TWiST500

Welcome to the TWiST500 Database!

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This Week in Startups⁠

’ living list of the most important startups in the world.

These are the 1% of private, venture-backed companies that our team believes will be the most successful in the world — as determined by IPO or exit value.

Continuously updated. Contact the team at

producers@launch.co⁠

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startups have been added to date.

TWiST500 Directory

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TWiST500

Filter the database below by selecting the toggles “Category”, “Stage”, or “Prediction.”

To see more details on a company, hover over it’s name and click the “expand arrow” icon.

Category

Website

Crunchbase

Why we picked them

Profound

SEO is a big industry, but one that could be consumed as search moves from a list of links to answers. So, brands will need a new conduit to reach search users. A new form of SEO, one aimed at AI-powered search is required, and Profound wants to build it. It’s too early to know which of the inevitable few startups that work on this problem will win, but Profound appears to have an early lead on the market. That crossed with a clearly growing TAM make it a great addition to the TWiST500.

FlexAI

French AI startups are a meme at this point, because there are so many of them cropping up. Count FlexAI amongst that cohort. And what it’s doing is not just more AI models. Instead, Flex wants to improve compute architecture so that it’s more efficient, and hardware-flexible to use modern AI models.

Safe Superintelligence

The company was founded this year by Ilya Sutskever (former OpenAI chief scientist), Daniel Levy (ex-OpenAI engineer), and Daniel Gross (former Y Combinator partner). In just a few months, they’ve raised $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation from investors like a16z, Sequoia, and Nat Friedman’s NFDG. Their mission? To build safe superintelligence... The founders don’t give us much more than that, as you can see from their website.

French AI company; important for EU, working on superintelligence. Artificial intelligence is a global race. This French company focuses on building superintelligent systems while navigating the EU's strict regulatory landscape. With Europe’s growing appetite for tech sovereignty, H has the potential to become a cornerstone of European AI leadership.

CuspAI

The theme of “AI applied to X” may seem like a tired trope, but in certain applications it’s very interesting. Applying AI to materials for energy generation is one such place; you can’t call that a GPT wrapper, can you?

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Oversonic Robotics

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Humanoid-ish robots “capable of making and executing decisions independently” thanks to AI. This robot seems more built for repetitive tasks in a single area than, say, navigating your house.

EvolutionaryScale

What if we took modern AI technology, and pointed it at biology with a huge dose of capital underpinning the entire project? That’s what EvolutionaryScale is doing, and investors poured nine-figures into its Seed round.

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Monumental

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Another construction automation startup that we added as part of a larger group. Faster, cheaper construction? Using robots and software? We love it.

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Azure Printed Homes

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Robotically printed homes are cool, but often made out of concrete. How about robotically printed homes, but made out of recycled plastic? That’s a twofer.

PlayAI

AI + voice is going to be huge

Udio

As with Suno, Udio’s model hinges on not losing a critical court case about its training data. If it does prevail, it could become one of the next great consumer brands. That would come with a massive financial windfall.

Daydream

AI applied to shopping. The startup raised a $50 million Seed round, meaning that it has ample capital on hand to build out its vision. Today, however, its product is more hinted at than launched, with a waitlist on offer. Still, True Ventures, Forerunning, Index, and Google Ventures all invested in the startup.

PodcastAI

Adding Riverside to the TWiST500 was not a hard choice. PodcastAI is far earlier-stage, making it a slightly more dicey inclusion. But, its tooling for podcast creators (its post-production features in particular) are top-notch. Given our general thesis that podcasts matter, and will matter more in time, building AI-infused tools for the medium makes good sense.

Tokeny

This one is a bit further out of our usual domain of expertise. But, let's not be too conservative. Tokeny helps businesses tokenzie assets. Thinks bonds, funds, art, and the like. As crypto finds its legs in 2025 and anticipates a more fecund regulatory environment oin the coming years, more assets could be brought to the blockchain. TOkeny wants to help all of them make the leap. If the crypto-kids are right about the future of asset ownership -- that it is onchain -- then Tokeny could grow into something truly huge.

SevenAI

In the wake of the CrowdStrike mess, we’ve put more focus on cybersecurity startups. SevenAI wants to, unsurprisingly, bring AI into the cybersecurity realm, which sounds like a good idea to us. That plus a generous Seed round make this one to watch.

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TollBit

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Human Native

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Bedrock Materials

Venture-backed Bedrock Materials is one of two sodium-ion battery startups that we added to the TWiST500. Both are wagers that the mass-storage of energy that the world needs as it pivots to more renewable energy sources won’t rest on simply building more, or bigger lithium-ion batteries. A big wager, but one with even larger potential returns.

KiteKraft

Juicyway

Juicyway is a Nigerian fintech company focused on cross-border payments. With just a few million in raised capital, it would usually bit a bit early for us to add to our list. However, with north of $1 billion processed already, Juicyway has clearly struck a market nerve. And with the African fintech story far from fully written, it has a huge market to go after. Not to mention $3 million in fresh capital.

The Bot Company

Founded by Kyle Vogt, who previously helped found Cruise, this robotics startup raised $150 million in a single go, at a $400 million pre-money valuation. Investors clearly expect another Cruise-style win here.

Vatn Systems

Vatn Systems wants to sell underwater drones en masse. And it is planning on doing so at a fraction of existing costs. We love some American Dynamism here at TWiST, and with the company headquartered in Rhode Island, Alex was an instant fan.

