To create the Tech IPO Pipeline, we scored companies across CBI datasets including Mosaic scores, hiring insights, revenues, exit probabilities, business relationships, and more.

Check out key highlights across the Tech IPO Pipeline below.

CBI customers: See these companies ranked by Mosaic and revenue

Combining CB Insights’ proprietary data and AI, scouting reports provide insight into each company’s:

• Funding history
• Headcount
• Key opportunities and threats
• IPO prospects
• Mosaic score

For customers, get the full book of 100+ scouting reports using the download button on the lefthand side.

MORE CB INSIGHTS RESEARCH:

• State of Venture Q3’25 Report
• Future Tech Hotshots: 2025: 45 emerging tech startups poised to make an outsized impact
• State of AI Q3’25 Report

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

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To differentiate themselves, top firms like Kibo Ventures are aggressively pursuing deals in high-growth areas like AI, industrials, and climate tech that position them to capture outsized returns. 

Using CB Insights predictive signals, we analyzed which investors are building the strongest foundations for portfolio success. Below, see our picks for the top 50 venture investors in Spain, key takeaways on the list, and a note on methodology.

Venture firms — make sure we’re representing your full portfolio by reaching out to analyst@cbinsights.com to set up a review of CB Insights’ coverage of your investments.

Track these investors’ deals in real time

Key takeaways

• Kibo Ventures leads our ranking with 33 startup deals since 2023 (as of 9/30/2025). Of those, over one-fifth went to AI companies — including sustainability intelligence platform Clarity AI and industrial robotics startup Theker. 
• Ysios Capital Partners leads in terms of the quality of its recent investments. Its investments since 2023 have a higher average Mosaic score (715 out of 1,000) than any other investor on the list. Top performers in its portfolio include regenerative medicine startup Neurona Therapeutics (747; develops off-the-shelf cell therapies for neurological disorders like epilepsy) and genetic medicine company SpliceBio (723; $196M in total funding from co-investors like Novartis Venture Funds).
• Kibo Ventures also shows the best exit track record, backing 12 startups since 2018 that went on to exit. The biggest exits across the fund include monthly car subscription service Bipi (acquired by RCI Banque) and global payment platform Flywire (IPOed May 2021). 

Methodology

We used CB Insights predictive signals to review the dealmaking activity of hundreds of Spain investors that fund private-market startups in exchange for equity, and rank them based on the strength and performance of their portfolios.

Our scoring model factors in deal volume between Q1’23 and Q3’25 and the share of portfolio companies invested in since 2018 that have gone on to exit. We exclude government vehicles, startup accelerators, incubators. 

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

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This cohort cuts through the noise to spotlight 45 companies we expect to have an outsized, lasting impact over the next 5-10 years — from AI infrastructure that powers autonomous enterprise systems to vertical AI applications in healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing that solve operational problems.

Using CB Insights’ proprietary data — including Commercial Maturity, Mosaic, patents, business relationships, and funding — we identified 45 emerging players most likely to have a strong exit in the next 5-10 years.

See every startup in the Future Tech Hotshots 2025 Expert Collection

Key takeaways

• Agent infrastructure is the new frontier. The cohort reveals a decisive bet on agentic AI, with startups like Coval (AI agent testing), Questflow (multi-agent orchestration), and Syncari (agentic master data management) building the foundational tools that enable autonomous AI to operate reliably at scale. These companies are positioned for outsized impact because they’re creating the critical layer to embed AI into workflows — just as cloud infrastructure enabled SaaS, agent infrastructure will enable the next wave of autonomous enterprise software.

• The 45 hotshots have collectively formed over 110 business relationships since 2024. LLM data preparation company LlamaIndex leads the pack (18 partnerships), having partnered with incumbents like Microsoft and Databricks, while blockchain infrastructure API startup Crossmint has forged partnerships with Visa (to enable AI-driven on-chain payments) and Moneygram (to power new stablecoin cross-border payment experience). As these startups scale over the next 5–10 years, this early validation with enterprise incumbents will become harder to displace as customers build workflows around their products.

• Industrial AI is the most promising area, with companies in this space having experienced the highest Mosaic score increase over the last 6 months. This includes GIS platform Felt (+71 points in 6 months) and humanoid developer Persona AI (+57). This momentum reflects investor and customer recognition that industrial AI creates defensible moats through domain-specific datasets that take years to build. Unlike horizontal tools, this vertical expertise can’t be easily replicated, positioning these companies as prime acquisition targets for industrial incumbents seeking AI capabilities over the next 5-10 years.

• Elite management teams cluster in enterprise infrastructure. Top Management Mosaic scores concentrate in enterprise tech, with Lineaje (962/1000; software supply chain security platform), Maven AGI (956/1000; customer service AI agents), ProRata.ai (950/1000; AI-powered search and advertising), and Harmonic (876/1000; mathematical superintelligence) all led by executives hailing from incumbents like Google, Robinhood, and Stripe. These companies signal that the most experienced founders see enterprise infrastructure — not verticalized or consumer AI — as the category where technical depth and execution create the most competitive advantage.

Methodology

We used CB Insights data to analyze hundreds of VC-backed private tech companies with Mosaic scores of 600+ and an early commercial maturity score. 

Our scoring model factors in signals like investor quality, business relationships, Mosaic scores, key people data, and patents. We excluded companies with fewer than 100 employees. Data is as of 9/29/2025.

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com. 

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To no surprise, AI is at the forefront of these changes. The tech is no longer confined to chatbots or data analysis; it now executes real financial workflows, from compliance reviews to transaction monitoring. Crypto’s story is maturing in parallel and moving away from speculation, as stablecoins, custody platforms, and tokenization become part of everyday financial operations for businesses and institutions alike.

This year’s Fintech 100 highlights the companies poised to lead this transformation. We selected the 100 winners from over 15,000 companies using deal activity, industry partnerships, investor strength, hiring momentum, and CB Insights’ predictive scores for success (Mosaic Scores) and commercial traction (Commercial Maturity).

This year’s cohort spans 26 countries with a record 60 winners outside the US. The winners have an average Mosaic score of 775 (top 2% of private companies) and are scaling fast with 61% average headcount growth over the past year vs. the fintech average of 13%.

Below, we map out the winners, categorizing them based on their core offering. Customers can track all 100 companies in this Expert Collection. Key trends follow. 

Please click to enlarge. Data as of 10/23/25.

CBI customers: Get data on the winners

Key takeaways on the Fintech 100

1. AI agents are tackling specialized financial workflows, from debt collection to autonomous payments.

Eleven companies on this year’s Fintech 100 are enabling AI agents, automating tasks from fraud detection to financial planning. They span 8 of the 14 categories, showing how agents’ impact is permeating across sectors in financial services.

While horizontal AI agent platforms have dominated investment activity in the broader landscape, these companies are carving out niches by building agents for specific financial workflows. For example: 

• Borderless’s agent Alberni, launched with LLM developer Cohere, automates global employment and payroll.
• Anti-money laundering (AML) software company Greenlite’s agents accelerate AML reviews.
• Debt collection platform Murphy reports 40% higher recovery rates using agentic models.

Beyond workflow automation, several companies are developing payment infrastructure for AI agents. Catena Labs is building agentic payments rails that will enable users to authorize AI agents to transact on their behalf. Its backers include Coinbase’s and Circle’s venture arms. Circle has also backed Crossmint, which is developing a wallet on the blockchain that will allow agents to hold funds and make independent purchases. 

The trajectory is clear: specialized agentic solutions will continue to reach into every layer of financial services. 

2. AI is automating the core of enterprise finance as financial operations platforms expand into full-stack ecosystems.

Seventeen companies on this year’s Fintech 100 — up from ten in 2024 — are using AI to take over accounting, payroll, and treasury workflows once managed manually. The result is faster close cycles, cleaner data, and finance teams that operate with real-time visibility across the business.

Fintech 100 leaders are deploying AI to handle complex, repetitive financial tasks:

• Campfire’s AI-powered ERP replacement achieves 95% accuracy on financial reconciliations.
• Xelix’s agents detect fraud, prevent overpayments, and automate supplier queries.
• Niural’s agent EMMA runs global payroll across 150 countries.

