Ask anybody to name the tech capital of the world, and Silicon Valley is the most likely answer. Comprised of well-known startup hubs like San Jose, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and many other surrounding cities, Silicon Valley first began rising to the status of tech's sacred land in the 1970s and 80s with the emergence of semiconductor manufacturing. Since then, the area has continued expanding, permeating into more and more Bay Area cities and becoming the hotbed of tech talent we know today.
Though Silicon Valley is home to many of the most widely known companies worldwide, including Uber, Alphabet, Visa, Netflix and Apple, it still produces an extraordinary number of promising young startups with an eye for transforming how we do business. Though it was tough to narrow our list to just these budding ventures, the following Silicon Valley startups were all founded within the last two years and are already making an impression on a diverse range of industries in the tech realm.
These are the Silicon Valley startups you need to know.
Top Silicon Valley Startups You Need to Know
- Nuvia, Inc.
- Wing
- Productiv
- Step
- Netdata
- Fiddler Labs
- Confluera
- Dusty Robotics
- Hourly
- Arc
- Brightline
Lyrid manages APIs between public, private and hybrid cloud environments, aggregating cloud-computing data without the use of a server. The company uses machine learning to assure deployments are optimized, providing developers with an end-to-end, CDN-like experience that pushes code to its server before being distributed across all connected clouds.
Invincible allows parents to communicate with those who care for their children when they aren't there. The mobile app allows users to add contacts like school teachers, school health staff members, coaches and after-school leaders to a quick-contact list. The Invincible platform comes complete with a scheduling tool that enables parents to keep their kids' days organized.
In order for individuals to work with and manipulate AI for a multitude of applications, they need to learn the skills and processes that come with being a product manager. The AI Product Institute offers a thorough curriculum built around the Agile AI Product Lifecycle, with self-study, live and on-site study options available that feature exams and a certificate upon completing the course.
Knockout Capital is an investment arm of Weclikd Inc., putting funding into companies actively working to improve capabilities in the robotics industry. Led by a founding partner with years of experience at Morgan Stanley and UCLA’s Gonda Neuroscience Center and Glaucoma Institute, Knockout Capital’s goal is to connect the most promising startups, highly skilled technical talent and curious investors to ensure the future of robotics is purpose-driven and collaborative.
With tech companies constantly inventing new solutions to many of the biggest digital challenges, it can be difficult for tech-enabled organizations to keep pace with new developments. Braintrust helps companies outsource software initiatives more efficiently, providing a network of freelance designers, managers, engineers and architects ready to tackle projects collaboratively. All projects are run from beginning to end by an experienced technical project manager and freelancers earn fair rates while still being cost-efficient for companies.
EcoSystemOne’s ambitious model allows people to experience all of the learning found in classrooms through the eyes of VR, breaking down walls and providing access to a fully interactive environment. Two to five person classes are available in diverse topics like personal coaching, language education and corporate training, allowing participants to experience a heightened sense of learning as a tangible journey.
Xona Space Systems is working to bring about a new age of autonomy with the introduction of XPS, utilizing low-cost, Low Earth Orbiting satellites that provide heightened signal availability, better precision and unbeatable security. XPS solutions has the ability to make autonomy possible in all kinds of weather, for maritime, aerial use and with architectural equipment, and Xona wants to create the infrastructure to make those solutions possible.
The founders of Vannevar Labs, Brett Granberg and Nini Moonhead, have several years of combined experience working with both the government sector and counterterrorism mission groups, gaining in-depth knowledge on threats the United States is facing. The two bring that experience to Vannevar Labs, where they use machine learning to create critical solutions to emerging national security threats built on the newest technology.
Wise is a banking experience designed for small business owners, featuring a digital platform that provides owners access to all of the financial tools their businesses need at a moment’s notice. The mobile bank offers digital payment capabilities to keep all business costs centrally located, and Wise rewards users with low interest rates along with physical cards to its dedicated user base.
Applying for a travel Visa tends to be a convoluted process, leaving many wondering how to get the process started. AriaDirect changes the game by offering a mobile app that features a simple step-by-step process for submitting travel information and receiving real-time status updates, with document delivery available in as quickly as a single day.
Flourish Ventures is a VC firm that backs entrepreneurs helping people achieve better financial prosperity. The firm funds companies operating in the challenger bank, consumer lending, digital money, insurtech, personal finance, regtech and other related verticals, with a goal of developing a fairer and more customer-centric financial sector.
