You don’t have to be an industry insider to know about tech companies with popular products like Snapchat or Facebook.
But what about the up-and-coming tech startups that could become tomorrow’s market leaders?
We asked more than two dozen venture capital investors to name the startups they believe are going to boom in 2019. After all, VCs are the experts scouting the landscape every day and hunting for the next big thing — if anyone has a finger on the tech innovation pulse, it’s them.
We asked the VCs to name a startup in their own portfolios they were particularly excited about for 2019.
But for every startup in their own portfolios, the VCs also had to name one they had no financial interest in. The best VCs are passionate about startups and meet more than they can fund, and we wanted to go beyond their immediate portfolio of investments.
What follows is a compelling list of startups set for success in 2019. They range from fledgling companies working on a seed round to well-established companies that have raised many millions, but which are still flying under the radar. The funding information is according to Crunchbase and Pitchbook, keepers of such records.
AdQuick: an easier way to buy outdoor ads
What it does: AdQuick offers a marketplace for buyers and sellers of outdoor ad space.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “AdQuick is a mainly ex-Instacart team that is tackling the archaic world of outdoor advertising,” says Pezeshki. As Google and Facebook continue to dominate online advertising, “many direct-to-consumer companies will start to look for ways to reach consumers in other ways.”
Alma: co-working space for mental health therapists
What it does: Alma is a co-working office space specifically for mental health providers that includes access to the tech they need to power their practices. It opened its first facility in New York.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “60 million people suffer from mental illness,” Barna says and Alma offers therapists a “beautifully designed space, friendly digital tools and a supported community of therapists.”
Applied Intuition: simulation software for self-driving cars
What it does: Build autonomous simulation software for autonomous vehicles.
Why it’s hot in 2019: Before more autonomous vehicles enter the public roads, their makers need specialized and heartier simulation software to test them. “A massive problem for the 21st century with an incredible team tackling a complex and high-value challenge,” says Janmohamed.
Appzen: automatically audit expense reports
What it does: AppZen uses AI to automatically audit 100% of a company’s expense reports, invoices and contracts in real time.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Every company has employees who expense things that are out of compliance, out of policy or are just fraudulent. Similarly, every company has suppliers that game the system and push the envelope,” says Janmohamed.
Arrive Logistics: software to manage shipping
What it does: Arrive Logistics is a tech-enabled freight brokerage that connects shippers with carriers.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Arrive has seen incredible growth since its founding in 2014. In 2018 the company grew headcount to more than 600 while more than doubling revenue, which surpassed $300 million. As more and more consumers are buying everything online, the shipping and logistics category has meaningfully expanded,” says Neider.
Arterys: AI-powered medical imaging
What it does: Arterys offers AI-enabled medical imaging software as a cloud service.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “It shows the power of technology to help humanity. The company brings the convergence of cloud computing, big data, image processing, and AI applied to healthcare,” says Lin.
Atrium: like a law firm and a tech startup in one
What it does: Atrium is like the offspring of a law firm and a tech startup. It uses machine learning software to deal with ordinary legal documents and has lawyers who work on the complex legal issues.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Legal advisory is a huge, huge industry that still operates pretty much the same way it operated two decades ago. Atrium is bringing together all the advancements in AI, workflow automation and collaboration to build a next-gen more scalable law firm,” says Mandan.
Benchling: collaboration for life science professionals
What it does: Benchling is a data management and collaboration tool for life science, pharma and biological researchers.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Benchling provides a platform to accelerate the pace of biotech research, helping researchers track candidates, design experiments, and share results. They’re working with over 100,000 scientists and larger organizations like the FDA,” says Vishria.
Boulder Care: digital help for opium addiction recovery
What it does: Boulder Care offers long-term support for people overcoming opiate addiction, accessible via an app.
Why it’s hot: “Boulder is building a telehealth addiction solution for the modern era partnering with local physicians while leveraging digital expertise to provide the counseling, random testing, care management and adherence verification via their mobile app,” Kopelman says.
Bowery: indoor farms for pesticide-free food
What it does: Bowery grows pesticide-free produce in indoor farms, often located in cities, managing everything from the seeds to its proprietary, farm-controlling software system.
Why it’s hot: “Bowery farms use zero pesticides, 95% less water, and are 100+ times more productive on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture,” says Hayes. “It’s the solution we need to feed the planet.”
Calm: a popular meditation app
What it does: Calm is a popular mobile app for meditation, sleep and overall mental wellness.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Calm is driving a real positive social impact by helping its users alleviate anxiety, depression, insomnia and a number of other ailments,” says Ta.
He notes that with 35 million downloads, Calm has outpaced its competitors while raising less money and “still has huge potential to grow by expanding internationally and evolving into a more comprehensive wellness brand.”
Cameo: pay an Instagram influencer for a shout out
What it does: Cameo lets you pay to have an online celebrity/influencer send a personalized shoutout. It’s often done as a surprise gift. Influencers charge anywhere from a few bucks to several hundred dollars.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “It spreads virally through word of mouth by the gifter, giftee and influencer themselves (mainly in Instagram),” says Quinn. “Instead of going for big names from the start, the company made the wise decision to start with lesser-known influencers first and has now begun to get the attention of A-list celebrities.”