Radian Aerospace

Lumen Orbit

One of the biggest themes in tech today is data center capacity. Or, a lack thereof. Power constraints and cooling requirements mean that datacenters today are best situated in very specific regions of the world. But what about space? Lumen Orbit is a moonshot -- nearly literally -- on building future datacenters in space. You can see the advantages: Free cooling and lots of solar power. The downside, of course, will be simply getting the tech so far above us. But with launch costs falling, perhaps? Lumen could fail. But if it succeeds, it could become a simply massive company.

Rembrand

Here's a company that has a real shot at getting big, but that I (Alex) worry about a bit. Remembrand uses generative AI to insert branded materials (images, etc) into videos. The gist is that online users hate ads, and view them as a pain in the backside. Also, ad blocking is only becoming more and more popular. So, Remembrand wants to integrate advertising into videos for brands. You can't skip it if it's native, right? On one hand, good that tech is solving a problem. On the other hand, more ads that are harder to avoid? Sounds like a future IPO. And gnashed teeth.

Qodo

Code-generating startups and tools are a dime a dozen — but what Qodo wants to do, per TechCrunch, is “as much focused on generating code as on generating the tests and code quality in general.” Put another way the company has a focus on quality code, and deep integration into developer workflows. Killer!

HiddenLayer

There are many ways to make money in the current AI craze. Selling chips? Big business. Building AI models? Big business. Helping companies apply those models? Big business. HiddenLayer is a wager that AI security will be big business as well. Companies know that they need to work to keep ceratin data from AI contexts, but HiddenLayer reckons that the security risks of the AI era go far deeper. Given TWIST's general view that cybersecurity remains an industry far from being 'figured out,' and how much AI folks want to use, seems that HiddenLayer could be sitting on a future goldmine.

Rivos

Still under wraps after raising a quarter-billion-dollar Series A, Rivos is building chips and hardware using an open-source framework. The goal is “industry-leading power efficient, high performance, secure server solutions” using “workload-defined hardware.” More when it unveils its plans; for now, it’s richly-backed by big names and tackling a massive, massive market.

Etched

What if you made a chip that was designed just to run transformers, the technology that powers modern LLMs? That’s Etched’s goal: Beat the GPU gang at their own game by going specialized. A lot of money is backing the company. If transformers retain their present-day centrality to the AI game, Etched could be the next Nvidia.

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Cognition AI

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AI models? Hot. AI-powered coding tools? Hot. AI agents? Hot. What if we put all those together? It would look something like Cognition. Known for its ‘Devin’ AI software engineer, Cognition is a bet that AI is going to shake up how humans write computer code, for good. That’s, ahem, a lot of TAM.

Physical Intelligence

Today's AI models can solve huge math problems with ease. But, PI argues, getting an AI robot to fold "a shirt or cleaning up a table requires solving some of the most difficult engineering problems ever conceived." Its solution is to build 'general-purpose robot foundation models' to help bring artificial *physical* intelligence to the market. Backed by Khosla, OpenAI, Sequoia, Thrive, and Lux, a lot of folks are betting that PI can crack the issue. If it can, then we could be in for a future in which we never have to fold clothes again. Which sounds small, but is actually rather profound.

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Apptronik

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Humanoid robots with a general focus. The company’s robot, Apollo, is pitched by the company for manufacturing, logistics, and retail work environments. Apptronik says that its robot will help with labor crunches and reduce the pain of human employee turnover.

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Mentee Robotics

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The MenteeBot claims to be an “AI-based robot that you can mentor.” The company mentions both household and commercial use cases for its bot, including notes that it can interpret multi-part instructions via voice.

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Sanctuary AI

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Humanoid robots that are “general-purpose,” the company claims. Its Phoenix robot uses the company’s in-house “AI control system” called Carbon. Sanctuary, therefore, is a good example of the fusion of AI and hardware that modern robotics companies must master. It’s also Canadian!

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Samara

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We love ADUs, and companies that want to build more of them, more quickly. That puts Samara onto our list alongside Cover, and others.

BOXABL

What if a company shipped you a microhouse or ADU in a compact format that you could expand in an hour, and install in a day? That’s what BOXABL is offering, and it even raised a pile of equity capital from crowdfunding to build out its service.

PaintJet

Industrial-scale painting is not an artisanal task. That makes it a great place for robotics. And what PaintJet has built is just that, in spades.

Partiful

Breakout consumer social? In 2024? Yep. Despite limited capital formation via venture capital, Partiful has been seeing rising search demand, and just won Google’s app of the year award.

Bluesky

Bluesky is a neat company. We don't have many social media plays in the TWiST500, because there are only so many breakout players. Farcaster in crypto, sure, but what else fits the bill. Bluesky does, thanks to a massive ramp in its user base in recent months. Social media ownership is getting more political, which means that the market may suppport more total social plays. Bluesky is said to be fundraising as we add it to the TWiST500, so it seems that at least some VCs agree with our thesis here.

Farcaster

Farcaster’s distributed social network is notable for quickly signing up tens of thousands of users, and the company raising $150 million at a $1 billion post-money valuation. Jason pointed out that that company’s valuation/user metric is expensive; but both Jason and Alex agreed that this is a fun binary wager. Either Farcaster builds the next great social network, or it doesn’t. That puts the adventure in venture capital.

Monad Labs

Monad Labs is not a fun new NFT project that is going to spam your X feed. Instead, it’s building “a blockchain protocol that streamlines Ethereum throughput via parallel transaction processing technique.” Or as we might gist that down, it’s working on making critical blockchains faster. Given that blockchains are often slow and expensive, it’s no small problem to tackle.