The ways that people and objects interact and move through a particular area can often be traced back to a pattern—one that can be evaluated and learned from through AI. Pathr’s spatial AI platform operates as a “behavior engine” suitable for analyzing movement in physical spaces like storefronts, entertainment venues and public spaces, delivering real time insights on how to create spaces that are better optimized for the people navigating them.
The trend of working remotely is becoming increasingly popular among developers — and that’s not just regarding workers who spend the occasional day busting out projects from the couch. Companies everywhere are hiring workers from across the globe with specific skill sets to take on meaningful work. Because of this, Arc created an easy-to-use platform that interviews and vets developers before they can apply for any job; allowing employers to skip right to the interview process, make quicker hiring decisions and put more effort into finding the right candidate for the project or role.
MIT Scientific is committed to building exceptional medical devices for use at the practitioner level, launching a state-of-the-art facilitator platform that aims to close the gap between grassroots medical innovations and commercially viable tools. The company’s facilitator program specifically helps foster developments in endovascular, structural heart and interventional neurology and cardiology, allowing devices that perform precise life-saving operations to be developed with less roadblocks.
Though nearly three quarters of the planet is covered in water, many people still struggle with the overall cleanliness of their water. Oollee delivers fresh, mineral-rich water to households in California. The company offers a powerful water purification system and reusable water bottles to provide more choices into where people receive their most crucial resource from.
Every person’s hair and scalp react to products differently, so Formulate is making it easier for customers to receive a personalized solution that keeps their locks flowing freely. Formulate users answer a questionnaire and are matched with a personal chemist to design a hair-care formula that is free of sulfates, parabens and cruelty, leading to products that are as healthy for the world as they are for hair.
Spotnana’s corporate travel platform allows travel agents to view the same content, profiles and negotiated rates as the travelers they serve. Its Travel-as-a-Service platform ensures that travelers and travel agents can also manage their bookings from anywhere in the world. The company works to reduce inefficiencies for travelers by allowing them to see all available inventory from global distribution systems, thereby eliminating the need to shop around for the best deal.
Auhum is designed to help users bring the power of meditation practice into their daily lives, providing access to a network of leading schools and meditation practitioners. The mobile app goes beyond skills training by providing data on fluctuations in bodily vitals over time and an incentive program for completing multiple-day meditation streaks.
There’s nothing quite like the taste and satisfaction of a homemade meal, and Shef wants to make the cultural brilliance and great food found in local kitchens more accessible and affordable. The company enlists home cooks, or “Shefs,” who take orders in advance and prepare ready-to-heat meals delivered to the user's door, leading to more people enhancing their flavor palates authentically and without the prep.
Kagu Group helps homeowners do away with high listing fees by providing a do-it-yourself platform with all the tools necessary to close on a home. Two packages are available from Kagu, a free version featuring powerful tools and the ability to sync with Redfin, Zillow and more, or the option to partner with a licensed agent. The latter provides professional photography, listing and negotiation advice and an unlimited listing term that last until the property sells or the listing is cancelled.
Confluera offers an autonomous detection and response platform that operates in real time to stop sophisticated cyberattacks. The platform automatically tracks malicious activity through the attack lifecycle to pinpoint and stop attackers. Confluera works continuously throughout attacks to determine proper context and avoid inconclusive correlations designed to throw security protocol off of hackers’ trails.
Dockup allows for a more streamlined deployments process when building on AWS, connecting Github and AWS accounts while automatically working behind the scenes to create AWS resources for pulling source code, managing containers, creating permissions and locking down a network. The Dockup platform also empowers teams and individuals with auto scaling and load balancing, rolling deployments and SSL renewal capabilities.
Robust.ai has a goal of creating robots that are smarter, safer and more robust, collaborating to discover ways of making genuine autonomy more accessible to all builders. While existing robots are required to be contained to highly controlled environments, Robust.ai’s team is developing an industrial-strength cognitive platform that allows robots to learn efficiently and, eventually, thrive in open-ended environments in a broad range of verticals.
Of the one in five children who have a behaviora health condition, only 20 percent will receive treatment. Brightline wants to change all of that. The healthtech company creates clinics designed to allow specialists of multiple studies to support children, adolescents and adults, while Emilio Health’s digital platform provides a streamlined process for scheduling, tracking progress and online therapy.
