Accelerate the development of AI Applications.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Founded

2016

Funding

$602.6 million

Valuation

$7.3 billion

Traction

  • Scale AI customers span enterprises, startups, governments, and generative AI companies, including Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, GM, Toyota, Brex, Flexport, Instacart, US Army, and the US Airforce.
  • The company reports 7.7 billion annotations and 1 billion+ 2D and 3D scenes labeled.

Letter "N" on the face of a 3D box

Notion

A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Work Collaboration & Productivity, SaaS

Founded

2012

Funding

$343.2 million

Valuation

$10 billion

Traction

  • Notion has 20 million+ users, up from 1 million in 2019.
  • Notion customers include teams at Loom, Figma, Buffer, Headspace, Branch, Typeform, Deel, Primer, Mixpanel, Chipper, and Curology.
black triangle

Vercel

The platform for frontend developers providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Dev Tools

Founded

2015

Funding

$313 million

Valuation

$2.5 billion+

Traction

  • Vercel serves 41 billion+ weekly requests from developers working with 30+ Vercel frameworks.
  • Frontend teams at Adobe, Loom, The Washington Post, HashiCorp, Zapier, Okta, and Under Armour are customers of Vercel.
  • As of 2021, Next.js, a Vercel application, has grown to 2 million weekly npm installs.
White flag outline with black flag inside

Brex

Cards, expense management, travel, and bill pay – in one global solution.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Fintech

Founded

2017

Funding

$1.5 billion

Valuation

$12.3 billion

Traction

  • As of July 2023, Brex expects to hit $500 million in annualized revenue within the next 12 months.
  • As of July 2023, Brex reported over 20,000 customers, including Airbnb, Y Combinator, Carta, Classpass, Vouched, and Mutiny.
  • As of July 2023, Brex manages billions of dollars in customer deposits, processes tens of billions in transactions, and is used in 100+ countries.
  • In 2022, Brex increased revenue by 200%.
  • In Q1 2021, Brex reported its total number of customers grew by 80%, and total monthly customers grew by 5x.
  • 91% of the latest Y Combinator batch, YC S23, choose Brex.
Flexport Logo

Flexport

Technology platform for global logistics.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Supply Chain & Logistics, SaaS

Founded

2013

Funding

$2.4 billion

Valuation

$8 billion

Traction

    • In the first half of 2023, Flexport did $700 million in revenue, down ~70%.
    • Flexport has 10,000+ customers, including Rothy’s, Everlane, Bombas, Outdoor Voices, and Caraway.
    • In 2021, Flexport technology moved nearly $19 billion of merchandise across 112 countries.
    • Flexport saves customers 208 hours annually by customers who use them over other freight forwarders.

    Retool Logo

    Retool

    Build internal tools remarkably fast.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Dev Tools, SaaS, No-Code & Low-Code

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $141 million

    Valuation

    $3.2 billion

    Traction

    • 500,000+ apps have been built on Retool. Retool’s customers include Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Amazon, Allbirds, Rakuten, Peloton, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, and Jaguar Land Rover.
    • It took Snowflake 60% dilution to get from a valuation of $260 million to $3.55 billion. In comparison, it took Retool around ~9% dilution to achieve a similar rise in valuation.
    Newfront logo

    Newfront

    Modern business insurance company.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Insurance

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $310 million

    Valuation

    $2.2 billion

    Traction

    • Newfront Insurance has 10,000 customers across 20+ industries and service groups.
    • Newfront Insurance places $2 billion in premiums annually.
    • In 2021, Newfront Insurance merged with ABD.
    Modern Treasury Logo

    Modern Treasury

    Platform to make tracking and controlling all your company's money movement seamless.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fintech

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $183 million

    Valuation

    $2 billion+

    Traction

    • Modern Treasury reconciles $5 billion for its customers monthly, up from $2.8 billion in April 2022.
    • Modern Treasury customers include Pipe, Settle, ClassPass, Parafin, Navan, Outdoorsy, Sana, and Wholesail.
    • Modern Treasury has integrations to 30+ leading commercial banks, including Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Silicon Valley Bank, Wells Fargo, and NetSuite.

