Colorado startups reached new heights in 2021, with the state welcoming 10 new tech unicorns to its ranks.
One of those 10 broke the mold, achieving its $1 billion valuations with a massive $125 million Series A funding round that took it from Techstars to tech unicorn in just three years.
But Boulder-based delivery startup Veho wasn’t unknown to Colorado Inno.
In fact, the company was named to our 21 Colorado Startups to Watch in 2021 list released a year ago.
At the time, Veho had raised around $1 million in venture funding and recently completed the incubator program at Techstars Boulder. But the investors and startup experts we spoke with had high expectations for the now flourishing company.
As we put together our Startups to Watch list each year, we lean on suggestions from the community, including venture capital firms, accelerators and others. These tips are crucial to putting together a list of companies that are poised to make headlines in the next 12 months.
Whether it was huge funding rounds, acquisitions or new products, our 21 Startups to Watch from 2021 made noise last year.
Veho stole the show with its $125 million Series A funding round in December that crowned it the tenth Colorado unicorn of 2021. The technology company’s raise was led by General Catalyst, an investor that led Denver-based Guild Education's unicorn round in 2019 and has previously invested in other local companies including Gusto.
Veho pairs a workforce of crowdsourced drivers with its technology platform to create a transparent and fast delivery service. Since launching in 2016, Veho is now operating in 14 cities across the country, including Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. Veho plans to use its funding to expand into 50 U.S. markets by the end of 2022.
Outside of Veho, we were also early to alert our readers to Denver's Accept.inc. The company raised $90 million in debt and equity in June to scale the company’s platform, double its team and enter new markets.
Accept.inc is a technology-enabled lender that helps buyers who qualify for a mortgage submit all-cash offers on a home at no additional cost. At the time of its fundraise in June, the company had grown to about 90 employees. It started 2020 with only eight.
And we can’t forget about a big year for telemedicine startup Plume, home-staging service Guest House and connected-fitness startup CLMBR.
It wasn’t just the startups from the 2021 list that made waves last year.
Looking at the 2020 Startups to Watch list, behavioral health tech company SonderMind achieved unicorn status in July with a $150 million raise, The Last Gameboard made major progress on its tabletop gaming platform, and the trio of Soona, Spekit and CometChat all brought on an injection of capital in 2021.