Stably

Stably offers a stablecoin service to help other companies get their own stable up and running. We have a general view here at TWiST that stablecoins are going to be huge. Ergo, the on-ramps are going to be both busy, and valuable.

Resistant AI

As financial systems digitize, fraudsters adapt. Resistant AI uses cutting-edge technology to safeguard against synthetic fraud and other digital threats. Their tools ensure financial integrity in an era of evolving challenges.

Witness AI

Some companies want to build AI models, tools, and features at a break-neck pace. Some companies, however, need to move a little bit more carefully. For those firms, Witness offers "the guardrails that make AI safe" to quote its own material. Given that we have a thesis that enterprise AI adoption will be a constantly upward tilting curve, companies like Witness could build huge businesses helping the enterprise get its AI shop in order. And with just $27.5M raised, Witness is no OpenAI or Figma in being fully sorted out. We're watching this one closely.

LynxTech

AI to combat fin fraudFinancial fraud is a trillion-dollar problem, and LynxTech’s AI solutions are here to fight back. With real-time fraud detection and adaptive learning systems, LynxTech is tackling one of the most pressing issues in the financial sector, making it a clear standout.

Aklymi

Turning unstructured data into actionable insights is a massive challenge for finance professionals. Alkymi’s vertical AI solution makes it easy to extract, analyze, and act on data, setting them apart in a rapidly growing niche.

PermitFlow

A great example of vertical SaaS for an industry, PermitFlow is taking on a key sticking point in construction — permitting — and turning it into tuned software.

Synctera

Banking-as-a-Service has seen its share of challenges, but Synctera is proving there’s room for innovation. By connecting banks with fintechs, Synctera simplifies integration and empowers financial innovation, making it a standout in the sector.

Workpay

Workpay recently raised its largest round to date, some $5 million. But what’s more impressive is what it has managed with a very modest capital base. The African-focused HR tech company now has over 1,000 customers in 20 countries, and is on track to double in size this year. A few more of those and we could be looking at another African tech IPO.

Cuby Technologies

While many of the constructiontech startups that we picked for the TWiST500 are using robots to build, Cuby has built robots that build. Micro factories are the name of the game here, which are highly-automated to boot. This is a startup with a big vision making big bets.

Xona Space Systems

There are a number of GPS-like systems in the world. Four or five, depending on how you want to count. And they are owned by nation-states or blocs. Enter Xona, which wants to build one that is super-accurate and privately owned. It will feature 258 satellites when complete, and is one hell of a vision. We suspect that the company will require more capital, so keep an eye out for that.

OrbitFab

Imagine you find yourself in orbit, but your tank is running low. What do you do? Look for a filling station, of course. That's what OrbitFab hopes, at least. The company is building in-space refueling tech for orbital devices. This includes building a phsyical interface to accept in-orbit fuel, and softawre to coordinate the satellites in question. Given that we expect the in-orbit economy to greatly expand in the coming decades, OrbitFab's TAM should only expand and expand.

Harvey

Quickly growing vertical AI company with a focus on the legal profession. Given that there is a lot of humdrum paperwork involved in that field, it’s not hard to guess that Harvey is scaling quickly.

Poolside

Developers love AI coding assistants. Poolside’s massive new raise gives it enough cash to keep building its own models, and perhaps roll up some smaller players as this busy market will eventually consolidate.

Credo AI

Similar in some ways to fellow TWIST500 company HiddenLayer, Credo AI is building software that works in AI governance. This includes both looking at AI risks, policy, and use inside of an organization. Akin to how much SaaS companies use, it is not hard to infer a future in which enterprise orgs have lots of AI models doing different work. So, a unified viewpoint into those models, and how they are being used makes good sense. Given our bullish view on AI and cybersecurity, Credo is an easy add to the TWiST 500.

Weaviate

Weaviate makes open source vector database software. It's a bit hard to explain vectors, vector search, and vector databases here, but let it suffice to say that vectors are critical tech in the AI era -- and Weaviate's open-source + services model is incredibly cool. And the company was deep into the vector game before ChatGPT came out, which means that it has a few years' head start compared to rivals that might have recognized the importance of vectors only after OpenAI changed the world.

Esperanto Technologies

So what if you want to run AI models, but don't want to use CPUs or GPUs? Good news! Esperanto has another option for you: "thousands of high-performance, low power RISC-V cores" that it will orchestrate for you! Even better, Esperanto has its own 'ET-SoC-1 inference chip' that you can scale up for all your inference needs. The company is a very interesting bet on a different sort of AI processing future. And with Esperanto also working on Primo, a "advanced AI software platform specifically designed to optimize the inference of generative AI models" it seems that on the efficiency front, the AI market has a real contender.

Kneron

Kneron is another startup focused on building chips for AI workloads. In Kneron's case, that means "AI SoC processors that offer the ideal balance of performance, power saving, and cost for hardware makers that are looking to benefit from on-device edge AI," in its own words. Given the scale of AI computing demands in the future, no single provider is going to own the market. So, we expect several winners. Kneron's solid chip lineup and software work are impressive.

Axelera AI

With a focus on computer vision workloads, Axelera AI's system should allow for inference at the edge with lower cost/power draw. Like many similar startups in the AI hardware/software space, it's hard to say at this juncture how much market share that Axelera will manage to accumulate, but it's certainly taking a big swing at a future market that we here at TWiST expect to be huge.

Rebellions

Rebellions was on our radar before it merged with Sapeon, another AI chip concern that was itself spun out of SK. But now with nine-figures of capital, greater local resources, and a huge market to sell into, Rebellions is an obvious addition to the list.

