43 startups to bet your career on in 2025
AI has led to a boom in new startup creation and deal making, and BI startups that have strong founding teams and investor dollars.
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Writer; Please; Glean; Business Insider
- Artificial intelligence has led to a boom in new startup creation and dealmaking.
- Business Insider researched startups that have strong founding teams and investor dollars.
- These are our top picks, listed alphabetically, of startups you could bet your career on in 2025.
After years of contraction, cost-cutting, and layoffs, there's been a resurgence of tech dealmaking in Silicon Valley thanks to the AI boom. Business Insider rounded up a number of technology and AI startups that are growing. Here are our top picks.
Abridge
HQ: Pittsburgh
Total raised: $462.5 million
What it does: The medical scribe startup translates patient-doctor interactions into clinical notes in electronic medical records.
What makes it promising: Abridge's business exploded in 2024 as investors rushed to fund companies automating administrative tasks in healthcare. The startup, which is backed by top VC firms, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, just raised $250 million in new funding at a million valuation. Its deals with top health systems, such as Kaiser Permanente, and its partnership with medical records giant Epic have made Abridge the healthcare AI startup to beat.
Anysphere
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $176 million
What it does: Anysphere makes AI coding software
What makes it promising: You may not have heard of Anysphere but you are likely familiar with its popular AI coding assistant, Cursor, that can predict a user's next line of code. The company recently raised $105 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Notable investors include Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, and OpenAI.
Attention
HQ: New York
Total raised: $17.1 million
What it does: Attention uses natural language processing to fill out CRM programs and generate action items from sales calls.
What makes it promising: Some companies spend millions of dollars on customer relationship management programs, which are essentially software for sales teams that house crucial information about current and potential customers. The problem? Many teams don't properly fill out their CRM, rendering the investment useless. That's where Attention comes in — the startup uses AI to listen in on sales calls, fill out company CRMs with crucial information, and generate action items so a sales team member has the info they need to go back and close a deal.
Attention raised $14 million from Alven, Eniac, Frst, Liquid 2 Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Aglaé in October 2024.
Clasp
HQ: Boston
Total raised: $30 million, according to the company
What it does: Clasp helps employers secure critical talent before graduation, tackling workforce shortages in hard-to-hire fields like healthcare. Think of it like ROTC for critical professions. If a hospital system is facing a shrinking pipeline of nurses, it can partner with Clasp to access a national network of universities and training programs, match with current nursing students, and commit to repaying their student loans over a multi-year word period.
What makes it promising: Founded in 2018, Clasp has over 10,000 individuals on its platform and plenty of room to grow. While it's currently focused on building critical talent pools for the healthcare industry, the company plans to expand into other hard-to-hire industries. In 2024, Clasp raised over $10 million in a funding round led by Crosslink Capital and is actively investing in its growth team to scale employer and school partnerships.
CodaMetrix
HQ: Boston
Total raised: $95 million
What it does: CodaMetrix uses AI to analyze clinical notes and derive medical codes for billing and claims.
What makes it promising: Coding is a critical step of the revenue cycle management process for hospitals, typically requiring providers to manually assign numerical codes to medical services and diagnoses to ensure they get paid for their care.
CodaMetrix spun out of Mass General Brigham in 2019 to automate those administrative tasks and reduce provider burden, and it's captured a wave of investor interest in the sector, last raising a $40 million Series B round in March. The startup has worked with top health systems like Mayo Clinic and Yale Medicine to develop new revenue cycle management solutions, and it added some key hires to its executive team last year, including a new chief technology officer and COO.
Cohere Health
HQ: Boston
Total raised: $106 million
What it does: Cohere Health automates the pre-authorization process for medical treatments.
What makes it promising: Cohere Health works with health plans like Humana and Geisinger to make the prior authorization process more efficient and accurate, using AI to save money for the plans and reduce the number of unnecessary denials for patients. The startup last raised a $50 million Series B extension in February 2024, led by Deerfield Management and including existing investors, including Define Ventures and Flare Capital Partners.
Cohere has announced a number of new products in the last year, including tools released in January to help health plans meet prior authorization compliance standards set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Cortica
HQ: San Diego
Total raised: Over $300 million
What it does: Cortica provides virtual and in-person pediatric care for autism, as well as commonly co-occurring conditions like behavioral issues and sleep disorders.