    Purple llama face smiling in a circle

    Vanta

    The leading trust management platform that helps simplify & centralize security for organizations of all sizes.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance, SaaS

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $203 million

    Valuation

    $1.6 billion

    Traction

    • As of June 2023, Vanta reported ~$80 million in ARR and is adding ~600 customers per quarter.
    • Vanta has 5,000+ customers, including Gusto, Modern Treasury, Gem, Autodesk, Shortcut, Quora, Chili Piper, Flo Health, and Affinity.
    • In 2022, Vanta surpassed $10 million+ in ARR and reportedly excelled in burn rate, capital efficiency, and gross margins.
    Black letter "Z" with white background

    Zip

    Modern spend approvals.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Procurement

    Founded

    2020

    Funding

    $181 million

    Valuation

    $1.5 billion

    Traction

    • Zip has 100+ customers, including Coinbase, Databricks, Notion, Carta, Snowflake, Hopin, Checkr, Canva, Zapier, and Webflow.
    • As of May 2023, $937 million in total savings has been tracked through Zip, and nearly $1 billion gets approved from customers monthly.
    CoinTracker Logo

    CoinTracker

    Cryptocurrency tax & portfolio software.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Cryptocurrency

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $101.6 million

    Valuation

    $1.3 billion

    Traction

    • 1 million users+ track $50 billion in crypto assets on CoinTracker, accounting for 3% of crypto’s market cap.
    • CoinTracker supports 10,000+ crypto assets.

    Two overlapping blue triangles with white background.

    Modern Health

    Mental healthcare designed for your workforce.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Healthcare

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $167.4 million

    Valuation

    $1.17 billion

    Traction

    • Over 80% of members reported improved or maintained well-being when using Modern Health.
    • Modern Health serves 250+ enterprise customers, including Dropbox, Lyft, Palo Alto Networks, Mile Two, Alector, Carrot Fertility, Workiva, Aesop, Eventbrite, Marqeta, and Zendesk.

    Watershed Logo

    Watershed

    The enterprise climate platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Climate

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $84 million

    Valuation

    $1 billion

    Traction

    • Watershed’s customers, including BlackRock, Shopify, Stripe, DoorDash, Spotify, Okta, and Airbnb, manage more than 20 million tonnes of CO2e per year (4x the carbon footprint of San Francisco) through the platform. 
    • In February 2022, Watershed acquired VitalMetrics, the world’s most comprehensive multi-regional greenhouse gas emission database.
    Databricks Logo

    Databricks

    Data lakehouse architecture and AI company.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data, Cloud

    Founded

    2013

    Funding

    $3.5 billion

    Valuation

    $38 billion

    Traction

    • Databricks has over 7,000 customers, including Adobe, Rolls Royce, Comcast, Condé Nast, H&M, AT&T, Shell, Walgreens, Air Canada, Toyota, and T-Mobile.
    • Over 40% of the Fortune 500 relies on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data.
    • Databricks has hundreds of global partners, including Microsoft, Amazon, Tableau, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

    AtoB Logo

    AtoB

    Fuel cards, fleet gas cards, and fleet card management.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Mobility & Transportation, SaaS

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $182 million

    Valuation

    $800 million

    Traction

    • Expected revenue for 2022 was over $20 million, up from $2 million in 2021.
    • 25,000 trucking companies and commercial drivers use AtoB. AtoB’s customers include Uber Freight, Thumbtack, Infinity Energy, Kyte, and uShip.
    • On average, the AtoB fuel card saves customers 43 cents per gallon.

    Instacart Logo, which looks like the top half of a carrot

    Instacart

    Grocery delivery or pickup from local stores near you.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Food Delivery

    Founded

    2012

    Funding

    $2.9 billion

    Valuation

    Valued at $10 billion at IPO in Sept. 2023

    Traction

    • Instacart offers retail enablement solutions for over 1,100 retail customers across more than 80,000 locations.
    • Instacart revenue was reported at ~$2.5 billion for 2022, up 39% over 2021.
    • In Q4 2022, Instacart’s gross profits increased by 80%.

    "Pilot" in purple font on white background

    Pilot

    Bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services for startups & small businesses.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fintech

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $161.3 million

    Valuation

    $1.2 billion

    Traction

    • In 2020, Pilot booked over $3 billion in bookkeeping transactions for its customers.
    • Pilot has over 1,000 customers, including Gem, CoinTracker, OpenAI, Lattice, Scale AI, and Airtable.

    Loyal Logo

    Loyal

    A clinical-stage veterinary medicine company on a mission to help dogs live longer, healthier lives.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Biotech, Pets

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $58 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Loyal’s team has published 152 papers, worked on 56 clinical drug programs, and combined for 192 years of research.
    • Loyal received protocol concurrence from the FDA for its companion dog longevity study.
    Coda logo

    Coda

    The doc for everyone.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Work Collaboration & Productivity, SaaS

    Founded

    2014

    Funding

    $240 million

    Valuation

    $1.4 billion

    Traction

    • 25,000+ teams use Coda, including customers from Uber, Square, Robinhood, BuzzFeed, The New York Times, Pinterest, Plato, and TED.
    • Coda is used by 80% of the Fortune 100.