Enfabrica

Enfabrica is the picks and shovels game when it comes to AI. Its NIC hardware can cut down on GPU data latency, which makes AI training more hardware-efficient. If AI proceeds as expected, it could mint a fortune in the process.

xAI

Elon’s AI company has raised billions and is going for the crown. It’s easily one of the most interesting startups in the market today, making its inclusion in the TWIST500 a simple matter.

Mistral

There are several global AI hubs. The United States. China. And, perhaps, Europe. Mistral is a bet that a European startup can build world class AI models, and a secondary wager that Europe (the EU, more or less) will want or demand a local champion. Given the scale of the EU economy (top three globally), that's not a bad play. And Mistral has built tech that has, at times, pushed the envelope.

Cursor (Anysphere)

Of all the AI coding tools, we hear the most about Cursor (made by Anysphere). And with its recent Series A (TechCrunch broke the news) backed by a16z and others, it has some high-profile supporters. Mix in reports that the company’s revenue has scaled from $4 million annually to $4 million monthly, and we’re looking at a very interesting IPO candidate.

Pika

AI agents may be all the rage in 2025, but there's still a huge AI market out there for other use cases. One of which is video generation, which Pika has a neat twist on. Bring your own IP (photos) and Pika will help you use them in AI generated clips. Venture investors of note have put serious dollars into the company. Provided that consumer AI demand remains hot, and people prefer visuals to words, Pika could be chasing a simply massive TAM with a bank vault full of dollars to build its vision. Not a bad combo.

Cobot

Collaborative robots (cobots) that use LLMs to handle decisions. The company writes that it believes in “a future where robots are a trusted extension of your surroundings.” Notably, its cobots are still under wraps, so we don’t know what they will look like. Yet.

Figure

Figure has raised a mint for its humanoid robots from both venture firms and corporate backers. It’s working on “general purpose humanoids that make a positive impact on humanity and create a better life for future generations.” The company’s FIGURE 01 robot blends a human-styled robot chassis with AI to help it perform a wider array of tasks.

1X Technologies

1X is building a humanoid robot that can help with various tasks. It's worth noting that 1X pitches its robot on its website as more personal than industrial. And while Figure employs electric power in its robot, 1X uses hydraulics.

Agility Robotics

Agility claims that in June of this year, one of its robots worked “a full shift in a commercial setting — not a test, proof of concept, or demo.” Agility’s robots seem well-suited to warehouse settings, and less focused on personal use.

The Browser Company

TWiST has touched on browsers extensively, thanks to Google’s inability to get sued by the government. But what makes TBC interesting is not merely that it is building a new browser, but that its new project — called Dia — plans to do a lot more. It’s far beyond time for a new way to approach the internet.

CompanyCam

Somewhat akin to OpenSpace, CompanyCam has built a service to take, collect, and lever images taken on work sites.

Icon

Robots building buildings? What’s not to love. Construction is still too complex and expensive today, so startups like Icon have our attention.

Winnie

Back to back Inc 5000 inclusions showing massive growth into a huge TAM.

Perplexity

Fast product cadence? Check. Growing search volume and implied share? Check. Pro service that is already monetizing? Check. Vertical venture capital accretion? Check. An obvious TWiST500 entrant if there ever was one.

Suno

AI music generating startups will either prove to be massive consumer hits; or they might wind up killed by copyright challenges. Until we know their fate in court, Suno and its siblings are startups that could become huge financial winners.

Substack

Substack is an odd entry in the TWiST500 in that it seems to have reached the end of its venture capital days early. At the same time, as an indie company it’s iterating quickly and expanding its revenue base. It could still become a massive win for its backers, even if they seem to have opted out of putting more capital into the business.

Dune Analytics

Dune is our favorite source of hard truths from the blockchains. Want to know how a project or niche is performing? Dune. Its easy interface, deep datasets, and public dashboards mean that Dune is critical to understanding Web3. And since crypto is back, well, Dune is set to reap the rewards of surviving the last crypto winter.

Moonpay

One of the standout crypto companies in the market today. Moonpay helps consumers and businesses get money into and from digital assets. Crypto, a seemingly impossible to kill project, needs high-quality on and off ramps. Moonpay fits the bill. And with quick product cadence and crypto back in fashion, it's well situated to grow like hell in the coming quarters.

Story (PIP Labs)

We’re fans of startups that are working to close the AI-IP gap as it relates to data. So, when Story broke into the news cycle we took note. An $80 million wager into the company is not something to take lightly.

Hawk AI

Compliance and fraud prevention are mission-critical for financial institutions, and Hawk AI delivers. Their AI-driven surveillance system monitors transactions in real-time, helping banks reduce false positives and prevent financial crime. A growing need for security makes Hawk AI a standout.

Saronic

The TWiST crew have been fascinated by drones lately. Not merely because they are a geopolitical football, but also because they are taking a larger role in warmaking, surveillance, and general commerce. Saronic is a drone boat company, and one that has raised a near quarter billion dollars. Most drone tech is airborne, but startups like Vatn Systems have helped us sharpen our understanding of the importance of drones in the water. Saronic's products could be a hit in the South China Sea, we reckon.

Last Energy

During E2013 we added two nuclear power startups to the TWiST500, noting that three were already public. The massive demand for new power to keep AI datacenters humming is creating a fertile market for companies like Last Energy,

Hydrostor

Energy storage is one of the most exciting startup sectors today. And while many folks are working on improving battery tech, Hydrostor wants to use compressed air storage. It’s also funded to the point that it has the cash needed to pull off its vision; given the need for an all-of-the-above energy policy, we dig it.