Carta: helping startups deal out stock options
What it does: Carta provides equity-management software that helps companies manage their employee-owned shares and options.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “The scale of the opportunity for Carta is far past cap table management,” says Twohig. “The company has an incredible long term vision around this which will lead to a very impactful company to the equity markets.”
Chainalysis: protecting against fraud in crypto transactions
What it does: Chainalysis is an enterprise software company that detects cryptocurrency transactions and investigates them for money laundering, fraud and compliance violations.
Why it’s hot in 2019: Chainalysis “is seeing significant traction, working with businesses (like banks and crypto exchanges) and government agencies (like the FBI and Europol) to investigate and understand blockchain activity,” says Tavel.
Clubhouse: Software project management tool that programmers like to use
What it does: Project management software for software development
Why it’s hot in 2019: Clubhouse wants to take on the most popular tool in this category, Atlassian’s JIRA. “Ask any engineer if they like using it [JIRA] and the answer usually involves an annoyed look. Clubhouse was started by engineers looking to create a modern product that developers actually love using,” says Agrawal.
Coda: the spreadsheet and document reinvented
What it does: Coda offers a new kind of shareable, collaborative spreadsheet document.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Coda combines the flexibility of a document with the structure and depth of a spreadsheet,” says Soma, who calls the product “amazing” and says, “the team is truly a world-class team.”
Dedrone: protecting airports and other security sites against drones
What it does: Dedrone detects, classifies, and tracks down drones and their pilot.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “With mega drone incidents at Gatwick, Heathrow airports and other malicious events using drones, drone security will be top of the agenda,” says Senkut, adding that Dedrone is “trusted by four of the largest armed services in the world,”
Divvy: a free expense report app for businesses
What it does: A free expense report app for businesses that automates reporting and helps companies manage online subscriptions and catch fraud.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Unlike other services, Divvy makes money from merchant transaction fees, rather than customers, and offers a slew of benefits for users like real time spend tracking and budgeting, free travel service, and cash back rewards,” says Narasin.
Dragos: protecting power grids from hackers
What it does: Dragos prevents cyber threats that can knock out real-world systems like power grids, water supplies, and industrial machinery.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Industrial technologies like manufacturing equipment and power stations are just as vulnerable to cyberattacks as traditional IT systems, with the potential for damaging real-world impact,” says Niparko.
Epic Games: Hit video games and a development tool, too
What it does: Epic games is the creator of game sensation Fortnite, as well as Infinity Blade, Unreal and others. It also makes the Unreal Engine, the super popular development tool for creating 3D and VR games.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Developer of one of the largest virtual worlds and massive online games in existence and owner of one of the largest game development platforms Unreal Engine,” says Twohig. “It is as much of a next generation social network as it is a game.”
Ethos: high tech life insurance shopping
What it does: Ethos uses technology to simplify the life insurance underwriting process making it easier for Americans to get life insurance.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Life insurance is a critical financial protection for families, but the buying process has long had a negative reputation due to outdated systems, extra doctors visits, and insurance agents who are incentivized to push expensive policies,” Niparko says.
In contrast, Ethos has a 10-minute process and “policies that are backed by some of the oldest, trusted names in the insurance industry,” he says.
Faire: helping small retailers compete with Amazon
What it does: A wholesale marketplace for smaller retailers that helps them stock their shelves, paying only when items sell. It uses data science to help retailers discover new products.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “In a world where many see Amazon as the Goliath that can’t be beat, Faire is putting power back into the hands of the 1 million+ local retailers that drive nearly $1 trillion in annual revenues in the US,” says Kim.
“In just over a year since launching, the Faire team has already surpassed $100 million in run-rate revenue, while building an impassioned community of happy retailers and makers,” says Treyger.
“They take all the pain out of buying for store owners,” says Lin.
“While large format stores have been shutting down, localized small stores have been on the rise over the last few years,” Grace Chou, “What Faire is doing has a ton of potential.”
Figma: collaboration tool for software designers
What it does: Figma offers a browser-based tool that lets UX design teams collaborate to build software products faster.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “Figma is a great example of the coming generation of well-designed ‘prosumer’ products that grow organically with a fanatic userbase,” says Saper, referring to when employees choose their work tools themselves.
“Figma seemingly has a red hot product that is rapidly taking share and expanding the market,” says Murphy.
FortressIQ: The ‘Workday’ for bots
What it does: An AI software bot that detects a company’s processes, documents them and helps automate and can then manage them.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “The digital bot ecosystem is growing exponentially, and enterprises need a governance layer to manage their digital bot portfolio to see which processes can be automated, which bots are working well versus not, and which processes should be sent back to humans. FortressIQ is building the governance platform to do so,” says Mandan. “Think ‘Workday for bots’,”
GoPuff: the digital, same-day convenience store
What it does: GoPuff is an on-demand delivery service for convenience store items.
Why it’s hot in 2019: “For a $1.95 delivery charge, the service is available seven days a week from noon to 4:30 a.m. in over 50 markets, with more than 3,000 products in stock,” says Kopelman.