    Letter "S" written with purple, blue, and turquoise gradient on white background

    Secureframe

    Automated security and compliance software.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance, SaaS

    Founded

    2020

    Funding

    $78.5 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed.

    Traction

    • Secureframe supports 13 frameworks, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI, NIST 800-53, and GDPR.
    • Thousands of customers use Secureframe, including Ramp, Coda, Doodle, AngelList, Smartcar, and Lyra Health.

    Grammarly logo

    Grammarly

    Free writing AI assistance.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Writing, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2009

    Funding

    $400 million

    Valuation

    $13 billion

    Traction

    • Grammarly has 30 million daily active users.
    • Grammarly has 50,000+ professional and enterprise team customers. Teams from Zoom, Expedia, KPMG, Databricks, Everlane, Atlassian, and HackerOne use Grammarly.
    • Grammarly works across 500,000 applications and websites, including email clients like Gmail and Apple Mail, social media like Facebook and Twitter, and documents and projects like Google Docs and Microsoft Word.
    Descript Logo

    Descript

    All-in-one video and podcast editing.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Audio & Video, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $100 million

    Valuation

    ~$550 million

    Traction

    • Descript customers include thousands of podcasts like NPR Planet Money, NPR How I Built This, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Work Life Adam Grant, Sway by The New York Times, and organizations like Shopify, MasterClass, Stanford University, Hubspot, Headspace, and iHeartMedia.
    Roam logo

    Roam

    A notetaking tool for networked thought.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Work Collaboration & Productivity

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $9 million

    Valuation

    $200 million

    Traction

    • Roam raised its Seed round at a $200 million valuation, 25x the median for a startup.
    Mercury Logo

    Mercury

    Banking for startups.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fintech, Banking

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $152.2 million

    Valuation

    $1.62 billion

    Traction

    • Mercury processed $50 billion in transactions in 2022.
    • Mercury added $2 billion+ in deposits and thousands of new accounts since Silicon Valley Bank fell on March 10, 2023.
    Replit Logo

    Replit

    The collaborative browser-based online integrated development environment.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Dev Tools, SaaS

    Founded

    2016

    Funding

    $202 million

    Valuation

    $1.16 billion

    Traction

    • Replit has 22.5 million users from 200+ countries.
    • In March 2023, Replit partnered with Google to take on Microsoft’s GitHub.
    Apollo.io logo

    Apollo.io

    Sales intelligence and engagement platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Sales Intelligence

    Founded

    2015

    Funding

    $251.3 million

    Valuation

    $1.6 billion

    Traction

    • As of August 2023, Apollo.io reported 900% revenue growth since 2021.
    • As of August 2023, Apollo.io has 500,000 customers, 40,000 which are paying, including sells from Stripe, Rippling, Autodesk, Qualtrics, Customer.io and Census.
    • From its Series B in November 2021 to its Series C in March 2022, the company increased its paying customers by 60% from 9,000 to 16,000+ businesses.
    • Apollo.io’s database has 265 million+ contacts.

    Kindred logo

    Kindred

    Trusted home swapping & exchange community.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Marketplace, Real Estate, Travel

    Founded

    2021

    Funding

    $22.8 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Kindred has received 20,000+ membership applications since launching in 2021.
    • Kindred members have spent over 5,000 nights at one another’s homes.
    white "IQ" on dark background for the company's logo

    CaptivateIQ

    Sales commission management software.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Sales Software

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $164.6 million

    Valuation

    $1.25 billion

    Traction

    • CaptivateIQ has hundreds of customers like Gong, Plaid, Arctic Wolf, ServiceTitan, Affirm, DataRobot, Lattice, Podium, and ClassPass.
    • CaptivateIQ’s average customer satisfaction rating from 2300+ customers is 4.7/5 stars.
    • From 2020-2021, CaptivateIQ reported 3x revenue growth.
    Bigeye logo

    Bigeye

    Data quality automation platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $66 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • From Q4 2020 to Q3 2021, Bigeye achieved four consecutive quarters of doubling usage and new customers.
    • Bigeye has tracked 50 million data check runs on its platform.
    • Bigeye customers include Instacart, Udacity, Recharge, Clubhouse, Scale, Docker, SignalFire, Crux, and Mayan.
    Census Logo

    Census

    Data activation platform built on your warehouse.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $80.3 million