At the same time, payroll and financial operations providers are layering in adjacent financial services — salary access, digital banking, and cross-border payments — to create integrated workforce finance platforms. 

• Khazna offers earned wage access for underbanked employees in Egypt and Saudi Arabia
• InstaPay collects digital salaries and remittances for migrant workers in Malaysia. 
• Every includes incorporation, banking, and benefits management within its payroll suite.  

These moves show how payroll is becoming the anchor for embedded finance. Global providers such as Workday, Gusto, and Deel are accelerating this shift through acquisitions and new product extensions.

As AI takes on more financial decisioning and compliance tasks, financial operations platforms are evolving into self-updating systems that can reconcile, forecast, and route payments automatically — turning finance from a reactive function into a continuous, data-driven process.

3. Digital asset companies are enabling crypto in everyday transactions and institutional finance.

Crypto payments infrastructure and institutional DeFi together form the largest sector in this year’s Fintech 100, with momentum driven by unprecedented attention and activity in stablecoins, as well as regulatory tailwinds. 

Fintech 100 winners in crypto payments infrastructure are enabling the use of digital assets in day-to-day finance, from crypto card payments to enterprise transactions. On the enterprise side, BVNK, Rain, and Noah are building stablecoin payment rails, allowing businesses to transact with crypto more affordably, while Transak embeds crypto payments and fiat access directly into enterprise workflows. For consumers, RedotPay and Baanx are expanding access to crypto payments via Visa and Mastercard integrations.

As regulators greenlight digital asset use by traditional institutions, other Fintech 100 winners are building the infrastructure for banks and asset managers to hold, issue, and trade tokenized assets at scale:

• RD Technologies was admitted to Hong Kong’s stablecoin standbox and is partnering with ZA Bank to develop stablecoin use cases. 
• DigiFT, a dually-licensed Singapore-Hong Kong exchange for tokenized RWAs, expanded its partnership with UBS Asset Management on its Ethereum-based uMINT fund. 
• Komainu, a licensed custodian in the UK, Italy, and Dubai serving institutional investors raised $75M in Series B funding in January.

Expect incumbents to pursue deeper partnerships and acquisitions in digital assets as crypto-native firms build the next layer of global financial infrastructure.

Deep dive into all companies here

Mosaic scores from the 2025 Fintech 100 winners

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Deal volume has dropped consistently since 2021, raising the stakes for all players. Emerging startups need clear differentiation and proven traction to secure funding. Investors face greater opportunity costs with every check they write. And incumbents must identify which early-stage vendors will scale — decisions that shape their tech strategies and market position.

In this environment, identifying future leaders matters more than ever. Our annual Digital Health 50 highlights private companies with strong growth potential, focusing on early-stage players with strong market traction, high-quality investors, and growing teams.

From a pool of over 12K companies, we selected 50 based on CB Insights data and predictive signals, including deal activity, partnerships, leadership strength, hiring momentum, investor quality, and our proprietary Mosaic score. Our analysis also incorporated exclusive interviews with software buyers and Analyst Briefings submitted by startups.

Below, we map out the winners based on their core offering and highlight key trends from this year’s cohort. Customers can track all 50 companies in this Expert Collection.

Please click to enlarge.

CBI Customers: Get data on the winners

Key Takeaways on the Digital Health 50

1. Healthcare is shifting from reactive to preventive care, with earlier detection and remote access redefining when and where intervention occurs.

Multiple companies on this year’s list are enabling earlier disease detection through AI-powered diagnostics, comprehensive health screenings, and continuous monitoring. These include cardiovascular disease prediction from ECG data (Anumana), full-body preventive scans (Function Health, Neko Health), and at-home diagnostic testing (PocDoc, Teal Health).

Virtual and telehealth platforms are making preventive and specialty care more accessible by bringing clinical expertise outside hospitals and clinics. These companies provide 24/7 access to specialized services like neurology (Sevaro, Isaac Health), maternal health (Delfina), and nutrition counseling (Nourish, Fay Nutrition), while others are removing geographic barriers through mobile and home-based care (Sprinter Health).

This shift toward prevention resonates with investors as well. Leila Zegna, Founding General Partner at Kindred Capital, a lead investor in Sohar Health, sees it as a strategic imperative:

“We’ve seen an enormous wave of behavior change with patients taking accountability for their own health care outcomes, and we now have the tools to enable people to do that. It is the dream of moving from sick care to true health care…I think those are really promising technologies that we as a society and as a group of venture capitalists should really try and support because they do well and they do good at the same time.”

2. Workflow automation tools are tackling provider burnout and workforce shortages.

Physician burnout costs the US healthcare system an estimated $4.6B annually. It contributes to severe workforce shortages, with 31 out of 35 physician specialties facing ongoing gaps. Rural areas are hit hardest, and by 2037, non-metro areas are projected to face a 60% shortage of physicians.

Many of this year’s Digital Health 50 focus on reducing provider burnout and streamlining workflows. Ambient documentation tools, which automate clinical notes, continue to attract significant capital. Companies Ambience, Freed, and Nabla earned spots on this year’s list, with Ambience and Nabla securing 11 combined business relationships this year and Freed differentiating through its focus on small clinics, now serving nearly 25,000 clinicians.

Beyond documentation, tools addressing hospital operations are also making an impact. AssistIQ reduces the time OR staff spend locating and recording surgical supplies, while CalmWave addresses alarm fatigue. These tools simplify clinical workflows and free up time for meaningful patient interactions.

Investors see this moment as a convergence point. Katheleen Eva of StandUp Ventures, who led AssistIQ’s seed round, notes:

“I think [healthcare] is largely under digitized and that means that there is a huge opportunity because as technology becomes easier to implement and get going, coupled with some of the new AI advancements with respect to computer vision and other sort of multimodal aspects, I think that it’s a combination of the technology is now so powerful and the customer is now ready.”

3. AI is becoming embedded in healthcare, but its regulatory environment demands purpose-built infrastructure.

This year’s 50 companies include 47 developing AI solutions, up from 36 in 2024. They are building the compliance, safety, and governance systems critical to AI adoption in healthcare.

Yet, adoption remains hindered by trust gaps. Sooah Cho, Partner at SignalFire, a lead investor in Qualified Health, points to research showing:

“… a lot of providers, like 84%, had lacked confidence in ability to trust AI, and more than 70% of healthcare employees were just using generative AI tools on their own via undercover use.”

This creates major risks of regulatory liability and potential leakage of protected health information (PHI).

Addressing these concerns requires AI systems purpose-built for healthcare’s unique requirements. Hippocratic AI is developing large language models designed specifically for healthcare with clinical safety validation, recognizing that general-purpose AI can’t meet the stringent requirements of regulated environments where errors have serious consequences.

Equally critical is the infrastructure that enables safe AI deployment. Companies are building platforms for AI governance and oversight (Qualified Health), clinical data abstraction (Carta Healthcare), and patient consent management (HealthEx). These foundational layers ensure compliance, data quality, and the trust necessary for AI adoption in heavily regulated healthcare environments.

4. Voice AI agents are healthcare’s new front door, automating phone-based workflows from patient scheduling to insurance verification calls.

Voice AI is one of the fastest-growing areas in AI development — platforms have raised nearly $400M in funding in 2025 and account for the fastest-growing headcounts among early-stage genAI companies. Healthcare’s heavy reliance on phone communication makes it a natural fit for this technology.

Companies are deploying voice AI agents for appointment scheduling and care navigation (Assort Health), billing inquiries (Hyro), ongoing patient engagement (Kouper Health, Ellipsis Health), and post-discharge follow-ups (Hippocratic AI). These systems handle high-volume routine interactions 24/7, addressing the expense and bottlenecks of traditional call centers so staff can focus on cases that require human expertise.

The technology is also automating time-intensive administrative tasks for providers, including calling insurance companies for benefit verification and prior authorizations (Infinitus Systems, Mandolin) — work that previously consumed significant staff hours. As these systems mature, they’re moving beyond scripted interactions toward adaptive, context-aware agents that handle complex conversations and integrate with existing healthcare IT systems. 

