These 51 venture-backed companies have all the earmarks of success for 2018 and beyond. For those thinking of moving on to a new job at an up-and-coming young company, we’ve compiled this list to help.
All of these companies are “enterprise” startups, meaning they specialize in making tech for work and business use, a massive $3.7 trillion worldwide market. And all of them achieved milestones in 2017, setting themselves up for a successful 2018 and beyond.
We looked for one or more of the following elements: promising technology, healthy partnerships, experienced leadership and adequate funding. In other words, these companies have all the markings of long-term hits, or those likely to be snapped up by a bigger player for a hefty sum when the time is right.
Zapier: The plumbing that connects the internet
Name: ZapierHeadquarters: NoneFunding to date: $1.3 million, otherwise profitable and self-funded Zapier, which makes tools for connecting business software to other business software, is somewhat of an anomaly on this list. It took a meager $1.3 million seed round when it was founded in 2012, but Zapier hasn’t touched another dime of investor money since. That’s because it’s been profitable since 2014, and hit a $20 million annualized run rate by 2017. On top of that, Zapier doesn’t have a headquarters. Instead, its team of around 85 people is entirely remote, working from their own homes all over the globe. Earlier this year, Zapier made headlines when it announced it would actually pay $10,000 in moving expenses for employees to leave the San Francisco Bay Area. the opposite of how it normally works. Maybe it’s no coincidence that “Zapier” rhymes with “happier.”
Smyte: Bringing Facebook’s trust and safety features to a broader audience
Company name: Smyte Headquarters: San FranciscoFunding to date: $6.25 million in 3 rounds Smyte is the trust and safety feature startup you’ve never heard of but definitely want to have on your side. Despite being just two years old, and early in its fundraising, Smyte has already landed customers like Indiegogo, GoFundMe, Medium, and Task Rabbit, who all have used its machine learning technology to catch everything from e-commerce fraud to space, scams, bots and harassers. The company’s success can be attributed in part to its all-star cast of tech veterans. The founding trio has resumes from Facebook, Instagram and Google. Cofounder CEO Pete Hunt is also one of the well-known fathers of a popular tool for programmers that came out of Facebook called React.
Fetch Robotics: Creating the warehouse robots of tomorrow
Company name: Fetch Robotics Headquarters: San Jose, California Funding to date: $23 million in 2 rounds Fetch is a leader in what’s known as “warehouse optimization” which attempts to create the perfect mix of human and robotic workers, each doing what they do best to make warehouses as efficient as possible. There’s never been a bigger need for Fetch’s robots. As online retailers takeover the role of brick and mortar storefronts, companies face new challenges in quickly getting products out the door. Fetch specializes in autonomous warehouse technology that works with humans to move cargo around quickly. It’s like autonomous vehicles for moving boxes. Fetch’s CEO Melonee Wise, who joined in 2014, is a legend in the robotics industry. She was an early employee at Willow Garage, a now-defunct startup that helped launch the current renaissance in robotics.
SnapRoute: Tiny startup taking on the networking giants
Company name: SnapRouteHeadquarters: Palo Alto, CaliforniaFunding to date: $25 million in 1 round SnapRoute is a startup created by Apple’s former data center networking team. It makes software that helps corporate networks run faster and more reliably. It was born out of the pain of building a network that never went down for Apple’s huge internet services like iTunes, iCloud, Siri, and the App Store. SnapRoute seemed to come from nowhere last year to take the computer network world by storm. Its network software is doing particularly well with Facebook’s growing family of open source network products, part of Facebook’s popular Open Compute Project.
Kong: Breaking up tech’s big monoliths
Name: KongHeadquarters: San FranciscoFunding to date: $26.1 million in 4 rounds At the start of 2017, Kong was known as “Mashape” but it renamed itself after the popular open source software developer tool it created called Kong. Kong is at the forefront of the “microservices” movement. Instead of building one massive piece of software, like the old incumbents do, with “microservices” software is broken up into lots of little, tiny applications. The advantage is that you can then improve, swap out, or simply delete little pieces of your app as you go, without needing to dismantle the whole system. Earlier this year, Kong raised $18 million from Andreessen Horowitz led by computer networking legend Martin Casado, and announced that it was cash-flow positive. That’s a far cry from CEO Augusto Marietti’s days of crashing on Travis Kalanick’s couch while he got the company off the ground.
Shippo: Helping ecommerce sites ship their products off
Company name: ShippoHeadquarters: San FranciscoFunding to date: $29.3 million in 8 rounds Shippo helps ecommerce businesses deal with how to ship the purchase to the customer. The app can already be found across e-commerce sites like eBay and Etsy. Shippo lets e-commerce sites offer shipping from any parcel service you can think of, which lets the customers easily weigh the benefits of cost versus speed. Though still in its early days, the 3.5 year old and 60-person company is growing. Run by 25-year-old German transplant Laura Behrens Wu, Shippo announced $20 million in funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners in October. It plans to use those funds to build out its team and make a mark on the international shipping world.
Gigster: Helping programmers find their next gig
Name: GigsterHeadquarters: San FranciscoFunding to date: $32.5 million in 4 rounds Gigster’s pitch is simple: If you’re a hotshot programmer, designer, or product manager, Gigster is a platform to hook you up with high-paying freelance gigs, so you can make a Google- or Facebook-level salary while working remotely. In 2017, Gigster raised a $20 million round of funding that included participation from Redpoint, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Heptio: Spreading a better way to build software
Name: HeptioHeadquarters: SeattleFunding to date: $33.5 million in 2 rounds Over the last year or two, a Google-created technology called Kubernetes has taken Silicon Valley by storm.
Tech: 51 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2018