    Valuation

    $630 million

    Traction

    • Census has a couple of hundred customers, including Notion, MasterClass, Intercom, ClickUp, Sonos, Canva, Zip, Smartify, Figma, Apollo.io, Guru, Fivetran, Loom, and Mixpanel.
    • Census supports 150+ integrations, including Snowflake, Databricks, Google Sheets, Postgres, BigQuery, MySQL, Azure Synapse, S3, Redshift, and Microsoft SQL Server.
    Cribl logo

    Cribl

    Radically simplifying observability streaming.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $402.2 million

    Valuation

    $2.5 billion

    Traction

    • In 2021, Cribl’s customer base tripled, and ARR increased 300%. Cribl's customers include Accenture, Autodesk, Sally, Vodafone, Shutterfly, and BlueVoyant.
    • In 2022, Cribl’s grew at a 25% compound annual growth rate.
    data.ai logo

    data.ai

    Mobile data analytics tools.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data

    Founded

    2010

    Funding

    $157.1 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • In March 2019, data.ai crossed $100 million in ARR.
    • data.ai has 1,400+ customers, including Canva, Pinterest, VSCO, LinkedIn, NerdWallet, Coca-Cola, United Airlines, MUJI, and Mercari.
    • data.ai’s platform aggregates data from more than 1 million apps.
    • data.ai has been cited as a source by Apple, EA, Softbank, Snap, Tencent, and more in S-1s and financial and earning reports.
    Domino Data Lab Logo

    Domino Data Lab

    Unleash data science at scale.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data

    Founded

    2013

    Funding

    $223.6 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • More than 20% of the Fortune 100 are customers of Domino Data Lab, including Lockheed Martin, Johnson & Johnson, Moody’s Analytics, Topdanmark, AES, Bayer, Allstate, BNP Paribas Cardif, Eli Lilly, Ford, Red Hat, GAP, and New York Life.
    • Domino Data Lab typical customer results are 542% ROI, 80% faster model deployment, 50% shorter model lifecycle, and 75% faster onboarding.
    Doppler logo

    Doppler

    An uncomplicated way to sync, manage, orchestrate, and rotate secrets across any environment or app config with easy-to-use tools.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $28.8 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Doppler has over 31,500 customers from teams from startups and enterprises like Toast, Outreach, Puma, Whatnot, ClickUp, Deel, Indie Hackers, Snackpass, On Deck, Hyper, Endear, Secureframe, and Carbon.
    • Doppler’s platform supports over 6.5 billion secrets fetched monthly and stores over 1.2 million secrets.
    • Doppler seamlessly syncs with a growing list of infrastructure tools, platforms, and cloud secret managers like Gitlab, Railway, GCP Secret Manager, Kubernetes, Vercel, Heroku, GitHub Secrets, and AWS Secrets Manager.

    Figma Logo

    Figma

    The collaborative interface design tool.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Design Software, Cloud

    Founded

    2012

    Funding

    $333.4 million

    Valuation

    $10 billion

    Traction

    • The company surpassed 4 million registered users in 2020.
    • Figma customers include teams at Carta, Datadog, Oqton, Stripe, Stash, Elsewhen, Netflix, Twitter, GitHub, Square, Repsol, Zoom, Notion, Uber, Microsoft, Gusto, Coinbase, and Stitch Fix.
    Front logo

    Front

    Customer communication platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Work Collaboration & Productivity

    Founded

    2013

    Funding

    $203.6 million

    Valuation

    $1.7 billion

    Traction

    • In June 2022, Front surpassed 8,000 customers, including Dropbox, Mailchimp, GoDaddy, Hootsuite, Shopify, Lydia, Branch, Carvana, Culture Amp, ClickUp, and sennder.
    • As of June 2022, Front’s net retention was 130%+, and daily active users were 75%+.
    Gong logo

    Gong

    Revenue intelligence platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Revenue Operations

    Founded

    2015

    Funding

    $584 million

    Valuation

    $7.25 billion

    Traction

    • Gong increased ARR 2.3x between Q1 of 2020 and Q1 of 2021.
    • In 2022, Gong received several G2 awards, including #1 in Best Software Products and #1 in Highest Satisfaction Products.
    • As of May 2023, Gong has 3,000+ customers (up from ~2,000 in 2021 and ~1,000 in 2020), including Okta, Zillow, Morningstar, LinkedIn, Monday.com, PayScale, TouchBistro, and Tech Data.