Many athletes who compete in races often have trouble receiving the proper statistics from their performance. MyRace is looking to change this by partnering with race organizers, timing companies and sponsors to ensure athletes receive proper results and analysis, along with the ability to discover likeminded competitors.
lieber’s Sales Synchronization platform gives online retailers the opportunity to better optimize their inventory and make sales more profitable, helping businesses understand their supply chains, customer locations and everything in between. The platform provides data on sales locations, product stock, storage costs, and production and freight costs, helping shops of all sizes manage costs and enforce a higher standard of quality.
Nearal enables professional service providers to offer their abilities on a local level and make an impact directly in their community. The mobile app platform allows professionals to create a profile and list their profession and hourly rate online while showcasing past work to attract more potential clients.
The “memeification” of our society is at a peak and Fad Mania wants to make it more fun — and profitable — for us all. The company creates a new game each week that is inspired by the hottest trending meme of that moment, releasing games through a mobile app that allows users to interact with top memes while earning cash prizes.
Wing is an on-demand drone delivery service and platforms company. With Wing’s app, users can order coffee, groceries, pharmacy products and even tools from hardware stores, and a drone will conveniently drop it off at their doorstep minutes later. Wing’s fleet of delivery drones currently operate in Australia, Finland and the US, and they can reach a maximum speed of 70 miles per hour.
TAASCOM, or “The As A Service Company,'' enables companies to transform their existing product infrastructure into a subscription-based revenue model. The platform helps growing companies reduce risk and investment requirements by accelerating the transformation process while the business reshapes its infrastructure to focus more on customers than product.
Distinguishing a listing in the crowded California real estate and housing markets is much easier said than done but fortunately, Unusly has a solution. Through the use of panorama photos, Unusly creates a 360° tour experience that can be added to any listing, giving potential buyers the ability to see more of every corner and make purchasing decisions quicker.
Dusty Robotics enables builders in the construction industry with access to cutting-edge robotic tools to make projects more efficient. Using Building Information Modeling, Dusty Robotics deploys robots to make precise measurements of sites and construction grounds for build teams to analyze. This leads to layouts that are finalized ten times faster than traditional methods and at less cost.
DeepFactor is dedicated to breaking new ground in observability security, pioneering developments in combating stealth technology. The company’s systems help complexes like government buildings and airports stay safe from drone operations and other aerial threats that are able to hide beneath radars, promoting a safer airspace and quicker response times.
TDK Ventures believes in creating a sustainable world where transformations in the digital and energy industries will improve the lives of billions. The firm backs material science companies in dielectrics, magnetics, MEMS, neuro-electricals, organic materials, piezoelectrics, semiconductors and more, providing every company it backs with access to a vast network of resources.
Simiotics creates API tools that bring automation to data science workflows, handling the tedious tasks involved with data collection and allowing teams to focus on solving machine learning challenges.
Mobile banking has changed the landscape when it comes to where people choose to store and manage their money, and now with Step, even teens can get in on the mobile banking game. Step provides a zero-fee option designed for teens to send and receive money and make secure, in-person purchases using a Step card, while Step’s mobile app allows users to easily manage every expense.
BMPower is pioneering longer flight time in moving machines by creating lightweight plug&play stack systems that utilize hydrogen to power drones, robots and more. Systems available from BMPower are designed as an alternative to Li-ion batteries and offer significantly better performance when it comes to energy consumption, flight time and temperature stability.
Hourly allows HR and finance heads to automate payment practices and save on workers’ compensation costs from one convenient dashboard. The platform features powerful tools including automatic tax filing, mobile onboarding, timecard syncing and access to a trusted workers’ compensation advisor, ensuring businesses of all sizes can operate efficiently while keeping employees at the top of their minds.
Machine learning and AI capabilities are constantly growing, amplified by the fact that these processes are designed to learn from themselves. Yet, Datasaur aims to make machine learning work even faster, providing a responsive interface and powerful engine for churning through and labeling data at remarkable speeds.
NUVIA aims to bring about the next era of computing by reimagining silicon design to meet the demands of users who generate exponential amounts of data. The company’s team has a laser focus on building processors that are energy efficient and can perform at levels that meet and exceed current data demands.
Kumbaya is designed for the overwhelmed parents with a little too much on their plates, providing a platform for communicating with other parents whose children are socially connected to their own. The Kumbaya platform allows parents to create a list of tasks and broadcast requests to their circle when they need it, enabling them to ask for help with rides, babysitting, playdates and more.