Deep dive into all companies here

Mosaic scores from the 2025 Digital Health 50 winners

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CB Insights has unveiled the 2025 Insurtech 50 list of the world’s most promising insurtech startups. The winners have a success probability among the global top 3% of private companies, signaled by a median CB Insights’ Mosaic score of 734 out of 1,000 (as of 9/30/2025). This benchmark is important because broader forces — such as AI agent commercialization and extreme weather events — influence the industry’s tech and underwriting considerations.

The 2025 Insurtech 50 includes 27 insurers and intermediaries and 23 tech vendors, which have collectively raised $3.6B in funding. 60% of the winners are early-stage insurtechs, a 20-percentage point increase from last year’s list. Nearly three-quarters of the winners were not in business at the start of the decade, signaling the opportunity for new entrants to shape the industry’s innovation landscape.

Utilizing CB Insights’ Strategy Terminal, the 50 winners were selected based on several factors, including CB Insights’ data and predictive signals on deal activity, industry partnerships, investor strength, hiring momentum, and outlook indicators like Commercial Maturity and Mosaic Scores. We also reviewed Analyst Briefings submitted directly to us by startups, and leveraged Scouting Reports powered by CB Insights’ Team of Agents.

Below, we map out the 50 winners, classifying them across 16 categories based on their core offering.

Please click to enlarge.

CBI customers: Get data on the winners

Key takeaways

1. Small and mid-sized businesses fuel growth opportunities for most insurers and intermediaries. 

The winners include 13 insurtechs in the commercial category and 6 in the health and benefits category, which are primarily focused on small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

Most commercial-focused insurtechs offer coverage for specific SMB segments, like a16z-backed District Cover, which serves small businesses based in cities. Proactive risk management is also a focus for some of these companies. For instance, CompScience uses computer vision technology to reduce the likelihood of workplace injuries that could lead to workers’ compensation claims.

Four of the insurtechs in the health and benefits category are ICHRA (individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement) platforms: Stretch Dollar, Thatch, Venteur, and Zorro. ICHRA is an alternative to traditional employer-selected health plans in the US, where employers instead allocate money for their employees to select their preferred qualified plan individually. These plans are particularly attractive to SMBs. Chris Ellis, Founder and CEO of Thatch, highlighted the benefits for both employees and employers with us:

“…with Thatch, a defined contribution, employees get to choose [what] works best for them. It’s easier for employees to manage [and] it’s easier for employers to administer.”

Broadly, the ICHRA platforms market has seen favorable market development over the past year, with Mosaic scores (success probabilities) for market leaders steadily increasing.

2. Many tech vendors build products for insurers seeking to deploy AI agents. 

AI agents are a widespread focus among tech vendors, which are loosely mapped across the insurance value chain — distribution, underwriting, operations, and claims. Examples of AI agent-focused companies include:

• Quandri, which offers AI agents to support insurance agency renewals.
• Sixfold, whose agents include an underwriting referral agent in October 2025.
• PenguinAi, a platform for payers (and providers) founded by the former Chief Data Officer of Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare.
• Elysian, a claims TPA with a focus on AI agent orchestration.

Workflow improvements to support decision-making are the primary focus for agentic AI deployment among the winners. Kasey Roh, US CEO of Upstage, shared the company’s near-term objective:

“Over the next 12 months, our focus is expanding [the] AI space from document extraction to workflow automation, transforming every step from intake and classification to data extraction, generation, and insight delivery through an agentic workflow.”

The focus on AI agents aligns with insurance companies’ broader appetite for the technology, with AIG Chairman and CEO Peter Zaffino repeatedly highlighting the company’s “agentic ecosystem” as an example on earnings calls. Broadly, revenue opportunities for AI agents are increasing for tech vendors, and the market momentum spans industries. For instance, professional services firms like Accenture, KPMG, and McKinsey are actively forming agentic AI partnerships. 

3. Personal lines P&C trails commercial among the winners.

Just 7 Insurtech 50 winners have a primary focus on P&C personal lines. 4 of the companies are focused on homeowners insurance:

• Delos, a California-based managing general agent with differentiated wildfire risk models.
• Eventual, whose “Premium Lock” product offers reimbursement for potential premium increases.
• Faura, which offers models to support underwriting for climate- and weather-related risks.
• Sola, which offers parametric insurance for wind and hail events.

Otherwise, Faye is focused on travel insurance while Quandri is focused on insurance agencies. Just one company — State Farm Ventures-backed InsureVision — focuses on auto.

Broadly, auto and homeowners insurance face the greatest affordability pressure across P&C lines of business, so startups with differentiated, strong solutions in these spaces — like the Insurtech 50 winners — face favorable market conditions. As an example, Matt Perlman, Partner at IA Capital Group, notes Delos’ market strength:

“Delos brings a true paradigm shift in using advanced data analytics to understand wildfire behavior, not based solely on historical occurrence but dynamically as conditions change on the ground. … Their performance in the highly dislocated California market speaks for itself, and they have gained the trust of capital markets, rating agencies, and regulators as an innovator on behalf of homeowners and businesses in California and beyond.”

The 2024 Insurtech 50: Where are they now?

In the 12 months since publication, the 2024 Insurtech 50 winners posted notable accomplishments, including:

• 15 equity funding rounds.
• $422M in equity funding (i.e., 9% of global insurtech funding).
• 26% median headcount growth, directly resulting in 1,600+ new jobs.
• 4 exits — Accelerant, Bowtie, EvolutionIQ, and Next Insurance.
• 21-point increase in median Mosaic scores.

Mosaic scores from the 2025 Insurtech 50 winners

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To differentiate themselves, top firms like EQT Ventures are aggressively pursuing deals in high-growth areas like fintech and AI that position them to capture outsized returns. Meanwhile, Open Ocean Capital recently closed a €100M fund focused on data and AI startups. 

Using CB Insights data, we analyzed which investors are building the strongest foundations for portfolio success. Below, see our picks for the top 50 venture investors in Nordic countries, key takeaways on the list, and a note on methodology.

Venture firms — make sure we’re representing your full portfolio by reaching out to analyst@cbinsights.com to set up a review of CB Insights’ coverage of your investments.

Track these investors’ deals in real time

Key takeaways

• EQT Ventures leads our ranking with 67 startup deals since 2023 (as of 6/30/2025). Of those, over one-third (or 24 deals) went to AI companies — including humanoid startup 1X and customer service AI agent developer Parloa.
• IDC Ventures leads in terms of the quality of its recent investments. Its investments since 2023 have a higher average Mosaic score (753 out of 1,000) than any other investor on the list. Top performers in its portfolio include digital wallet developer Curve (866; $1.4B in total funding and backing from the likes of Samsung NEXT) and meal delivery startup CookUnity (816; $500M in ARR).
• EQT Ventures and Almi Invest show the best exit track record, backing 19 startups each since 2018 that went on to exit. The biggest exits across these funds include food delivery app Wolt (EQT Ventures-backed, acquired by DoorDash) and biotech company Cartana (Almi-backed, acquired by 10X Genomics).

CB Insights customers can download a complete book of deal summaries using the “Download Now” button on the left. 

Methodology

We used CB Insights data to review the dealmaking activity of hundreds of Nordic investors that fund private-market startups in exchange for equity, and rank them based on the strength and performance of their portfolios.

Our scoring model factors in deal volume between Q1’23 and Q2’25; unicorns in investors’ portfolios that were backed prior to a $1B valuation; and the share of portfolio companies invested in since 2018 that have gone on to exit. We exclude government vehicles, startup accelerators, incubators. 

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Since we published our first agent revenue ranking in July, the sector has continued to gain significant momentum: Harvey reached the $100M revenue threshold, category leaders like Sana Labs are exiting (Workday’s $1.1B acquisition), and startups like Sierra are raising mega-rounds ($350M Series D at a $10B valuation).

Using CB Insights revenue data, we identified the top private startups generating $10M+ in revenue that offer AI agents as their primary offering and analyzed their revenue performance across categories (see the graphic below). 

If you are an AI agent startup and want to submit your company’s revenue data, please reach out to analyst@cbinsights.com.

