For our 10th annual Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, we’re looking for the 25 companies most likely to become unicorns—and have staying power beyond that mark.
There are more than 54,000 venture-backed companies in the United States. Only the tiniest fraction will ever reach a $1 billion valuation.
For our 10th annual Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, produced in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, we’re looking for the 25 companies most likely to hit that mark – and to have staying power beyond it.
Past lists have included DoorDash (2015), Opendoor (2016), Plaid (2017), Lemonade (2018), Duolingo (2019), Rippling (2020), Incredible Health (2021), Astera Labs (2022) and Monarch Tractor (2023). You can see last year’s list here and the 2022 list here.
Send us your nominations for the 2024 list by April 12, 2024. The list is slated to launch online in August and to appear in the August/September issue of the magazine.
NEXT BILLION-DOLLAR STARTUPS 2023 LIST
Companies must be based in the U.S. to qualify; we do not have an international version of this list. They also must be privately held and venture-backed with valuations below $1 billion. Finally, no repeats. Companies that have been on this before are disqualified from being on it again.
Venture funding has been marked for years by a troubling lact of diversity. Given that backdrop, we hope this list will be as diverse as possible. If you’re a female founder, a Black or brown founder, an immigrant, a veteran or someone who lives and works far from Silicon Valley, we especially hope that you’ll apply.
TrueBridge will run a quantitative analysis of all companies based on the financial information in the nominations. Forbes reporters will be in touch with startups that make the first cut to interview founders and talk further.