Altris

Venture-backed Altris is one of two sodium-ion battery startups that we added to the TWiST500. Both are wagers that the mass-storage of energy that the world needs as it pivots to more renewable energy sources won’t rest on simply building more, or bigger lithium-ion batteries. A big wager, but one with even larger potential returns.

QI Tech

Hailing from Brazil, QI Tech is a banking-as-a-service provider. While some BaaS players have struggled recently in the United States, the model still has legs. And with $200 million raised in 2023, QI Tech has the funds to tackle several geographies.

Coast

Fintech that double-tapped funding rounds in 2024. It’s backers speak incredibly highly of it; it’s also a vertical fintech play, showing how that model can scale well even with well-funded horizontal competition.

Finom

Lots of software companies want to sell to the largest possible customers. Larger accounts, and lower churn make enterprise sales very attractive. Some startups, however, go after the smaller end of the market: SMBs. That's who Finom serves. The Dutch startup offers financial software for solo-entrepreneurs and other, micro-enterprises like freelancers. SMB-powered exits like Bill.com make it plain that you can get big selling small. We're super bullish on Finom thanks to the >85,000 businesses that use its service (that figure is now nearly a year old, so it's likely now much larger).

Nym

What is AI good at? Taking over remote work. What is a huge market that is complicated and requires expensive humans? Medical coding. Put the two together and you get Nym.

Cover

Backyard ADUs have a shot at boosting housing stock and density without major code changes. In short, this model could be simply massive.

Mighty Buildings

Not all construction tech startups are only focused on robots and faster building. Mighty brings a sustainability angle to the space that we like.

Dusty Robotics

The use of Roomba-style robots to mark construction sites accurately and quickly is a great concept, and one that Dusty Robotics appears to have cracked. Given how much the world builds, it could have a massive market to sell into.

Albedo Space

Impulse Space

One of the hardest challenges in the world -- literally -- is getting out of our local gravity well. But once you can get into at least low-Earth orbit (LEO), what if you want to reach a higher orbit? With LEO insertion becoming more and more affordable, Impulse bets that what the space market needs is an in-space method of moving items from low, to higher orbits. It's hard to understate how cool this company is. Mix in nine-figures of private capital, and a mission that is literally out amongst the stars, and we're in love.

Codeium

Apart from its massive fundraising run, Codeium is part of a cohort of startups applying AI to the work of slinging code. The market for this service is huge. Developers are expensive; companies want to spend less money; you can imagine the sales cycle here.

Magic

Akin to Codeium, Magic is an AI-powered coding assistive service. We’re bullish on the category as a whole, thanks to its massive TAM and proven business results (GitHub Copilot). It’s not clear precisely which startup will emerge the winner here, or if multiple winners will be found, but Magic could walk away with a large cut of a huge market.

Chainguard

An issue that needs to be better solved is cybersecurity. Or perhaps a better way to say that would be: We need to better prevent attack on our critical digital surfaces. There are many ways to do that. CrowdStrike has endpoint security on lock, for example. Chainguard is taking an interesting approach. It offers "minimal, hardened container images" of open source projects that are rebuilt constantly with security fixes. The idea is that if you need to use open source software -- and who doesn't OSS, come on -- you want the most recent, most efficient, smallest, and safest images to run, right? It's a super cool idea.

Hailo

It seems increasingly clear that we're going to have a market featuring different types of processors used for different types of AI workload. Hailo is building AI chips for the 'edge,' industry parlance devices that exist out in the field. That means AI chips for security, automation, automotive and the like. The work that Hailo is doing won't get the same press as, say, an Nvidia keynote, but could be nearly as important. And lucrative.

Coreweave

Coreweave is a massively-backed GPU/CPU cloud startup that is taking on giants. Of course, the AI rush is bolstering GPU demand, but to see a startup raise so much equity and debt so quickly makes us curious how fast its revenues must also be scaling.

Tenstorrent

On our radar thanks to a recent $100 million round, Tenstorrent is building compute for AI models, with a very neat modular setup that allows it to scale up capacity for customers.

Celestial AI

Everyone talks about GPUs, and being ‘compute poor,’ but what if those issues were not what is holding back larger and better AI model creation? Enter the ‘memory wall,’ which Celestial AI thinks that it has the hardware to fix.

Lightning AI

Building scalable AI applications is hard, but Lightning AI makes it easy. Their tools enable developers to deploy powerful AI systems faster and more efficiently, giving them a key role in shaping the AI-driven future.

Sakana AI

A Japanese AI company building Japanese-language LLMs, and also ways to train LLMs more cheaply. A regional twist on the OpenAI model, and one that we think is worth considering.

Wayve

With a $1 billion investment from tech giants for its self-driving technology, the London-based startup is an obvious addition to our list. Of course, competing with Waymo and others is no small challenge.

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Bright Machines

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AI-driven robotic microfactories. It’s a fascinating company, even if it’s not building humanoids — yet, at least. With

$437M raised per Crunchbase

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, it’s incredibly well-backed by names including Nvidia, Microsoft, Lux Capital, and BMW.

Kojo

Buying and managing construction materials and equipment is not the sort of thing you expect most startups to care about. Which is precisely why venture-backed Kojo caught our eye. The TAM here is enormous, which means that Kojo should have endless room to grow.

Plant Prefab

Prefab construction took a hit when Katerra folded. But the model could have legs with a healthy dose of automation. Plant Prefab is a bet that that wager will come good.