    Ironclad Logo

    Ironclad

    Contract management software.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Digital Contract Management

    Founded

    2014

    Funding

    $334 million

    Valuation

    $3.2 billion

    Traction

    • Ironclad has millions of users from companies like Rippling, InStride, Everlaw, Intercom, L’Oréal, Pubmatic, Snap, Asana, and DoorDash.
    • Ironclad reports an 80% increase in efficiency for its customers.
    • As of May 2023, Ironclad has rated 4.5/5 stars on G2 from 109 reviews.

    "O" with a black dot in the center

    Observable

    Collaborative data platform and canvas.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data

    Founded

    2016

    Funding

    $46.1 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of January 2022, the Observable community surpassed 5 million people.
    • As of May 2023, the Observable community has created 200,000+ data visualization examples to use as a starting point for your company’s visualization.
    • Observable’s customers include thousands of data scientists, data analysts, and engineers at organizations like OpenAI, Stitch Fix, Twitter, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Economist, NBC News, MIT, McKinsey & Company, and Trase.

    Mutiny Logo

    Mutiny

    Turn your website into your #1 revenue channel.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Artificial Intelligence (AI), SaaS

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $71.6 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Mutiny customers include Carta, Attentive, Sprig, Clearbit, Navattic, Snowflake, Notion, and Brex.
    • TechCrunch reported Mutiny’s revenue was on track to 4x in fiscal quarter 2022.
    • According to its CEO, as of April 2022, 50 million people across more than 3 million companies have seen a website personalized by Mutiny’s AI engine.
    Productboard Logo

    Productboard

    Helping product teams understand customers' needs, prioritize what to build next, and align everyone around the roadmap.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Product Management Software

    Founded

    2014

    Funding

    $262 million

    Valuation

    $1.725 billion

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Productboard has 6,000+ customers, including Zoom, Salesforce, UiPath, Avast, Pitney Bowes, Axon, JPMorgan Chase, Flatiron Health, Fastly, and HERE Technologies.
    • 88% of its customers recommend Productboard’s roadmaps to friends or colleagues.
    • 75% of its customers saved time with Productboard’s roadmaps replacing manual slide updates.
    Remote Logo

    Remote

    Global HR solution and employment tools.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Human Resources & Benefits, SaaS

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $496 million

    Valuation

    $3 billion

    Traction

    • As of April 2022, Remote reported a 900% in the number of employees processed through its platform in the last year and 13x revenue growth.
    • As of April 2023, Remote’s customer satisfaction rating is 92.5.
    • Remote provides services to 75+ countries and 35+ currencies. 
    • Remote’s customers include GitLab, DoorDash, Hello Fresh, Loom, Paystack, Gymshark, Linear, Klarna, Burger King, Pento, Arduino, Aston Martin, Mavenoid, cargo.one, &Open, Swell, and Nearcut.

    Sourcegraph Logo

    Sourcegraph

    Sourcegraph builds universal code searches for every developer and company so they can innovate faster.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Dev Tools

    Founded

    2013

    Funding

    $248 million

    Valuation

    $2.6 billion

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Sourcegraph has 1.8 million+ users.
    • Sourcegraph customers include developers at companies like HashiCorp, Indeed, Yelp, SoFi, Lyft, Thorn, Quantcast, Convoy, F5, CERN, Workiva, FactSet, Nutanix, Neo Financial, Uber, Redfin, Plaid, and Databricks.
    Tecton Logo

    Tecton

    Feature platform for machine learning.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $160 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • From July 2021-July 2022, Tecton reported a 5x increase in top-line revenue and a nearly 3x increase in annual recurring revenue in the past year.
    • Tecton customers include Cash App, Atlassian, Hellofresh, tide, Varo, Convoy, Samba TV, Depop, Roblox, Progressive, Shutterstock, Plaid, FanDuel, Riot Games.
    Strava Logo

    Strava

    Running, cycling, and hiking app.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fitness

    Founded

    2009

    Funding

    $151.9 million

    Valuation

    $1.5 billion

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Strava has 100 million+ users in 195+ countries.
    Truework Logo

    Truework

    Employment and verification platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance, SaaS

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $118.9 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Truework has 17,000 lending customers and 20,000 business customers and receives 12 million requests per year.
    • 20 of the top 25 mortgage lenders in the United States use Truework.
    • Truework customers include Caliber Home Loans, Carvana, Better, Octane, Intercap Lending, DriveTime, and Figure.
    • Through partnerships with payroll providers like Gusto, Zenefits, and BambooHR, Truework has the second-largest instant verification network with over 35 million employees.
    Zapier Logo