See the top AI agent startups ranked by revenue here

Key takeaways 

• Coding AI agents are racing ahead in commercialization, with 6 software development agents making the top rankings, including market leaders like Anysphere’s Cursor ($500M in ARR) and Replit ($150M). These startups have demonstrated that they’re the most capital-efficient category, averaging $1.4M revenue per employee (compared to $594K per employee across all top agent categories). We recently identified the leaders of coding AI by market share — read more here.
• Customer service AI agents command the highest valuation premiums, averaging 219x revenue multiples (compared to 80x across all top revenue-generating AI agents). This valuation gap reflects investor confidence in the sector’s applicability and the expectation that businesses will rapidly replace human support teams with AI agents.
• These revenue leaders average just 3.8 years old. Despite their youth, CB Insights’ Commercial Maturity data shows the majority are already deploying or scaling their products, demonstrating the industry’s compressed timelines from startup to commercial success.

The post The AI agent revenue race — September’s top earners show coding dominates commercialization appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Among the top 50 private companies globally, the US and China account for 86% of the list, while AI startups represent 40%. These companies are reshaping industries and, in some cases, surpassing their public market competitors in valuation. 

OpenAI is reportedly poised to hit a roughly $500B valuation — putting it closer to the ranks of big tech than any other startup. At the same time, the current top 50 companies’ combined valuation represents under half of Nvidia’s current market cap of $4.3T, underscoring the relative scale of public tech giants.

Using CB Insights data, we analyzed the top 50 most valuable private companies globally to identify where value creation is happening in private markets. Below are the key patterns emerging from the group.

Track all 1,200+ unicorns

Key takeaways

• The United States and China dominate the global unicorn landscape, representing 86% of the top 50 companies. The US leads with 35 companies (70%), while China contributes 8 companies (16%), showing how concentrated tech innovation and capital formation remains within these two tech regions. The remaining 6 countries — Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, Sweden and the UK — each have only 1-2 representing companies.
• AI companies represent 40% of the top 50, signaling the market’s confidence in AI as a primary driver of economic value. These companies range from the big names building foundation models like OpenAI and Anthropic to specialized players tackling applications like defense systems (Helsing, Anduril).
• Abundant private funding enables companies to delay going public while continuing to scale. Today, startups are going public an average of 16 years after being founded, 4 years later than just a decade ago. Databricks recently surpassed its public competitor Snowflake in valuation ($100B) at its recent $1B Series K round. Meanwhile, ByteDance ($300B valuation), generated more revenue than Meta in Q1’25 while staying private. With plenty of private capital available and employees able to sell shares on secondary markets, companies can grow much larger without going public.
• Secondary transactions are increasingly driving valuations, with 7 consecutive quarters of YoY growth in transaction activity among VC-backed companies. Recent secondary sales at companies like Canva (valued at $42B, up from $32B in 2024), Revolut (valued at $75B, up from $45B), and OpenAI’s upcoming $10.3B secondary sale at a rumored $500B valuation demonstrate this trend. As startups stay private for longer, secondary sales are providing both liquidity and fresh valuations. 

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The market is already worth more than $2B, and appetite for these tools continues to accelerate. New players are flooding in: IDE startups are launching their own agents, 12 brand-new coding AI agent companies have been founded since 2024, and every major cloud provider and LLM developer has been rolling out offerings.

So who’s leading today, and who’s gaining ground fastest?

Using CB Insights’ revenue data, we measured the current size of the market and estimated market shares for players in the space. Download our book of scouting reports for an in-depth analysis of every private player with disclosed revenue in the market.

If you are active in the coding AI agent & copilots market and want to submit your company’s revenue data, please reach out to researchanalyst@cbinsights.com. 

See all coding AI agent & copilot companies ranked by revenue

Key takeaways

• Coding AI agent & copilot is a highly concentrated market, with the top 3 players currently holding just over 70% of the market. GitHub (owned by Microsoft) leads with an estimated $800M in ARR generated from its AI-powered coding offerings, demonstrating the power of superior distribution in the agentic AI space. With close to 40% of players showing low commercial maturity scores (emerging or validating), we expect leaders to be challenged and risk losing market share unless they turn to M&A to maintain their position — and technological edge.
• Explosive growth creates a dynamic leaderboard, with companies reaching and surpassing $100M in ARR at record pace. For example, Anysphere was generating $500M in ARR by June this year, up from $100M as of December 2024, a level it reached just 12 months after launching its product. Similarly, Anthropic scaled its AI coding solution (Claude Code) from 0 to $400M in ARR in just 5 months. This is adding more pressure on leaders as it highlights the low barriers to scale in this market, with new entrants able to win material share very quickly.
• The pie keeps getting bigger, with companies projecting top-line growth of 12x on average this year. Lovable recently said it expects to reach $250M in ARR by year-end, up from $10M at the start of 2025, and projects $1B by mid-2026 — a 100x increase in just 18 months. However, higher costs and reluctance from enterprises to adopt usage-based pricing could slow growth in the space or require significantly more funding to stay in the race.

Market overview

The coding AI agents & copilots market consists of AI-powered solutions that help software developers write, fix, test, and maintain code. These tools offer features like intelligent code completion, natural language code generation, automated testing, code review, debugging assistance, and technical debt management. Many solutions integrate directly with popular IDEs and development environments, while others operate as standalone agents or chat interfaces. The market includes both general-purpose coding assistants and specialized tools for specific programming languages, frameworks, or development workflows.

We count close to 100 players in this market, with a mix of early-commercial-maturity pure players (~40%), recently minted unicorns such as Anysphere and Lovable, leading LLM developers, and most big tech companies.

They have raised a combined $2.1B in equity funding so far this year, already surpassing the $2B raised last year. Traction in the market is also reflected in its average Mosaic score (a measure of company health) of 633, well above the 370 average across all private companies.

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AI companies drove the surge, accounting for half of all mega-rounds. Many are building foundation models tailored to complex real-world use cases like robotics and healthcare.

Using CB Insights’ Business Graph, our monthly Book of Scouting Reports offers an in-depth analysis of every private tech company that has raised a funding round of $100M or more, to spotlight where capital is concentrating, which startups are gaining momentum, and who’s shaping the next wave of market disruption.

Download the book to see all 50 scouting reports.

Key takeaways from July’s mega-rounds include: 

• Clinical AI moves from development to scaling, with both Aidoc (a clinical AI foundation model developer) and Ambience (an AI medical scribe) having raised mega-rounds last month to build upon their early success and scale across more health systems. Last month also saw OpenEvidence and Tala Health raise $100M+ rounds to bring agentic AI solutions to clinicians, with the latter joining the fast-growing AI unicorn list. 
• Investors keep betting big on the next wave of the AI boom, physical AI. Recent commercial breakthroughs in the autonomous vehicle space and heightened interest in the humanoid space are driving capital toward physical AI infrastructure. This includes robotics foundation models (Genesis AI, TARS), and hardware platforms for embodied AI model training (Galaxea AI). China-based Meituan led both the $100M Series A extension in Galaxea AI and the $125M Seed round in TARS, as it doubles down on physical AI investments.
• AI newcomers are openly taking on tech giants. Half of last month’s mega-rounds went to AI companies, which accounted for 7 of the 13 new unicorns minted during that time. Some of these companies are directly targeting incumbents such as Reka AI which positions itself as a lower-cost alternative to OpenAI or Anthropic, and Perplexity which targets Google‘s core search business with its new browser product. 
• Fintech is minting a new class of financial services challengers.  Fintech companies accounted for more mega-round deals than any other vertical in July, including 2 of the top 4 largest rounds. Ramp’s valuation jumped from $16B to $22.5B in mere weeks, while Bilt more than tripled in value, from $3.3B to $10.8B. Beyond fundraising, fintech leaders are pursuing aggressive expansion strategies. iCapital raised $820M last month to accelerate its acquisition strategy focused on seizing the private markets opportunity. 

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To differentiate themselves, top German firms like High-Tech Grunderfonds are aggressively pursuing deals in high-growth areas like healthcare and AI that position them to capture outsized returns. 

Using CB Insights data, we analyzed which investors are building the strongest foundations for portfolio success. Below, see our picks for the top 50 venture investors in Germany, key takeaways on the list, and a note on methodology.

Venture firms — make sure we’re representing your full portfolio by reaching out to analyst@cbinsights.com to set up a review of CB Insights’ coverage of your investments.

