To qualify as a top 50 startup, a firm must be seven years old or younger, have at least 50 employees, be privately held, and be headquartered in the US.
Grabbing the top spot is NYC-based mortgage lender Better.com. Though the bitter economy has hurt many types of industries, the housing market has been booming, and Better.com is a hot beneficiary. The company is on a hiring spree, according to LinkedIn, bringing aboard more than 1,500 people since March and aiming to hire another 7,000 more over the next 12 months.
In second place is food delivery service DoorDash, located in San Francisco. As the coronavirus quarantine has forced people to stay at home, delivery services have thrived. Expanding from food delivery to pharmacy and grocery items, the company has doubled its workforce for the second time in two years.
Next on the list is Menlo Park’s Robinhood, a financial service firm that tries to simply the process of investing and stock trading. Now looking to hire more people to keep up with growth, the firm wants to bring on hundreds of registered financial service representatives in Southlake, TX, and Tempe, AZ, according to LinkedIn.
In fourth place is Samsara, a business that makes internet-connected sensor systems for trucks and other vehicles. Located in San Francisco, the company has had to lay off personnel in Europe, but LinkedIn says its US operations are still strong.
Taking the fifth spot is Databricks, another San Francisco-based company. Databricks supplies customers with the data science and machine learning tools needed to learn how to extract value from their data. The company raised $400 million in funding in late 2019 and bought data visualization firm Redash this past June to expand its dashboard features for customers.
In sixth place is Seattle-based Outreach, which offers AI-based CRM tools to help sales people stay in touch with customers. The firm has doubled its workforce to almost 600 employees since the summer of 2019 and raised $50 million this past June to develop new technology to expand in Europe and elsewhere, according to LinkedIn.
No. 7 on the list is Brooklinen, a Brooklyn-based firm that sells linens directly from manufacturers to customers at budget-friendly prices. The company earned a profit three out of the past five years and raised $50 million in March to expand beyond the US and beyond bedding linens.
In the No. 8 spot is NYC-based Attentive, which specializes in mobile messaging marketing to help brand companies reach users at the right moment, according to LinkedIn. Raising $40 million in funding this past April, the company is aiming for a total of 400 employees by year’s end.
In ninth place is San Francisco-based Loom, a video messaging service that lets users create and share recordings of their faces and screen with other people. In May, the company announced a $29 million funding round that valued it at $350 million, double its worth from late 2019.
And in the 10th spot is Verkada, a provider of enterprise security systems headquartered in San Mateo, CA. The firm more than doubled its workforce this year. Before the pandemic, it raised $80 million in funding, bringing its total valuation to $1.6 billion. Read more via TechRepublic