    Zapier

    Workflow automation for everyone.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    SaaS, No-Code & Low-Code, Cloud

    Founded

    2011

    Funding

    $1.4 million

    Valuation

    $5 billion

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Zapier has 5,000+ integrations with top web apps like Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, Google Calendar, and Mailchimp.
    • As of May 2023, 2 million businesses use Zapier, including Slack, Meta, Shopify, Dropbox, and Asana.
    • In March 2021, Zapier had $140 million in recurring revenue.
    White big "A" next to little "a" on purple background

    Aalto

    Homes you won’t find anywhere else.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Real Estate

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $17.3 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of August 2021, Aalto had 30,000 buyers signed up and had sold more than 12 homes on the platform.
    • As of May 2023, Aalto has 163 homes in San Francisco on its platform.
    Anrok Logo

    Anrok

    The global sales tax solution built for SaaS.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance

    Founded

    2020

    Funding

    $24.3 million

    Valuation

    $100 million+

    Traction

    • As of May 2022, Anrok reported a 7x increase in revenue in the last six months.
    • Anrok customers include Notion, Pave, Vanta, Gem, Front, AgentSync.
    Cortex Logo

    Cortex

    Making it easy for engineering organizations to gain visibility into their services and deliver high-quality software.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Dev Tools

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $53 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Cortex customers include Dropbox, Rappi, Adobe, Unity, Tripadivsor, Brex, OpenDoor, Grammarly, Affirm, and StockX engineering teams.
    • Between May 2021 and November 2021, Cortex reported 10x customer growth.
    Flagship Logo

    Flagship

    Turn your community into a thriving business with a flagship boutique.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Retail, Creators

    Founded

    2022

    Funding

    Undisclosed

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Flagship brand customers include Milton & Goose, Caraway, Lovevery, BruMate, Nathan James, and St. Roche.
    • Flagship creator customers include Alicia Lund (@aliciamlund), Beverley Mitchell (@beverleymitchell), Heather Nicholson (@daughtersandthings), Katie Staples (@halfwaywholeistic), Chelsey Carele (@chelseycarele), and Marquis Clarke (@simplyclarke)
    Harvey Logo

    Harvey

    Unprecedented legal artificial intelligence.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2022

    Funding

    $21 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of April 2023, Harvey has 15,000 law firms on its waitlist.
    • In March 2023, Harvey announced a partnership with PwC.
    Parallel Logo

    Parallel

    Bringing DeFi to one billion people.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Cryptocurrency

    Founded

    2021

    Funding

    $29 million

    Valuation

    $500 million

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Parallel has 300,000+ users (up from 3,000 users in August 2021) and has $219,408,475 in total locked value (up from $700 million in total locked value in April 2022).
    • As of May 2023, Parallel’s Discord community has 128,561 members.
    • As of April 2022, Parallel has captured 22% of the total DOT crowd loan market.
    Orange "gusto" on white background

    Gusto

    Hire, pay, insure, and support your team.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Human Resources & Benefits, Cloud

    Founded

    2011

    Funding

    $746.1 million

    Valuation

    $10 billion

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Gusto has 300,000 customers, including Goldbelly, Spiked Spin, Finder.com, Lemon Yellow, Sleep Reset, Tinpot Creamery, Handlebar Cyclery, and American Canning.
    • As of August 2021, Gusto had more than 200,000 customers.
    Jellyfish on blue background

    Benchling

    Cloud-based platform for biotech R&D.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Biotech, SaaS

    Founded

    2012

    Funding

    $411.9 million

    Valuation

    $6.1 billion

    Traction

    • Benchling customers include BridgeBio, Geltor, Perfect Day, Bright Peak Therapeutics, Design Therapeutics, and 23andMe. 
    • As of May 2023, Benchling reported customers accelerating workflow cycle time by 38%.
    Checkr Logo

    Checkr

    Employee background screening for companies.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance, Cloud

    Founded

    2014

    Funding

    $679 million

    Valuation

    $4.6 billion

    Traction

    • As of September 2021, Checkr processes 30 million background checks annually. 
    • As of May 2023, Checkr can run background checks in 200+ countries and territories.
    • As of May 2023, Checkr has 15,000+ enterprise customers, including Netflix, Instacart, Hot Topic, Shipt, Addeco, Papa John’s, Angi, Elwood Staffing, and HomeCare.com.
    Tavus Logo

    Tavus

    AI video personalization platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2021

    Funding

    $6.1 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Tavus customers include Verkada, Pathrise, Genesys, Allurion, Snappr, SafeGraph, Yat, and TriNetX.
    • Tavus claims its product is helping some customers see a 10x increase in engagement, a 5x increase in click-through rates, and an 8x increase in conversions.
    NewLimit Logo

    NewLimit

    Aims to increase each person's healthy years by epigenetically reprogramming cells.