Riverside

Riverside sits at the intersection of podcasting, and AI. That means it deals with audio and video, editing, and creator tooling. The company’s impressive fundraising journey implies quick revenue growth. Its customer list is deep, and if AI can make it easier/faster/cheaper to make podcasts, there’s going to be a big market for the software in question. Riverside could become simply huge. It doesn’t hurt that the company has a deal with Spotify, and TechCrunch reports that while Riverside is “not currently profitable [it] aims to achieve that goal by the end of 2026.”

Medium

Medium has become a consumer subscription juggernaut, with more than one million paying subscribers. As that number scales, Medium will climb closer to the $100 million ARR mark and therefore IPO viability. Despite many pivots, Medium seems to have found its forever-model, and that’s good news for its backers and workers alike.

Cyera

Another cybersecurity company for the list. They may form their own nexus of startups, frankly. Which given how well some cybersecurity companies are performing on the public markets would make good sense. That Cyera works with “Data Security Posture Management,” or the who can access which data question which has a role to play in how companies handle internal data for AI use, makes it all the more interesting.

Picus Security

Along with its $45M Series C, Picus is making waves in the cybersecurity space by integrating with up to 80 major security tools and delighting over 500 enterprise customers (including giants like Mastercard and Visa). Across all clients, it’s simulated a combined 1 billion cyberattacks.

Halcyon

Ransomware is a menace. But one that we’re going to live with for a while. In part due to the power of cryptocurrency, which is a popular demand from hackers who hold companies’ data and operations hostage. Mix in a $100M round and it seems that if anyone is going to mint cash preventing breaches of this nature, it’ll be Halcyon.

Helsing

Recent conflicts have shown that warfare is becoming increasingly drone-born, and with Ukraine still fighting off an invasion, there’s — unfortunately — current and future demand for military-ready drone tech. Mix in rising defense budgets in Europe, and you can’t really imagine a more fertile time for an EU-based company like Helsing. Hence, onto the list, it goes.

X- Energy

Writer

If you thought that the AI funding wave had crested, you were wrong. Writer’s new round values the genAI startup at $1.9 billion. Writer is not, however, another text generator. Instead, it’s focused on helping customers build AI apps. And even more notably, it is building its own family of large language models. TechCrunch reports that the company is also working on AI agents, adding another startup to the list of those pursuing agentic AI tooling for corporate customers.

Bilt

Fascinating consumer fintech company with a multi-billion dollar valuation, and a big partnership with Wells Fargo that has caught the industry’s attention.

Finix

Starting life as a payment infra company that evolved into a payments provider to boot, Finix has had a slightly odd-feeling trajectory as a startup. But what matters today is that it’s rocking and rolling and looks set to lay claim to at least a few hundred bips of the digital payments market; that’s a massive startup outcome brewing if we’ve ever seen one.

MMI

Let’s combine these two because they’re both tackling surgical robotics in big ways. MMI focuses on precision tools for microsurgeries—think surgeries so delicate that robots are literally more capable than humans. Capstan, meanwhile, is all about less invasive heart surgeries, using robotics to replace open-heart procedures. Both companies raised $110M Series C rounds this year, showing just how much investors believe in their tech. The future of surgery is here, and these two are leading the way.

Capstan Medical

Bear Robotics

Ever been served by a robot? If not, you might soon be. Bear Robotics builds autonomous indoor robots designed to assist staff in restaurants, senior care facilities, and beyond. Their “Servi” robots handle repetitive tasks like delivering food and clearing tables, letting human employees focus on the customer experience. With a labor shortage continuing to challenge service industries, Bear’s robots are stepping in to fill the gap. Practical, efficient, and already rolling out globally.

Boom

The company has a real shot at bringing faster-than-sound travel back into the market.

SambaNova

SambaNova is building RDUs -- chips designed to handle multi-model setups -- and offering inference as a service. Its combination of AI software and hardware is compelling given its claims performance. And with the company pushing on agnetic AI, it may have built the right technology stack for the next (upcoming? current?) AI era. The company's huge capital backing doesn't hurt, either. It's too early to know if the $1B+ that has been invested into SambaNova will pay out, but in terms of big/bold bets that are not Nvidia or OpenAI, it's a huge one.

Mythic

How does GPU-level AI compute for 1% of the power draw? That's the pitch that Mythic makes with its Mythic Analog Compute Engine (ACE) system. Like a few other TWiST500 companies, the company wants to make it less expensive to run AI models. That’s going to be a big, big market.

Anthropic

One of the leading AI model companies that has raised billions, Anthropic is challenging OpenAI in the closed-source AI game. It’s a massive, richly-valued private-market company that, if it does eventually IPO, will drive headlines for weeks and months. And returns, potentially, for years.

Synthesia

Some AI video generating companies want to help you become the next great Hollywood director. Synthesia, in contrast, wants to build AI humans in video contexts that companies can use to chat with users, customers, and employees. We've tested the tool here at TWiST for fun, and found it to be pretty good thus far. Investors think that Synthesia is going to be huge -- putting $180 million more into the company to start the year. That's a haul, and we presume implies quick revenue growth in 2024. Just the sort of company we want to highlight.

Hugging Face

GitHub and GitLab became huge companies because they earned material developer mindshare while providing a combination of developer tooling, sharing, and community. That’s what HF is, but for the AI world. We’ve been fans for a while, but with the AI wave hardly slowing down it’s clear that HF is well-set for an outcome that should, provided all goes as we expect, drive more than a little DPI.

OpenSpace

OpenSpace has built a hardware system to capture images of worksites, and software to process and turn those images into useful data. It has raised a boatload of capital for the work, which should have potential sales opportunities in any market where things are built. Which is to say, all markets.