What makes it promising: Cortica has set itself apart by going after value-based care contracts with health plans and employers that pay the startup for better patient outcomes, a rarity in specialized mental healthcare. The startup employs more than 2,000 providers that help care for children with autism at its clinics, in the home, or virtually, aiming to deliver "whole-child care" through everything from physical therapy to speech-language pathology to neurology. Cortica most recently raised an $80 million round in November, co-led by JP Morgan's healthcare investment fund Morgan Health and Nexus NeuroTech Ventures.
Daedalus.
HQ: Karlsruhe, Germany
Total raised: $32.6 million
What it does: Daedalus helps factories and their production robots operate more efficiently.
What makes it promising: Launched by ex-OpenAI engineer Jonas Schneider, who was a key part of the AI juggernaut's robotics team, Daedalus was part of Y Combinator's winter 2020 cohort. The startup, which also has an office in San Francisco, uses AI robotics technology to cull the need to reprogram production robots constantly. Instead, it automates a lot of the tasks associated with the manufacturing process; for example, if clients give Daedalus a CAD drawing, it will render a fully-completed version of the drawing.
In February 2024, the startup raised a fresh $21 million Series A. The funding will help Daedalus in its mission of automating the manufacturing process across various industries, from semiconductors to healthcare.
Decagon
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $100 million
What it does: Decagon develops AI support agents that autonomously resolve customer inquiries over chat, email, or voice calls.
What makes it promising: The company raised $100 million, including a $65 million Series B, late last year. Bain Capital Ventures led the Series B round, and Elad Gil, A*, Accel, Bond Capital, and Acme Capital participated. According to the company's blog, the fundraise quadrupled Decagon's valuation. Bilt, Duolingo, Eventbrite, Notion, and Rippling use Decagon to manage interactions with customers by gathering data and reviewing conversations.
Decart
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $53 million, according to the company
What it does: Decart is an AI research lab focused on efficiency. Its infrastructure platform aims to dramatically cut the costs of training and running foundation models.
Why it's promising: Last fall, Decart emerged from stealth with $21 million in seed funding from Sequoia and Oren Zeev and launched a demo, Oasis, that captivated the tech world. Oasis's video platform enables users to create interactive, open-world experiences from a single uploaded image and generates content in real time based on user input. In December, the Israeli-founded startup secured an additional $32 million from Benchmark and other investors. Since then, Decart has doubled its team size and continues developing new products.
EliseAI
HQ: New York
Total raised: $172 million
What it does: EliseAI sells AI assistants, primarily to housing operators, as well as healthcare providers. These speed up menial tasks such as maintenance requests and scheduling appointments.
What makes it promising: The startup hit a unicorn valuation in 2024 with a $75 million Series D. Its technology is revolutionary for the housing sector, which previously suffered from inefficient technology, resulting in consumers absorbing additional costs, said founder and CEO Minna Song.
When arranging house viewings and meetings, keeping up with messaging prospective tenants can take up a lot of time and energy. Elise AI's chatbot automates these interactions so they free up time for management teams to pursue more meaningful work. The tech has also been embraced by the healthcare industry, which experiences similar pain points for managing invoices and bills, as well as patient appointments.
Flo
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Total raised: $300 million
What it does: Flo is a digital women's health company, which provides a period tracking and wellness app.
What makes it promising: Flo became the first digital women's health company to hit a unicorn valuation in 2024, following a $200 million raise from General Atlantic.
The startup, which launched in 2015, ballooned in popularity as it offered a comprehensive suite of products, such as period tracking and personalized insights into reproductive health via its app. After Roe v. Wade was repealed, Flo developed an 'Anonymous Mode' setting that would allow users to access the app without associating any identifying information with their health data.
Following its fundraise in 2024, the startup is making a big hiring push in Lithuania — recruiting for over 100 roles in Vilnius. It will also expand its user base and double down on offerings for those with menopause.
Glean
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $560 million, according to the company
What it does: Glean makes search chatbots and agents for businesses, allowing workers to search for information across various systems and applications and create and summarize content.
What makes it promising: Glean's business is taking off as organizations seek quick productivity gains. Founded by a group of former Google Search engineers, Glean topped $100 million in annual recurring revenue last fiscal year, up from $50 million earlier in the year. The company plans to expand into new markets and verticals in 2025 to keep up its momentum.