CBI customers: Track these investors’ deals in real time

Key takeaways

• High-Tech Grunderfonds leads our ranking with 166 startup deals since 2023 (as of 6/30/2025). Of those, nearly one-fifth (or 32 deals) went to AI companies — including AI-powered precision medicine platform Aignostics and AI development startup Neural Concept.
• DTCP leads in terms of the quality of its recent investments. Its investments since 2023 have a higher average Mosaic score (797 out of 1,000) than any other investor on the list. Top performers in its portfolio include Cohere (890; $1.4B in total funding and backing from the likes of Nvidia, Oracle, and Salesforce Ventures) and Quantum Systems (874; partnerships with Sony and Airbus).
• Global Founders Capital shows the best exit track records, backing 54 startups since 2018 that went on to exit. Of those, at least 11% of exits are AI companies, including AI-powered quality management platform Klaus (acquired by Zendesk) and personalization AI startup Dynamic Yield (acquired by Mastercard). The firm recently transitioned to exclusively investing from Rocket Internet’s €300M balance sheet rather than operating as an independent venture firm.

Methodology

We used CB Insights data to review the dealmaking activity of hundreds of Germany-based investors that fund private-market startups in exchange for equity, and rank them based on the strength and performance of their portfolios.

Our scoring model factors in deal volume between Q1’23 and Q2’25; unicorns in investors’ portfolios that were backed prior to a $1B valuation; and the share of portfolio companies invested in since 2018 that have gone on to exit. We exclude government vehicles, startup accelerators, incubators. 

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Their commercial breakthroughs are sparking an industry-wide race, with Tesla and Uber scrambling to catch up — Uber recently partnered with Lucid and Nuro to launch its own robotaxi fleet.

This revival is creating massive demand for simulation and training solutions — essential components of AV development that generative AI has made faster and more cost-effective. 

AV simulation and training market leader Applied Intuition exemplifies this opportunity, having just raised $600M at a $15B valuation and counting 18 of the top 20 automotive OEMs as clients — a strong signal of surging demand.

The appeal is obvious: external simulation offers a cost-effective alternative to in-house development for major OEMs like GM and Hyundai, which have struggled with safety issues and commercialization delays in their self-driving units.

As AVs accelerate their shift from experimentation to deployment, simulation providers are expanding beyond passenger vehicles into high-value sectors like defense and industrials.

Using CB Insights’ Mosaic score, which measures a company’s health, we identified the most promising autonomous driving training and simulation providers, revealing critical signals for the industry’s expansion into new AV use cases (see graphic below). 

If you are an autonomous vehicle simulation and training startup and want to be featured in our research, please reach out to analystbriefing@cbinsights.com to submit your data. 

See the full list of autonomous vehicle simulation & testing companies

• Industrials and defense are the new battlegrounds. Top Mosaic score movers target AV applications beyond the already competitive passenger vehicles market. Both Cognata and  Applied Intuition offer defense-specific autonomous vehicle solutions, with the latter recently strengthening its position in this space by acquiring EpiSci, a company specializing in national security autonomy. Others like Kognic and Parallel Domain focus on industrial applications, including robotics and drones. 
• OEM relationships create strategic moats. The top 5 market leaders all have relationships with OEMs and hardware manufacturers. Since 2022, 74% of OEM relationships have gone to the top 5 players in the space. The bottom 5 players account for just 12% of these partnerships, and most have decreased Mosaic scores over the past year. 
• NVIDIA emerges as a key enabler. Oxa and Foretellix are using NVIDIA’s large world models to strengthen AI training. The tech giant has partnerships with 3 of the top 5 market players, positioning NVIDIA is a likely winner of growth in this space. 

As the autonomous vehicle arms race continues, momentum will favor the companies diversifying beyond passenger vehicles. Established passenger vehicle players already leverage proprietary AI simulation tools, pushing new entrants to other applications such as defense and aerospace — with growing demand for autonomous guidance simulation in robotics and drones. Monitor strategic partnership activity to identify the likely winners in each AV application.  

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Based on CB Insights Commercial Maturity data, 42% of these companies are already deploying or commercializing their solutions (deploying, scaling, established), with a few leaders already crossing $100M in ARR. This includes Anysphere’s Cursor ($500M in ARR) as well as Windsurf and Moveworks, both of which reached $100M ARR shortly before being acquired.

This commercial traction signals the rapid adoption of specific types of AI agents by enterprises and who the early market winners are. The companies generating the most revenue often target workflow-heavy sectors where AI delivers immediate ROI — primarily coding and enterprise workflows. 

We expect these categories to continue driving adoption (and revenue), and predict the enterprise AI agents & copilots space will generate close to $13B in annual revenue by the end of 2025, up from $5B in 2024. 

Using CB Insights revenue data, we identified the top 20 private startups offering AI agents as their primary offering and analyzed how they are rewriting the VC funding playbook (see below graphic).

If you are an AI agent startup and want to submit your company’s revenue data, please reach out to analystbriefing@cbinsights.com. 

See the top AI agent startups ranked by revenue here

Key takeaways

• Top revenue-generating AI agent startups are just under 5 years old on average, with 50% of them having been founded in the last 3 years. This signals how quickly these AI-native companies are scaling and monetizing their products with recent breakouts including Cursor ($500M revenue, founded 2022), Mercor ($100M, founded 2023), and Lovable ($100M, founded 2023).
• Customer service AI agents command the highest valuation premiums, with an average revenue multiple of 127x compared to 52x on average across all top 20 AI agents by revenue. This valuation gap signals that investors are betting on aggressive revenue acceleration in customer service AI, driven by the sector’s universal market applicability and the expectation that businesses will rapidly replace human support teams with AI agents. 
• Some AI agent startups are already as capital-efficient as big tech companies. Mercor ($4.5M revenue per employee) and Cursor ($3.2M per employee) already surpass the likes of Microsoft ($1.8M per employee, FY 2024) and Meta ($2.2M per employee, FY 2024), and rivaling Nvidia‘s efficiency levels ($3.6M per employee, FY 2025). 

However, as new entrants enter the AI agent market at a record pace — both startups and tech giants pivoting into AI agents — the question becomes whether these early revenue wins can translate into defensible market positions. 

We expect competitive moats to emerge through proprietary data advantages, deep vertical specialization, and the creation of switching costs through deep integration into customers’ critical business workflows. 

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Investors and big tech alike are betting that voice will be the dominant interface for interacting with AI, enabling a move away from traditional browser and mobile interfaces toward natural conversational interaction. 

Recent technological advancements have made this vision increasingly viable, with voice capabilities now delivering near-instantaneous responses with sub-300ms latency that matches human conversational flow. This speed breakthrough is critical to unlocking voice AI’s full potential, as Chris McCann at Race Capital, a backer of PlayAI, explains:

“Voice is how people naturally communicate – but most voice AI systems still sound robotic or have high latency in their responses. We believed fast, expressive voice tech would be critical to making AI feel human and useful in the enterprise, especially for IVR, customer support, and sales.”

With voice becoming an increasingly fundamental modality for the AI-powered future and big tech competing to win the AI device race, owning the building blocks that shape human-AI communication is becoming mission-critical. Expect a wave of acquisitions as companies scramble to secure voice AI capabilities.

Using CB Insights’ Mosaic score which measures company health, we identified the top M&A targets in the voice AI space and what makes them such compelling targets (see below graphic).

See the full list of voice AI startups ranked by Mosaic score

• Voice synthesis platform ElevenLabs tops the market with a Mosaic score of 955, making it an attractive acquisition target. Proprietary voice generation technology is becoming as valuable as foundational AI models, positioning the highest-quality voice synthesis as core infrastructure rather than a feature add-on.
• Enterprise-focused Cresta delivers immediate ROI, with some customers reporting 50% cost reductions in contact centers, and positioning it perfectly for companies looking to leverage voice AI to immediately impact enterprise productivity.
• Ultra-low latency startups like Cartesia have an edge, as their ability to deliver sub-100ms capabilities positions them as essential for truly conversational AI experiences that matches human conversation patterns. 