Huntress

Fresh off a $150 million raise, Huntress’s focus on cybersecurity for SMBs is interesting. SMBs are famously not as good of customers as enterprise clients. But that also means that they can be underserved. And they certainly need cyberprotection.

Abnormal Security

Abnormal wants to use AI to bolster cybersecurity of a system that we all use day in, day out: Email. The mix is working, with Abnormal crossing the $100M ARR mark in August 2023, and $200 million ARR in August 2024. Presuming that Abnormal can reach $300-$400M ARR in 2025, the company's $5.1 billion valuation starts to look tasty. And IPO-ready.

Island

Island is an interesting company that operates mostly out of sight of the startup game. Why? Because it’s building enterprise browser tech. Boring? Yes. Potentially hugely lucrative? Also yep. Companies are dealing with too many cybersecurity issues; more protection is going to have a market. And thanks to both recent funding and reports of quickly growing revenue, Island may have created its own market, charging for tech that is usually free. That’s impressive.

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Ayar Labs

⁠

AI infrastructure is projected to see

more than $1 trillion in investments

⁠

over the next decade, the race is on to solve critical bottlenecks in data transfer. Ayar Labs is solving the problem by using light instead of electricity to transfer data faster and more efficiently.

Fervo Energy

While Sam Altman is bullish on fusion in the near-term, and lots of folks are betting that nuclear power is about to return to form -- Fervo is betting that we just need to go deeper. Into the Earth. Namely to mine its heat. Yes, geothermal power has its own startup champion, and it's a super cool company. Given that TWiST has a 'all of the above' energy thesis, it's an easy add.

Cohere

Cohere is less flashy than many foundation model companies. Its enterprise focus is likely why — but a slightly lower profile is not slowing the Canadian LLM unicorn down. With a reported $13 million run rate at the end of 2023 and $35 million by March of 2024, it’s clearly found its in-market footing. Mix in another huge funding round, and the $5.5 billion startup is heading for an IPO in the next few years.

Brex

Brex’s comeback after a period of slowing growth and high burn is something to behold. The company’s prior growth and valuation marks looked first like accomplishments, later burdens, and are now once again notes in its favor. Brex is large, less unprofitable, and once again expanding. We expect an IPO here.

Ramp

Ramp’s rise as a Brex also-ran to one of the fastest growing fintech unicorns that we can recall is impressive. Ramp grew so fast it seemed to trip up is older rival. But what matters in startup-land is growth, not the earliest founding date. Ramp’s quick product cadence and ability to sell into larger companies means it’s an exit to expect. We’re counting down.

Weka

Sure, the company recently raised $140 million in a Series E, but more importantly by working with companies that have lots of data and a hybrid compute setup, Weka should be well-placed for the current AI boom.

Cribl

Rapid compound annual growth, rock-solid net dollar retention, a massive up round in the 2024 late-stage market make Cribl a standout IPO contender.

Ironclad

Legal workflows are ripe for disruption, and Ironclad is leading the charge. Their AI-powered platform helps enterprises manage contracts and legal processes at scale, saving time and reducing risk. With enterprises embracing digital transformation, Ironclad is poised to redefine legal operations.

Built Technologies

Unlike most of the construction-tech companies that we selected for the TWiST500, this one is all software. Even more, Built has put together financial software for construction. A niche, sure, but a huge one.

Altruist

Rare is the company today that can raise nine-figures in 2023 and nine-figure again in 2024 that is not an AI model concern. Enter Altruist, which is building investing tools for RIAs to offer to their own clients. Some 3,000 of them, per the company. Presumably with all its recent capital and the fact that it is as mature as it is today, Altruist is at least very nearly an IPO candidate.

Revolut

Revolut is Europe’s fintech champion, posting $2.2 billion in revenue and $545 million in profits in 2023. Its super-app approach has made it a leader in mobile banking, and with nearly 10 years under its belt, Revolut’s trajectory mirrors the success of Nubank, the Brazilian neobank whose IPO was a major win. All eyes are on Revolut as it approaches this pivotal moment.

Color

A Jason selection, Color’s approach to helping companies manage employee cancer risk is interesting. A recent deal with OpenAI to bring oncologist knowledge to primary care is doubly so.

Flexport

Global trade needs a reboot, and Flexport is taking up the challenge. Despite facing ups and downs, this logistics tech giant has a vision to revolutionize how goods move across borders. Flexport’s tech-driven approach positions it as a critical player in an era of increasing geopolitical trade friction.

OpenAI

It’s OpenAI.

Runway

Grammarly

Grammarly has raised just three times, but with $400 million worth of known capital it’s no slouch. And the early consumer AI unicorn recently linked arms with Coda, an AI-infused surface for digital data. As a pair, the TWiST crew has big expectations. And it doesn’t hurt that Grammarly has shown that you really can build a big consumer AI business.

Webtoon

This company is going public in short order. Thus, its life on the TWiST500 will be short. But as a fascinating tech company listing, we could not not add it.

Canva

Massive revenues, massive valuation, and now an active AI M&A playbook. When Canva does list, it will be a big deal. For now, we wait.

Kraken

Kraken, a crypto exchange, is said to be hunting up a pre-IPO round of capital. That means it’s IPO scale, and nearly ready to go. That makes it a leading startup, full-stop. That Coinbase has seen its valuation soar in recent months doesn’t hurt.

Intercom

Wiz

$350 million ARR. A deal with Google that it walked away from. A focus on cybersecurity during an era of breaches and hacks. One of the fastest growing startups in history. This wasn’t a hard one.