    Headquarters

    South San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Biotech

    Founded

    2021

    Funding

    $40 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • In April 2023, NewLimit completed its first partial reprogramming screen in human T cells from healthy young and old donors.
    • In February 2023, NewLimit made several improvements to its Delivery Engine, and it’s now  >100X more efficient than its initial manufacturing runs in 2022.
    Snackpass Logo

    Snackpass

    The all-in-one platform for quick-serve restaurants.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Consumer, Food Delivery

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $95.6 million

    Valuation

    $400 million+

    Traction

    • As of June 2021, Snackpass has 500,000+ users in 13 college towns and has seen 7x YoY growth.
    • Snackpass customers include Johnny Rockets, Tiger Sugar, Moge Tee, Joe’s Pizza, Jamba Juice, and Pokeworks.
    Labelbox Logo

    Labelbox

    Training data platform for machine learning applications.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $188.9 million

    Valuation

    ~$1 billion

    Traction

    • Labelbox customers include NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Genentech, Burberry, Ancestry, Walmart, Nayya, Procter & Gamble, and Criteo.
    Kubecost Logo

    Kubecost

    Kubernetes cost monitoring and management.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Cloud

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $30.5 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of February 2022, Kubecost’s solution manages over $2 billion in Kubernetes spending for 2,000+ customers.
    • Kubernetes customers include Adobe, Under Armour, TiVo, GitLab, FreshBooks, Spreetail, and Allianz.
    Glide Logo

    Glide

    App development platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    No-Code & Low Code

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $23.8 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of April 2022, Glide has 500,000+ users that have created one million+ apps and pages.
    • As of May 2023, Glide has 85,000+ corporate customers, including Zapier, Lowe’s, Whirlpool, Oyster HR, and Royal Greyhound.
    Cocoon Logo

    Cocoon

    Leave management platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Human Resources & Benefits

    Founded

    2020

    Funding

    $25.5 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Cocoon has 100+ customers, including Notion, Benchling, Carta, Superhuman, Modern Health, Impossible Foods, Curology, and Khan Academy.
    Airbase Logo

    Airbase

    Spend management software.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fintech

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $91 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Airbase customers include Coda, Affinity, Fivetran, Front, Modern Treasury, Productboard, Dapper Labs, Cobalt, Docker, Netlify, and OpenAI.
    • As of May 2023, Airbase is rated 4.8/5 stars based on 1,373 reviews on G2.
    Rupa Health Logo

    Rupa Health

    A simpler way to order specialty lab work.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Healthcare

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $25.8 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Rupa Health’s platform now has lab tests from 30+ laboratories, up from 3,000+ specialty lab tests from 25+ laboratories in March 2022.
    Plaid Logo

    Plaid

    Enabling all companies to build fintech solutions.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fintech, Cloud

    Founded

    2013

    Funding

    $734.3 million

    Valuation

    $13.4 billion

    Traction

    • As of May 2023, Plaid’s API network powers 7,000+ apps and services and connects to 12,000+ financial institutions.
    • As of December 2020, Plaid’s annualized revenue rate reached ~$170 million.
    ONE Logo

    ONE

    Save, spend, and grow your money all in one place.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Fintech

    Founded

    2019

    Funding

    $66 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of August 2021, ONE has collectively helped users save $2 million.
    Figure Logo

    Figure

    Loan origination, equity management, private fund services, banking and payments company.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Banking

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $1.5 billion

    Valuation

    $3.2 billion

    Traction

    • As of February 2022, Figure has 60,000+ members across the United States and provided $5 billion in funding for members.
    • As of May 2023, Figure has a 4.4/5 star rating from 2,151 reviews on Trustpilot.
    Forma Logo

    Forma

    Flexible employee benefits.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Human Resources & Benefits

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $57.6 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • From March 2021 to March 2022, Forma reported a 4x increase in revenue, a 330% increase in its customer base, and 125 customers.
    • As of May 2023, Forma has 550,000+ members.
    • Forma customers include Lululemon, Zoom, Stripe, Palo Alto Networks, Dyson, New Balance, Affirm, Spotify, Snap, Etsy, Instacart, Twitch, Tripadvisor, and Collective Health.
    • As of May 2023, Forma claims 78% monthly utilization from members monthly, 51% perceived value for every $1 put in a Forma LSA, and 98% 5-year aggregate customer satisfaction score.
    Sprig Logo