Investors also see companies owning the full-stack as a having key technological advantage compared to those relying on third-party components. This was part of the rationale for investing into PlayAI according to Chris McCann of Race Capital:

“Most voice AI startups rely on open source or other third-party components. PlayAI built the full stack in-house—their own TTS engine, real-time streaming, and sub-100ms latency. That gave them full control and a clear technical edge, which let them power real-time agents for support, sales, and IVR across several Fortune 500s.”

As the AI arms race continues, acquisitions will continue to be focused on talent, tech, and infrastructure rather than existing revenues. Companies that secure advanced voice AI capabilities now will dominate the next phase of AI adoption – whether they integrate into their existing offerings or cash-in on selling the tooling back to others.

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Now, we’re examining the critical metrics behind these winners, revealing potential acquisition targets, partnership opportunities, and emerging competitors before they reshape the market.

Below, we analyzed the 100 winners to understand how the cohort stacks up, the markets we’re seeing emerge, top investors in AI, and more.

Learn more about the AI 100 here

Some highlights from our analysis: 

• AI infrastructure shows a maturity gap despite massive funding. Despite the already enormous amount of capital raised in this category, AI infrastructure still has overall low Commercial Maturity Scores and sees a lot of early-stage activity with a specific focus on efficiency. These AI 100 winners are betting on next-generation solutions like specialized AI chips, novel computing architectures with reduced energy consumption and optimized inference, and infrastructure designed for multimodal workloads that current systems can’t efficiently handle. 
• Autonomous vehicles are accelerating beyond the hype cycle. The auto & mobility market ranks third by Mosaic score, with companies gaining significant commercial traction following Waymo‘s recent success in scaling its robotaxi operations. This momentum validates years of R&D investment and suggests we’re entering a new phase of AV deployment. Read more in our recent autonomous vehicle analysis.
• Multimodal AI is driving the biggest breakthroughs. Voice AI platform Cartesia leads the largest year-over-year Mosaic score jump (+321), alongside other companies pushing beyond text-only models toward integrated voice, vision, and reasoning capabilities. This shift represents the next evolution of AI, especially for embodied AI systems like humanoids, moving from single-modality tools toward systems that can understand and generate across multiple forms of media simultaneously. 

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To differentiate themselves, top French firms like Partech are aggressively pursuing deals in high-growth areas like AI and sustainability tech that position them to capture outsized returns. 

Using CB Insights data, we analyzed which investors are building the strongest foundations for portfolio success. Below, see our picks for the top 50 venture investors in France, key takeaways on the list, and a note on methodology.

Venture firms — make sure we’re representing your full portfolio by reaching out to investoroutreach@cbinsights.com to set up a review of CB Insights’ coverage of your investments.

Note: Updated on 6/27/2025 to include IRIS in 22nd position.

CBI customers: Track these investors’ deals in real time

Key takeaways

• Partech tops our ranking, having recorded 28 exits since 2018 and joined 59 startup deals since 2023 (as of 3/31/2025). AI leads with 11 deals (or 19%), followed by sustainability tech with 10 deals (or 17%).
• ISAI and Frst Capital stand out as the only investors to back future unicorns – Liquid AI and poolside, respectively – early. Liquid AI, focused on general-purpose AI, was last valued at $2B in Dec ’24, while Poolside, building AI for software development, hit $3B in Oct ’24.
• Biotech specialist Jeito Capital leads in terms of the quality of its recent investments. Its investments since 2023 have a higher average Mosaic score (730 out of 1,000) than any other investor here. Top performers in its portfolio include NMD Pharma (778) and Augustine Therapeutics (770).

Methodology

We used CB Insights data to review the dealmaking activity of hundreds of France-based investors that fund private-market startups in exchange for equity, and rank them based on the strength and performance of their portfolios.

Our scoring model factors in deal volume between 1/1/2023 and 3/31/2025; unicorns in investors’ portfolios that were backed prior to a $1B valuation; and the share of portfolio companies invested in since 2018 that have gone on to exit. We exclude government vehicles, startup accelerators, incubators. 

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To differentiate themselves, top UK firms like Index Ventures are aggressively pursuing deals in high-growth areas like AI that position them to capture outsized returns. 

Using CB Insights data, we analyzed which investors are building the strongest foundations for portfolio success. Below, see our picks for the top 50 venture investors in the UK, key takeaways on the list, and a note on methodology.

Venture firms — make sure we’re representing your full portfolio by reaching out to investoroutreach@cbinsights.com to set up a review of CB Insights’ coverage of your investments. 

CBI customers: Track these investors’ deals in real time

Key takeaways

• Index Ventures leads our ranking with 118 startup deals since 2023 (as of 4/17/2025). Of those, 52 deals (or 44%) went to AI companies — including Mistral AI, which Index backed 6 months before it became a unicorn.
• Index Ventures and Octopus Ventures show the best exit track records, each backing 25+ startups since 2018 that went on to exit. Their AI focus is clear — at least 14% of exits from each firm are AI/ML companies, including Index-backed Wiz (cloud security; acquired by Google) and Octopus-backed Peak (inventory optimization; acquired by UiPath). 
• Lightrock leads in terms of the quality of its recent investments. Its investments since 2023 have a higher average Mosaic score (687 out of 1,000) than any other investor here. Top performers in its portfolio include Octopus Energy (888) and MediBuddy (808). 

Methodology

We used CB Insights data to review the dealmaking activity of hundreds of UK-based investors that fund private-market startups in exchange for equity, and rank them based on the strength and performance of their portfolios.

Our scoring model factors in deal volume since 2023; unicorns in investors’ portfolios that were backed prior to a $1B valuation; and the share of portfolio companies invested in since 2018 that have gone on to exit. We exclude government vehicles, startup accelerators, incubators. 

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Given this momentum, the ecosystem is larger and more challenging to navigate than ever.

Our annual AI 100 list is designed to cut through this noise and highlight the next wave of AI winners, with a focus on early-stage players that are showing strength in terms of market traction, investor quality, and talent.

Leveraging CB Insights datasets such as deal activity, industry partnerships, team strength, investor strength, patent activity, and our proprietary Mosaic Scores, we selected 100 winners out of a cohort of 17K+ companies. We also analyzed CB Insights’ exclusive interviews with software buyers and dug into Analyst Briefings submitted directly to us by startups.

Below, we map out the winners, categorizing them based on their core offering. Key trends and category definitions follow. Customers can track activity of all of these companies in this watchlist. 

Please click to enlarge. Data as of 4/23/25.

CBI customers: Get data on the winners

Key takeaways on the AI 100

1. AI agents dominate the conversation. These applications, which automate tasks and processes for human users, are the next wave of genAI. Having made their way into virtually every horizontal and enterprise function, AI agents are also coming for infrastructure and verticalized applications. AI agents and supporting infrastructure make up 21% of this year’s companies, and the investors we spoke with consistently cited this space as a priority. 
2. ML security has become table stakes. The need to secure AI applications has grown in lockstep with the proliferation of genAI and agentic AI. 46% of strategy team leaders point to security as the primary barrier to genAI adoption, according to a recent CB Insights survey. Machine learning security companies are hardening AI algorithms and foundational models like LLMs, while also defending against increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks. 
3. AI observability and governance are critical gaps. Widespread use of AI is exposing the technology’s cracks — hallucinations, lack of orchestration, and output inaccuracies. It’s clear that AI ubiquity can’t exist without robust monitoring. Companies are rising to meet this need. Startups in this year’s list cover areas like observability and governance, while a small cohort also monitors AI agents to ensure reliability and compliance.   
4. The future is physical. Looking ahead, AI will evolve beyond software AI agents to a physical state. Advances in disparate areas of AI development — including robotics, multimodal image and voice models, edge computing, synthetic data, and spatial intelligence — provide the scaffolding for physical AI, which pairs AI software with hardware to take action in physical environments. Industrial humanoids represent an early manifestation of this, while future permutations could include fully autonomous defense drones, home companion robots, and more.
5. Vertical applications are exploding. In 2024, the horizontal companies in this AI 100 cohort received more funding than their vertical and infrastructural counterparts — $1.6B compared to $1.2B each for infrastructure and vertical. But in 2025 so far, the funding picture looks very different: Vertical winners lead the way with $1.1B in funding raised.

