NEXT BILLION-DOLLAR STARTUPS

Artificial intelligence dominates this year's list of 25 venture-backed startups we think most likely to reach a $1 billion valuation.

- 

This is the 11th year we have partnered with TrueBridge Capital Partners to scour the land for budding unicorns. To qualify, startups must be venture-backed, based in the U.S. and (currently) worth less than $1 billion. Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence dominates this year—20 of the 25 companies are Al-focused, with applications in military, accounting and health tech. Pay attention to this list: Our track record is superb. Of the 250 alumni, 140, or 56%, became unicorns, including DoorDash, Figma and Anduril. Forty-two were acquired; only two went public for less than $1 billion. Just five—2% of our selections—have imploded or shut down.

AcuityMD

Founders: Robert Coe, Mike Monovoukas (CEO), Lee Smith

Equity raised: $83 million

Estimated 2024 revenue: $18 million

Lead investors: Benchmark, Iconiq, Redpoint

If you want to build medical devices, you need patients. Boston-based AcuityMD helps manufacturers find the right physicians based on the patients they treat by using de-identified data (think surgical histories, medical referrals) for 325 million people to craft marketing plans. Customers include Synchron, which used it to find patients for a brain-computer interface preclinical trial, and Intellijoint, which did so to market a new surgical tool for hip and knee replacements.

Agentio

Founders: Arthur Leopold (CEO), Jonathan Meyers

Equity raised: $16 million

Estimated 2024 revenue: $2 million

Lead investors: AlleyCorp, Benchmark, Craft