Kiteworks

Kiteworks’ latest round made it a unicorn. With $465 million in fresh capital and profitability, Kiteworks is ready to both do deals and go public when it wants. An obvious TWiST500 addition, so long as it keeps executing.

Databricks

Shein

Creatio

No-code is not a phrase that we hear that much these days, perhaps because it’s become a standard way to create software for companies; give them flexibility to ensure that what they are buying they can use they way they want, and viola, you have raised your TAM. Regardless, Creatio’s focus on CRM and automation under a no-code umbrella are notable in part thanks to the $200 million it recently raised, and partly because we haven’t spoken much about code-light automation in far too long.

Chime

Mercury

High-performing fintech business with a B2B focus.

Klarna

Recovery after a valuation fall from grace? Check. Big product with international reach? Check. The best known BNPL company out there? Check.

Clear Street

Clear Street is a fintech play that wants to “modernize the brokerage ecosystem,” which, let’s be honest, you don’t think about too often. But given the sheer amount of wealth that flows through the brokerage world, and how much some folks are willing to pay for better tooling, Clear Street could become huge.

Circle

Stripe

Gusto

Like many of its peers on this list, Gusto is a massive private-market tech company with revenues far in excess of what it needs to go public. It’s a shoe-in for an IPO in the next 18 months and will provide a massive return to its early backers when it lists

Deel

Remote

Rippling

As with Gusto and Deel, Rippling has found massive scale inside the HR tech market. It’s also backed by leading investors, has a well-known founder, and is a clear IPO candidate.

Quantinuum

The result of a hardware/software merger, Quantinuum is a quantum computing startup that could go public in 2025 at a $10 billion valuation.

Turo

Zepto

Quick commerce — rapid deliveries — is a model that has struggled in many developed markets where labor costs are high. However, in developing nations with lower constituent labor costs, the model is succeeding. Enter Zepto.

Bolt

Bolt,

Crunchbase details

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, has raised a few billion dollars while private. That pushed its valuation up as high as EUR7.5 billion. That means that its potential upcoming IPO will unlock a mountain of invested cash, and profit for its backers. Which include, I hasten to add, Sequoia and D1 Capital Partners. That means a strong Bolt debut would kick cash into startup markets on both sides of the pond. What more could we ask for in a TWiST500 company?

Figma

Figma is a TWiST500 gimmie. The company would be long-public in a prior era, but because of changes to venture capital it's still comfortably private. With as much as a reported $1 billion in revenue in 2024, it's an already derisked outlier startup. But as it is still private, and we're looking for private-market outcomes that are stupendous, well, we can't not add Figma.

Scale

AI training data company is one of the best-known names in the genAI boom. Apart from oodles of capital raised from some of the best-known investors in the world, a recent partnership with Meta make Scale an obvious TWiST500 member.

Andruil

The gem in the American Dynamism crown, Andruil is building autonomous systems for war. And it’s selling to governments looking to shake up war.

AlphaSense

Any startup that raises $650 million at a $4 billion valuation in 2024 is up to something worth watching. You simply cannot raise that sort of capital without a set of results that investors far and wide want to back. Also Alex thinks that AlphaSense’s product is super cool.

RazorPay

One of the most valuable fintech startups in the world, RazorPay is the Stripe of India, if you want an analogy. Its scale, expected eventual exit, and fundraising make it a nearly derisked addition to the TWIST500. But, since it will have a huge outcome, and is still busy with product we want it on our rolls. Something we're watching is RazorPay's expansion into payroll and banking. That could keep its TAM ever-expanding as India digitizes, and grows.

Sila

Better batteries are essential for the renewable energy transition, and Sila is delivering with its groundbreaking battery materials. With applications in EVs, solar storage, and beyond, Sila’s technology is paving the way for a greener future.

Snyk

Known financials, improving losses, solid revenue growth, and reports that earlier in the year it was looking to get an IPO filing in place.

Navan

Navan, formerly TripActions, is reshaping corporate travel and expense management with its tech-driven platform. The company reported nearly double the travel bookings year-over-year and has strategically positioned itself for a public debut with the hiring of the former NYSE CFO. As corporate travel rebounds, Navan’s growth potential and market presence make it one to watch closely. A strong candidate for the TWiST500.

Symphony AI

A company delivering predictive AI for enterprises and looking ready for a big 2025. Founded in 2017 by Romesh Wadhwani, SymphonyAI may not be the flashiest name in AI, but it has hit some impressive milestones. They’ve hit a $500 million revenue run rate, they’re profitable, and they’ve focused on delivering AI that actually works in real-world settings. Its predictive AI platform spans multiple industries, helping businesses forecast demand, optimize operations, and make smarter decisions. Another TWiST500-worthy point? The fact that they’re already profitable, which is increasingly rare in an environment where many companies are burning cash just to survive. Add to that their recent moves, like bringing on seasoned executives, SymphonyAI is most likely gearing up for a major inflection point—likely an IPO. With investors and enterprises both craving AI solutions that deliver real ROI, SymphonyAI is in an enviable position. With AI enthusiasm still running high—and predictive AI gaining traction across enterprise applications—SymphonyAI seems positioned to capitalize on the moment. As always, we’ll be following them closely as they continue to scale and potentially enter the public markets.

GoodLeap

Financing the solar transition is a massive opportunity, and GoodLeap is at the forefront with innovative solutions. By simplifying loans for homeowners and businesses investing in renewable energy, GoodLeap has positioned itself as a crucial player in the solar revolution. With solar installations expected to skyrocket over the next decade, GoodLeap’s role in enabling this growth cannot be overstated.