Silicon FinTech Bay is a coworking incubator dedicated to advancing the local fintech ecosystem in Silicon Valley, providing founders and small companies access to capital, engaging events and worldwide partners. A bespoke coworking space sits at the heart of Silicon FinTech Bay, along with an acceleration program that allows founders to tap into unique opportunities and new ways of thinking to discover new solutions to fintech’s greatest challenges.
Eaziie allows hotel and hospitality workers to arrange taxi, limo and shuttle transportation for their guests through a simple-to-use interface. The Eaziie dashboard allows hotel employees to track drivers’ live position, estimate time of arrival and see vehicle information. Eaziie partners with professional taxi and limo fleets to ensure their optimizations reach all parties.
Digital infrastructure, even for small businesses, can be complex. Therefore, Netdata created an all-in-one monitoring solution that allows users to instantly diagnose slowdowns and infrastructural anomalies in real time. Netdata’s platform provides access to hundreds of performance metrics to pinpoint weaknesses and ensure security, culminating in a dashboard readout that states exactly where action must be taken.
Agora delivers easy to embed real-time engagement APIs which includes all the development tools and cloud infrastructure needed for mobile, web and desktop applications.
Frost Capital is a private equity fund and investment management firm, investing in tech-enabled companies that are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. The Frost & Sullivan affiliated firm prioritizes permanent capital vehicles as opposed to the time-limited equity funds traditionally sought after by many startups. This allows companies to deploy strategies that lead to better value over a longer term.
Tau Ventures puts its focus on emerging businesses in the digital health, automation and enterprise industries, providing seed funding for startups that pioneer new technologies. The firm’s founders, Amit Garg and Sanjay Rao, have previously backed companies including RapidDeploy, BioBeats and nuTonomy, and have experience working at companies like McKinsey & Company, Microsoft and HealthIQ.
Businesses incorporate SendBird’s communication APIs into their digital experiences to enhance customer engagement. Its technology covers in-app messaging and voice calls in addition to enabling custom AI chatbots that can interact with customers across websites and apps. SendBird’s solutions are designed to improve the quality of customer service and support for businesses in industries like digital health, financial services and retail.
Productiv provides companies with analytics and insight into the applications they use daily, giving IT leaders the metrics they need to maximize performance and reduce costs. The Productiv dashboard features tools that allow users to compare apps against each other and determine where cuts can be made, leading to better forecasting and pipelines for automating everyday workflows.
While search engines like Google are constantly improving their natural language processing and machine translation abilities, current translation technology still has its accuracy issues. ModelFront is developing technology that instantly predicts whether a translation is accurate or not, segmenting only high-risk translations to be evaluated by human eyes and saving businesses money by utilizing “hybrid translation.”
High Peak Data wants to reduce the concerns that come with so many Edge and IoT devices being deployed, as well as the rapid spreading of 5G capabilities. The company works to decentralize data-intensive processing when working with Kubernetes by enabling edge-native applications, leading to lower costs, heightened security and high-speed access to data.
Insspring empowers businesses by building the cutting-edge technology that they use to operate, providing solutions in technology domains that include web applications, mobile apps, system integration, blockchain, data processing and cloud technologies. Services include everything from user interface design and project/product management to business analysis and more, allowing individuals and companies to focus on the work that matters most to them.
Redflag AI makes software that can analyze all types of content available on the internet for piracy and fraud. From video to text content, the software uses AI to scan available materials at speed and scale, searching for incidents of client assets being stolen or misused. Clients rely on this service to protect their digital assets and maintain their brand reputations.
Writing and peering over contracts can take hours, yet many companies still feel that after the ink dries, they haven’t received the fairest deal possible. Pactum uses AI to change that, built on an engine that progressively learns the value of different contract terms to carry out considerate negotiations between vendors and clients, Pactum leads to more win-win situations.
Fiddler Labs provides companies with everything they need to know about their AI, powering AI models while understanding, analyzing, validating and monitoring software behavior. The platform provides AI professionals with crucial data regarding predictions, compliance and performance, allowing humans to learn from their work in the same ways that machines do.
Navan’s technology includes a marketplace of travel options, 24/7 access to support and customizable dashboards for real-time data visibility. Businesses use Navan’s platform to plan trips, oversee policy compliance and manage expenses, supported by its AI-powered assistant Ava. The company, founded in 2015, is headquartered in Palo Alto with over a dozen offices around the world.
