The tech startup sector is one of the most productive and rapidly growing sectors in the world, all thanks to emerging and advanced technologies, such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, and many others. Due to these innovations, more and more startups are coming forward to solve problems that seemed unsolvable a few years ago.
According to a report by Gartner, the global spending on IT will increase by 6.2% in 2021, which will propel the total spending to a massive $3.9 trillion. Undoubtedly, startups will have a major role to play in this regard.
With that said, let’s have a look at some of the most exciting startups that are expected to make it big in the near future.
1. Cockroach Labs
Although they are named after a creature that scares everyone away, Cockroach Labs is a software startup that specializes in commercial database management systems. It was founded in 2015 by three Google ex-employees, who designed a special distributed SQL databased called Cockroach DB. Their DBMS is known to be more robust, consistent, and provide better data security and management than other database management systems.
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The company has recently managed to gather a Series E funding of $160 million earlier this year, which has brought up the company valuation to a massive $2 billion.
2. Confluent
Confluent is another hot and emerging startup that is on the radar of tech companies and experts. It was founded by the creators of the Apache Kafka, an open-source distributed event streaming platform that allows developers to create powerful distributed applications. The platform is used by many of the top tech companies, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Airbnb, and many others. Confluent focuses on a commercialized version of the same software.
Confluent’s main mission is to empower companies that don’t have the in-house resources or manpower to run their operations on Kafka. Of course, companies like Netflix, Spotify, and LinkedIn have a swarm of talented developers that can make use of the open-source software, but other companies need professional and expert support.
Confluent got a Series E funding of $250 million, and features some top-notch investors like Sequoia Capital. It has an impressive $4.5 billion valuation, and we wait to see which direction the company goes into next.
3. Front
Front is a Silicon Valley startup that is spawned by Mathilde Collin and Laurent Perrin, who rose to prominence through Y Combinator, the popular startup accelerator that has breathed life into many of the modern-day startups. Front is a collaboration and communication platform designed for teams to work together seamlessly, regardless of their physical location. It is designed to work for different teams within the workplace, as well as inter-departmental correspondence.
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The Front app also utilizes a shared email inbox that teams can use to communicate effectively, which makes it quite different from other collaboration apps like Slack. Early last year, the company raised $59 million in Series C funding, which projected its valuation to roughly $1.3 billion. It has also received interest from the people behind other similar platforms, such as Atlassian, Okta, Zoom, and many others.
4. Funnel
As the name suggests, Funnel is a Swedish software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup that specializes in aggregating and cleaning marketing and advertising data for its clients, no matter where they are. The startup envisions to get their clients better customer insights, which will eventually help them tailor their products and services according to their customer’s needs and requirements.
The pricing for the Funnel platform depends on the company’s ad spending, and the startup is already working with huge companies like Samsung and Ubisoft, which speaks volumes about its competency. It gathers and prepares data to be visualized, so that business leaders can make more sound and informed decisions based on business intelligence that they receive through Funnel.
Funnel managed to secure $47 million in Series B funding back in January 2020, and already has some interest from major corporations and other investors as well. The Swedish company also plans to expand its operations into the US soon.
5. GitLab
If you are a developer or a software or web development enthusiast, there is no way that you haven’t heard about GitLab, the biggest open-source Git repository management platform. Founded in Bay Area by DmitriyZaporozhets and Valery Sizov, the DevOps startup is already making waves among enterprises that are looking to streamline their development operations and handling.
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GitLab started out as a simple Git repository, but it is now a beneficial tool used for developers for tracking and managing source code, as well as collaborating with other developers in real-time. Today, it is a $6 billion startup, and its last funding round was in 2019, where it secured $268 million.
6. TripActions
You might have come across a myriad of travel startups, but TripActions is different from them. This is a corporate travel startup that strives to bring the seamless and convenient experience of personal travel apps to the corporate paradigm. It offers a user-friendly platform where employees can search and book their travel itinerary. At the same time, it enables managers to keep control over the employee bookings by setting limits on travel class, hotel type, and also cost.
Through TripActions, companies can actually save millions of dollars in the long run, and also keep their travel operations to themselves rather than outsourcing it to another company. The $5 billion travel startup raised a Series E funding of $155 million in January this year.
7. Skoove
When mentioning startups that you should look out for, it is impertinent to mention Skoove, the AI-powered music learning app that allows you to learn how to play the piano and other instruments while sitting at home. Thanks to this intuitive app, you can learn the basic and advanced music theories on your own, and can practice them as many times as you want. They have also just released an Android app by Skoove, as well!
Skoove was founded in 2014 and has a small team that works hard to optimize the learning experience for its users. So far, the startup has raised over $5 million over six different funding rounds.
This brings us to the end of our list on the best startups to look out for. It is clear that with the growing IT spend and the advent of new technology every year, there is no predicting how much these startups can grow and become successful.