View our list of the top ten U.S. startups with the most initial funding.
Venturing out into the world of entrepreneurship is an exciting time, but whether your start-up business sinks or floats often depends on funding.
The team at Business.CenturyLink.com looked at some of the most successful businesses founded in the past decade to determine the 10 with the largest sum of initial funding. We uncovered that along with hard work, strong investors and partnerships could make all the difference.
As a Software Development company, OneTrust provides privacy management to companies to help them stay compliant with privacy and security laws. OneTrust was founded in 2016 by Kabir Barday. In total this company has raised $946.4 million including $200 million raised in Series A with only one investor. Their last funding amount was $6 million in Venture – Series Unknown and their lead investors are Insight Partners, TCV, and SoftBank Vision Fund. The company is currently valued at $5.1 billion.
In addition to its impressive revenue, OneTrust has been awarded “Great Place to Work,”“America’s Top Private Company” by Inc.5000, “The Cloud 100 2021” by Forbes, and many other accolades. OneTrust is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with further domestic offices in Denver, Colorado, and two overseas offices, in London and Bangalore.
This biotechnology research company focuses on creating the future of brain-machine interfaces and was founded in 2016 by Elon Musk and Max Hodak. Neuralink is working to change brain-wire devices to microchips that operate via Bluetooth system.
In Series A, the company raised $107 million with only one investor, none other than multi-billionaire Elon Musk. Since then, the company has been able to raise $363 million of funding money and the company is currently valued at $1 billion. On May 1, 2021, Max Hodak announced that he was no longer at the company. He stated that he “was not a fan of leadership leaving the company without having a single product in the market.” As of late, Neuralink has been targeted by the media due to Elon Musk’s lack of transparency regarding what the devices the company produces can or can’t do.
Nuro is based in Mountain View, California, and was founded by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson in 2016. This robotics company focuses on developing eco–friendly electric autonomous vehicles designed to bring the things you need, from produce to prescriptions, right to your door. Nuro raised $92.1 million in Series A and in their latest funding round, Series D, they raised $600 million. Currently, the company is valued at $5 billion.
Last year, Nuro was named one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in 2022” by FastCompany and “America’s Best Startup Employers” by Forbes. Previous autonomous vehicle testing partnerships include FedEx, Domino’s Pizza, and Chipotle.
Daily Harvest was founded in 2015 by Rachel Drori. This food and beverage company is on a mission to make plant-based foods more accessible by eliminating barriers to cost, time, and accessibility.
To better serve their customers, Daily Harvest offers subscription-based smoothies, bowls, soups, flatbreads, and more at an affordable price. The company is currently valued at $1.1 billion. Some of this company’s investors include celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Bobby Flay, and Hailey Duff.
Boom Supersonic is an aviation and aerospace company founded in 2014 by Blake Scholl and Josh Krall looking to redefine commercial flights through supersonic travel.
In Series A the company was able to raise $33 million. Throughout eight funding rounds, Boom Supersonic raised $241.1 million. Today, the company is valued at $1 billion. Boom Supersonic selected Greensboro, North Carolina for their first supersonic airliner manufacturing facility; it’s estimated that they’ll begin production in 2024.
This innovative financial services company focuses on changing the way people buy and own a home. The company raised $30 million in Series A and in their last round, Secondary Market, they raised $500 million. The company is currently valued at $6 billion and they are based in New York City.
As of late, Better has been in the news due to a 5-month long mass layoff period. The CEO and founder Vishal Garag informed 900 employees that 15% of the workforce would be fired in a Zoom call. Since then, there have been more layoffs and it is estimated that 1,200 – 1,500 employees have been affected.
Samsara is a computer software company that focuses on providing an operations cloud that increases safety, efficiency, and sustainability. This company was founded in 2015 by Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket who previously co-founded Meraki, now owned by Cisco Systems.
During Series A, the company raised $25 million. The company went public on December 15, 2021. Their stock opened at $23.00 and it’s registered under the ticker NYSE:IOT.
Ramp is a financial services company building the next generation of finance tools. They focus on helping corporations to improve their accounting and financial processes to save businesses time and money.
The company was founded in 2019 by Barrick Bain, Eric Glyman, Gene Lee, Karim Atiyeh, and Santana Henry. Since its inception, the company has obtained $1.4 billion in funding from Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, and Debt Financing.
Drift was founded in 2015 by Elias Torres and David Cancel and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. This internet company helps businesses by connecting them with people at the right time using the drift conversation cloud. Through this connection, companies can generate revenue and communicate with customers. The company raised $15 million in Series A with 10 investors and it’s currently valued at $1 billion.
As a marketing and advertising company, Attentive provides comprehensive text message marketing solutions that help companies increase their online revenue. The company was founded in 2016 by Andrew Jones, Brain Long, and Ethan Lo. Since its inception, Attentive has raised $863 million in Seed Round, Series A, Series B, Series C, Series D, Series C, and Venture Round.
We gathered a list of 100 businesses from LinkedIn, Forbes, and Crunchbase to pinpoint some of the top startups in the United States. We used Crunchbase, a leader in private-company data, to gather insights and analytics from every startup. Some of the information included funding rounds, money raised, investor and lead investor names, news, and information about the companies. This allowed us to rank the startups by the ones with the most initial funding. Some of the variables we used are initial funding, total funding amount, latest funding round date and type, and lead investors.
Business.CenturyLink.com is an authorized sales agent of CenturyLink. For media inquiries contact media@business.centurylink.com.
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