Of the 25 startups that landed on Forbes' "Next Billion Dollar Startups 2022" list, a dozen are local Bay Area companies that are working across varied industries including blockchain, hardware, trucking, cybersecurity, insurance, fintech and workforce management.
To pick the honorees, Forbes consulted with North Carolina-based asset management firm TrueBridge Capital to attempt to predict which venture-backed startups from around the country are "most likely to become unicorns" with valuations at $1 billion or more.
At least one company on the list has already reached that mark: Fountain, a San Francisco-based company that develops automated hiring and workforce management software. In June, the team raised $185 million Series C that boosted its valuation more than tenfold to $1 billion, according to PitchBook. It was valued at $90 million in 2019.
Other companies from the Bay Area include AtoB (CEO Vignan Velivela bought a Presidio Heights mansion in 2021 for $12.5 million), CloudTrucks (which raised a $115 million Series B in November and was valued at $850 million) and Cowbell Cyber (it raised a $100 million Series B in February, and was valued at $457 million).
Here's who made the Forbes list and which industries they represent (Bay Area startups are bolded):
- 0x Labs (S.F.) — blockchain, web3, decentralized finance
- AtoB (S.F.) — trucking, logistics, fleet management
- AsteraLabs (Santa Clara) — semiconductors, hardware
- Atmosphere (Austin) — streaming entertainment, B2B
- Boulevard (Los Angeles) — beauty, scheduling, payments
- Celona (Cupertino) — enterprise networks, 5G wireless connectivity
- CloudTrucks (S.F.) — trucking, logistics, fleet management
- Cowbell Cyber (Pleasanton) — cybersecurity, AI, insurance
- Domino Data Labs (S.F.) — big data, AI
- Equity Bee (Palo Alto) — wealth management, startups
- First Base (New York) — workforce management, remote work
- Fountain (S.F.) — hiring, workforce management
- Instawork (S.F.) — hiring, workforce management
- Insurify (Cambridge) — insurance, marketplace
- Kin Insurance (Chicago) — insurance, machine learning
- Landing (Birmingham) — real estate, rentals
- LeafLink (New York) — cannabis, marketplace, payments
- LinkSquares (Boston) — AI, contract management
- Modern Animal (Los Angeles) — veterinary, telehealth
- Novo (Miami) — fintech, small businesses
- Ocrolus (New York) — finance, automation
- Petal (New York) — credit cards, machine learning
- R-Zero (Salt Lake City) — health, hardware
- SecureFrame (S.F.) — security, automation
- Settle (S.F.) — accounting, e-commerce, payments