Category breakdown

AI INFRASTRUCTURE 

On the foundation model front, infrastructure newcomers are rapidly releasing models that rival industry leaders, signaling a maturing market where technical excellence and novel approaches increasingly compete with raw computing power. We identified winners across large language, edge, reasoning, small language, and multimodal models. 

Meanwhile, as AI applications — particularly agents — become more autonomous and widespread, the need for robust monitoring, governance, and cybersecurity solutions has grown in lockstep. 

We’ve heard this in our conversations with AI investors, as well. Mozilla Ventures, a lead investor in Credo AI, views governance as a strategic imperative. Mohamed Nanabhay, Managing Partner, notes: 

 “…We think that the AI governance sector itself will take on a crucial role of creating value for enterprises, allowing companies that leverage governance to deploy AI faster through the reduction of risk with a greater competitive advantage as a result.”

Category definitions:

DATA

• Synthetic data: Artificially generated or altered information that mimics real-world data without privacy concerns. Aaru uses a multi-agent approach to create population simulations for predictive decision-making applications like consumer behavior and electoral modeling.  
• Data preparation & curation: Tools and platforms that clean, transform, label, and organize data to make it suitable for AI training and deployment, encompassing data cleaning and specialized data processing. Unstructured, for instance, helps organizations capture unstructured data from various documents and convert it into AI-friendly formats such as JSON to train LLMs.
• Vector databases: Solutions that provide enterprises with an easy way to store, search, and index unstructured data at a speed, scale, and efficiency that current relational (and non-relational) databases cannot offer. For example, Qdrant provides an open-source vector database that allows developers to build production-ready applications that use nearest neighbor search functionality.

DEVELOPMENT & TRAINING

• Foundation models: Pre-built AI algorithms and architectures that can be deployed, fine-tuned, or integrated into applications, spanning general-purpose foundation models and specialized domain-specific models. This category includes large language, edge, reasoning, small language, and multimodal AI models. For instance, Archetype AI‘s Newton model processes multimodal sensor data and natural language to provide insights and predictions about physical environments.
• Agent building & orchestration: This category covers AI agent development platforms for building, orchestrating, and monitoring agents. Companies like LangChain provide a framework for building context-aware reasoning applications with tools for debugging, testing, and monitoring app performance across the entire application lifecycle.
• Computer vision & spatial intelligence: Technology that enables AI systems to understand, interpret, and interact with physical spaces and 3D environments, including mapping, navigation, and spatial data processing capabilities. Notably, World Labs develops Large World Models (LWMs) that enable AI systems to perceive, generate, and interact with both virtual and real 3D environments using spatial intelligence.

OBSERVABILITY & EVALUATION

• AI observability platforms: These platforms monitor, measure, and assess AI model performance, reliability, and outputs, including tools for testing, benchmarking, and continuous improvement of AI systems. For instance, Arize’s platform allows teams to monitor, diagnose, and improve the performance of AI models and applications in production through tools based on open-source standards that integrate with existing AI infrastructure.
• Governance: Solutions that establish policies, processes, and controls for responsible AI development and deployment, covering risk management, compliance, ethical oversight, and transparency requirements. For example, Credo AI offers a platform that automates AI oversight, risk management, and regulatory compliance while providing AI auditing to ensure system integrity and fairness.
• Machine learning security (MLSec): Technologies that protect AI systems from vulnerabilities, attacks, and data breaches, including techniques for securing model training, inference, and data pipelines. Solutions developed by companies like Zama enable computation on encrypted data, allowing for privacy-preserving machine learning across industries that require data privacy and security.

ACCELERATED COMPUTING & HARDWARE

• Edge: Platforms that provide the infrastructure and models to operate AI on “edge” devices such as tablets, IoT, autonomous vehicles, or smartphones. For example, EdgeRunner AI constructs an ensemble of small, task-specific models that work together to solve complex problems locally on devices, ensuring data privacy and security for heavily regulated industries.
• Photonics: Solutions that use light (photons) instead of electrons for data processing, with the potential to significantly increase computing speeds. Companies in this category provide memory, interconnects, and system architecture. Xscape Photonics develops bandwidth-efficient photonics solutions to support AI/ML infrastructure. 
• Quantum: Companies providing novel techniques like model compression and hardware to support quantum commercialization. Multiverse Computing provides AI model compression technology to enable quantum AI workloads and processing.
• Chips: Traditional chips, in addition to chips to support new AI technologies. Etched develops chips designed specifically for transformer inference, capable of processing extensive data for applications such as real-time voice agents and content generation.

HORIZONTAL AI

This category includes industry-agnostic solutions across visual media, text, code, audio, and interfaces. These function-specific solutions address common business needs regardless of industry, offering specialized intelligence that complements both vertical applications and foundational infrastructure.

AI agents in particular are beginning to upend the way in which enterprises think about software. Decibel Partners, a lead investor in multi-agent platform Dropzone AI, sees a movement toward productizing agents as full systems. Jéssica Leão, a Partner at Decibel, articulates this vision further:

“…We’re going to see the software world change because, again, you’re selling agents almost as if you’re selling back-end software.”

Horizontal AI solutions are increasingly tailored to serve distinct business functions while remaining broadly deployable. Startups in this category are developing sophisticated AI systems that excel in capabilities like content generation, customer support, process automation, and software development — all of which can be applied across industries. 

Category definitions:

• Content generation: AI systems that create text, images, video, and other media forms — spanning automated content production and multimodal generation. For example, Moonvalley’s genAI video model helps filmmakers by enabling prompt adherence, motion generation, and physics simulation using cleaned, fully licensed data.
• Customer service: AI agents that autonomously handle customer service tasks or augment human agents. Sierra‘s platform, for instance, provides intelligent agents for customer support that engage in personalized interactions and integrate with existing call center technologies.
• Cybersecurity: AI-powered solutions that detect, prevent, and respond to digital threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks, covering network security, threat intelligence, and automated incident response. Companies like Binarly use AI to detect and remediate vulnerabilities in firmware and software supply chains.
• General-purpose humanoids: AI systems embedded in robotic bodies that mimic human capabilities, enabling physical interaction through perception and manipulation. For example, Figure develops autonomous humanoid robots that combine human-like dexterity with AI to perform a variety of tasks across industries like manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail.
• Process automation: Intelligent systems that autonomously handle repetitive business workflows, increasing efficiency by eliminating manual tasks. Orby AI offers a platform that observes enterprise processes and generates executable automations — particularly for complex, data-heavy operations in industries like tech and finance. 
• Software development & coding: AI solutions that assist with software development, code generation, debugging, and programming tasks, including automated code completion tools. For instance, Poolside offers foundation models and APIs that can be fine-tuned using a company’s own codebase and documentation to support internal dev teams.
• Video security: Technologies that enable real-time analysis of video feeds, supporting faster detection and response to security threats. Coram AI develops cloud-based security camera systems with features like real-time AI alerts and natural language video search, allowing businesses to monitor properties remotely without extensive hardware replacements.

VERTICAL AI 

Vertical AI is on the rise, with this year’s vertical winners surpassing the other category winners to capture over $1B in combined funding in 2025 YTD. They span 10 industries that represent a convergence of high-value problems, rich data availability, and regulatory momentum.

Some of the VCs we spoke with see specialization as the way of the future. Lila Tretikov, Partner and Head of AI Strategy at New Enterprise Associates (a lead investor for Twelve Labs, World Labs, and Orby AI), told us:

“We believe that there is going to be specialization, even within the model layer. And there’s going to be innovation in this layer, especially as we look at verticalization for specific use cases.”

The most well-represented verticals on this year’s list are healthcare (8 companies) and life sciences (6 companies). The healthcare industry as a whole is seeing breakthrough applications across multiple AI modalities — from agentic AI systems that can augment clinical workflows, to advanced machine vision for medical imaging analysis, to AI-accelerated drug discovery platforms that dramatically reduce R&D timelines.

This year’s cohort also saw significant representation in gaming & virtual assets (5 companies), finance & insurance (4 winners), and aerospace & defense (4 winners). 