    Sprig

    User insights platform.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Product Management Software, SaaS

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $88 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • From August 2021 to August 2022, Sprig’s net recurring revenue grew by 300%.
    • Sprig customers include Notion, Webflow, Dropbox, Robinhood, Loom, Square, Coinbase, Ironclad, Opendoor, and Adobe.
    Pantheon Logo

    Pantheon

    Design, innovate, and deploy websites fast.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Cloud, Software

    Founded

    2010

    Funding

    $200 million

    Valuation

    $1 billion+

    Traction

    • As of July 2021, Pantheon has 12,000+ customers reaching more than 1 billion unique visitors monthly.
    • As of May 2023, Pantheon hosts 700K+ websites, reaches 17 billion+ unique visitors monthly, and has 2.5K+ agency partners.
    Persona Logo

    Persona

    Identity verification solutions.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Security & Compliance

    Founded

    2018

    Funding

    $217.5 million

    Valuation

    $1.5 billion

    Traction

    • From September 2020 to September 2021, Persona increased revenues by 20x and its customer base by 5x.
    • Persona customers include Coursera, Square, Lime, Brex, Sonder, Branch, Outdoorsy, AngelList, Remote, and Playboy.
    Pocus Logo

    Pocus

    Revenue data platform for go-to-market teams.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Revenue Operations, Data

    Founded

    2021

    Funding

    $23 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • Pocus customers include Webflow, Miro, Loom, Linear, Superhuman, OpenPhone, Clockwise, PostHog, and ngrok.
    • As of June 2022, Pocus’ Slack community has 1,200 members.
    • As of May 2023, Pocus claims customers save 13+ hours weekly, a 200% increase in open rates, a 10% higher conversion on product-qualified leads, a 32% increase in actual cash value, and a 50%+ pipeline surfaced to uncover hidden revenue.
    Patch Logo

    Patch

    The platform scaling unified climate action.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Climate

    Founded

    2020

    Funding

    $81.5 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of June 2023, Patch reports 400+ customers, up from 100 in September 2022, and 160+ climate projects that the company partners with to drive impact.
    • Patch customers include Credit Suisse, Bain & Company, Deloitte, Plaid, EasyPost, and Farfetch.
    • Between September 2021 and September 2022, Patch reported 5x customer growth and now has 100+ corporate customers.
    Handshake Logo

    Handshake

    The #1 way students find jobs.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Consumer, Edtech

    Founded

    2014

    Funding

    $434 million

    Valuation

    $3.5 billion

    Traction

    • As of June 2023, Handshake has 12 million+ active students, 1,400+ university partners, and 750K+ employers on its platform.
    • In 2021, Handshake reported 1.7 million connections were made between candidates and employers.
    Future Logo

    Future

    Personal training, made modern.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Consumer, Fitness

    Founded

    2017

    Funding

    $110.5 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of June 2023, Future rates 4.9/5 stars from 8.1K reviews on the Apple App Store.
    • As of February 2022, Future was on pace to hit $100 million in ARR by early 2023.
    • As of February 2022, Future users traded an average of four messages per day, or 1,500 per year, with their coaches.
    • As of February 2022, Future had a net promoter score of 90.
    Anthropic Logo

    Anthropic

    An AI safety and research company.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2021

    Funding

    $1.5 billion

    Valuation

    $4.1 billion+

    Traction

    • In May 2023, Anthropic announced a partnership with Zoom to build customer-facing AI products.
    • In May 2023, Anthropic expanded Claude’s, its AI assistant, context window from 9K to 100K tokens to analyze ~75,000 words.
    • In April 2023, Anthropic’s partnership with Scale AI gave them distribution to all of Scale AI’s customers.
    Perplexity AI Logo

    Perplexity AI

    AI-powered chat tool that acts as a search engine.

    Headquarters

    San Francisco, California

    Industry

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Founded

    2022

    Funding

    $26 million

    Valuation

    Undisclosed

    Traction

    • As of July 2023, Perplexity AI has rated 4.9/5 stars from 2,000 reviews on the Apple App Store and 4.5/5 stars from 674 reviews on the Google Play Store.
    • As of July 2023, Perplexity AI has been downloaded 100,000+ times on the Google Play Store.
    • As of July 2023, Perplexity AI has 31,670 members in their Discord community.
    • As of April 2023, Perplexity AI has 100,000+ signed-in users.
    • In February 2023, Perplexity AI reported 10 million monthly visitors and 2 million unique visitors for the month totals.

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