Category definitions:

• Aerospace & defense: AI solutions designed for aerospace engineering, aviation operations, military applications, and defense systems, including autonomous navigation and threat detection technologies. For instance, Quantum Systems creates eVTOL unmanned aerial systems that serve critical defense applications, most notably in Ukraine. 
• Auto & mobility: AI applications for autonomous vehicles, transportation optimization, fleet management, and mobility services. Companies like Wayve are developing AI systems that use LLMs to provide real-time natural language explanations of driving decisions, helping improve users’ confidence.
• Energy: Platforms that optimize energy production, distribution, and sustainability, including battery intelligence and AI assistance for electric grids. For example, Liminal leverages ultrasound and machine learning inspection solutions to improve battery cell quality, cost-effectiveness, and safety while enabling confident scaling of production. 
• Finance & insurance: AI solutions for financial services, banking, investment, and insurance sectors, covering payments, risk assessment, and portfolio monitoring. Skyfire’s financial stack enables AI agents to perform transactions without credit cards or bank accounts, allowing businesses to monetize their products, services, and data through AI agents.
• Gaming & virtual assets: AI technologies that enhance gaming experiences, virtual environments, digital asset management, and immersive entertainment, including content generation and NPC (non-player character) intelligence. Altera‘s platform creates digital human beings that can interact with users and perform tasks autonomously, bringing empathy and human-like traits to digital interactions.
• Healthcare: AI applications focused on clinical care delivery, medical operations, and patient management, including tools for clinical documentation automation, medical imaging analysis, decision support systems, remote patient monitoring, and healthcare supply chain optimization. In the dental field, Overjet provides an AI platform that enhances clinical care through radiographic analysis and optimizes claims processing for providers and payers.
• Life sciences: AI solutions for pharmaceutical research, drug discovery, protein engineering, biological data analysis, and therapeutic development, including platforms for multiomics analysis, antibody design, foundation models for biology, and scientific experiment automation. Lila Sciences has developed a platform that integrates AI with autonomous laboratories to design, conduct, observe, and redesign experiments for scientific discovery.
• Legal: AI tools for legal research, document analysis, contract management, compliance, and legal workflow automation, including case management, due diligence, and contract review. AI-powered tools like Eve help law firms streamline the full case lifecycle from intake to litigation by automating case intake, drafting legal documents, and managing discovery processes.
• Manufacturing: Technology that optimizes industrial processes like factory automation, using virtual development and simulation. PhysicsX applies machine learning to physics simulations that optimize design and engineering processes across industries including aerospace, medical devices, and electric vehicles.
• Supply chain: AI solutions that enhance logistics and supply chain operations, including warehouse management and route optimization & visibility. Dexory combines stock-scanning robots with a digital twin platform to provide real-time inventory and warehouse analytics for logistics and supply chain operations.

For information on reprint rights or other inquiries, please contact reprints@cbinsights.com.

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For health system CIOs, digital health investors, and life sciences executives, this list spotlights companies to explore for technology adoption, investment opportunities, and strategic partnerships as healthcare shifts toward AI-driven infrastructure, advanced diagnostics, and specialized care platforms.

Four key themes emerged from this year’s cohort:

• • AI will become foundational to infrastructure across healthcare, as evidenced by 36 of the 50 companies building AI products, from insurance claim copilots (Alaffia Health) to specialized healthcare LLMs (Hippocratic AI). These startups reflect the start of a broader shift for AI from powering point solutions to becoming an essential part of healthcare delivery for patients.
  • Diagnostic innovations continue to dominate, representing the most crowded category on last year’s list and tying for the largest category this year, with 11 companies developing tools across imaging (Airs Medical), pathology (Proscia), and non-invasive diagnostics (Alimetry). These next-generation diagnostics look to make testing more accessible and non-invasive while prioritizing early detection.
  • Virtual and hybrid care companies more than doubled in this year’s cohort, with 11 companies in this category, up from 5 last year. The increase reflects the growing number of specialized platforms in areas including mental health (Talkiatry) and cancer care (Resilience), signaling the shift from general telemedicine toward condition-specific virtual care models.
  • Workflow efficiency emerges as a key priority heading into 2025, with 19 companies streamlining administrative and clinical tasks, from medical document processing (Tennr) to ambient documentation (Abridge). The surge of automation solutions here signals that healthcare organizations will prioritize efficiency amid staffing shortages to help shift provider time from paperwork to patient care. 

Discover all 50 winners in the Expert Collection

Our selection of winning companies followed a rigorous three-step process.

From a pool of 10,000+ digital health startups, we analyzed companies using CB Insights’ proprietary metrics — Commercial Maturity and Mosaic scores — along with additional data on partnerships, funding, patents, leadership, and headcount.

Companies with high Mosaic scores (> 500) and recent market activity advanced to our shortlist of 1,500 candidates. We supplemented this analysis with direct company submissions via Analyst Briefings.

Our analysts then evaluated strategic partnerships, market adoption, and growth metrics to identify the 50 most promising digital health companies.

2024 DIGITAL HEALTH 50 COHORT HIGHLIGHTS 

Funding and deals

The 2024 Digital Health 50 companies have raised $3.5B across 171 disclosed equity deals (as of 11/14/2024). Monogram Health and Abridge lead the cohort in disclosed equity funding, with $555M and $208M, respectively.

In 2024 so far, the cohort has raised $1.6B across 47 disclosed equity deals. The largest deals include:

• Abridge — $150M Series C
• Superluminal Medicines — $120M Series A
• Grow Therapy — $88M Series C
• CytoReason — $80M Series A
• Ambience — $70M Series B

The recipients of these top deals are largely focused on 2 AI applications: streamlining clinical documentation (Abridge and Ambience) and accelerating drug discovery (Superluminal Medicines and CytoReason).

See all equity deals raised by the 2024 DH 50

Stage breakdown

Fifty-six percent of the 2024 Digital Health 50 companies are early-stage (seed or Series A). In comparison, 44% of winners are mid-stage (primarily Series B or C) companies.

Top investors

Andreessen Horowitz leads VC investors (including CVCs) in the number of 2024 Digital Health 50 winners backed (8). Its investments span various areas within digital health, including:

• D2C health testing — Function Health
• Clinical intelligence — Ambience, Hippocratic AI, Scribenote
• Virtual & hybrid care — Talkiatry, Pomelo Care
• Price transparency — Turquoise Health
• Administrative workflow optimization — Tennr

Andreessen Horowitz is followed by BoxGroup, General Catalyst, and NVentures (Nvidia’s venture arm), each with 5 winners backed. 

All 5 of NVentures’ portfolio companies are building AI products. They are split between clinical intelligence (Hippocratic AI, Abridge, Artisight) and drug discovery (Iambic Therapeutics, Superluminal Medicines).

Healthcare systems and other big tech players are also active investors in the 2024 Digital Health 50. Mayo Clinic, Memorial Hermann, and Google Ventures have each invested in 3 companies on this year’s list.

Geographic distribution

This year’s Digital Health 50 companies are headquartered across 9 countries. Most companies (36) are based in the United States.

Germany has the largest representation outside of the US — 3 companies are headquartered in the country. It is followed by Canada, Israel, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, each with 2 companies. 

Additional countries represented include New Zealand, Belgium, and France, each with 1 company.

Headcount growth

The 2024 Digital Health 50 companies collectively employ more than 7,500 people, with 4 companies employing about 40% of the cohort’s workers: Grow Therapy, Nourish, Monogram Health, and Octave. 

Three companies — Tennr, Nourish, and Pomelo Care — have demonstrated the strongest headcount growth over the past year, with 12-month (September 2023–2024) headcount increases of 320%, 250%, and 244%, respectively. 

This year’s winners collectively created more than 2,900 jobs over the period, with Grow Therapy creating the most jobs (800).

The median 2024 Digital Health 50 winner has raised $487K in equity funding per employee. Superluminal Medicines leads the pack, raising $8.1M per employee, followed by Chai Discovery ($4.3M) and Iambic Therapeutics ($2.6M).

Company health

The average Mosaic score — a proprietary measure of private company health and growth potential — for the 2024 Digital Health 50 is 771 out of 1,000 (as of 11/14/2024). 

Forty companies in this year’s cohort have a Mosaic score of 700 or higher, placing them among the top 4% of private companies tracked by CB Insights. 

Midi and Nourish lead the cohort with the highest scores — 932 and 887, respectively.

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