Grow Therapy
HQ: New York City
Total raised: $178 million
What it does: Grow Therapy works with independent therapy practices to streamline their administrative tasks and connect patients with therapists covered by their insurance.
What makes it promising: Grow helps therapists start and run their own mental health practices. SignalFire founder and CEO Chris Farmer named Grow Therapy to Business Insider's list of the most promising healthcare AI startups of 2024, citing the startup's focus on handling administrative tasks "so therapists can focus on their patients and control their own schedule instead of being underworked and underpaid at someone else's practice."
Grow Therapy most recently raised $88 million in Series C funding in April, led by Sequoia Capital.
Harvey
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $500 million
What it does: Harvey is a developer of a generative AI legal tech platform for lawyers and paralegals to help with contract analysis, due diligence, litigation, and regulatory compliance.
What makes it promising: Many startups are attempting the herculean task of disrupting the legal industry, but Harvey is in the pole position. Backed by big-name investors like Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, Harvey has ridden the AI wave to recently double its valuation to $3 billion in a fresh $300 million round of funding. In 2024, Harvey saw 4x annual recurring revenue growth and now has 235 customers in 42 countries.
Hue
HQ: Remote
Total raised: $4.5 million
What it does: Hue helps brands and retailers sell online by collecting user-generated video reviews and embedding that content into product pages.
What makes it promising: Hue is bringing the power of TikTok-style video reviews to brands and retailers, significantly increasing conversion rates and time spent on-site. Founded by a trio of women who come from the consumer industry they now serve, Hue closed on $4.5 million in seed funding last year from Fika Ventures, Underscore VC, and others.
KNIME
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Total raised: $53.8 million
What it does: Knime has built a low-code, open-source data analytics platform for businesses.
What makes it promising: The startup is headquartered in Switzerland but has a global presence, with offices in Texas and Berlin. Its mission is to democratize data analytics and utilize generative AI to make that mission more accessible, cofounder and CEO Michael Berthold previously told Business Insider.
The startup raised $30 million in equity funding from Invus in August 2024 and serves over 400 enterprise customers — including the likes of Audi, Novartis, and P&G.
Legora
HQ: Stockholm with offices in London
Total raised: $37 million
What it does: Lawyers use Legora to streamline legal work across reviewing, drafting, and research.
What makes it promising: Just months after graduating from the storied startup accelerator Y Combinator, Legora raised back-to-back rounds of funding from investors like Benchmark, Redpoint, and Jack Altman's fund Alt Capital. The company has so far grown its business in Europe and the US and is now quickly expanding to new markets. The website's careers page shows the company is hiring go-to-market managers in New York, Madrid, and London.
Midi Health
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $100 million
What it does: Midi partners with employers and health systems to provide virtual care for menopause.
What makes it promising: Midi is leading a growing market for menopause support as women's health investors expand their reach beyond fertility and maternal care. 18% of employers surveyed by Mercer said they plan to provide menopause benefits to employees in 2025, up from a measly 4% in 2023. Midi provides virtual services, including hormonal-replacement therapy and lifestyle support for those struggling with hormonal changes as they age, navigating symptoms like hot flashes and weight gain through perimenopause and menopause.
Midi also works with health systems to offer specialized telehealth services and coordinate care alongside a patient's in-person doctors. The startup raised a $63 million Series B round last year from dozens of angel investors, including actress Amy Schumer and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as VC firms like GV (Google Ventures) and Emerson Collective.
Neubird
HQ: Redwood City
Total raised: $44.5 million
What it does: Uses artificial intelligence to monitor, analyze, and resolve IT issues for companies.
What makes it promising: Hawkeye, the startup's AI-powered ITOps engineer, automates the detection and resolution of IT issues, freeing software engineers from routine troubleshooting. The startup's growing customer base includes both startups and large financial institutions, according to TechCrunch. The startup raised a $22.5 million seed extension round led by Microsoft's M12 in December, just eight months after raising a $22 million seed round from Mayfield, TechCrunch reported.
Nimble.ai
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $221 million
What it does: Nimble develops fully autonomous e-commerce fulfillment centers powered by its warehouse robots that can retrieve inventory, pick items, pack orders, and sort packages.
What makes it promising: Backed by FedEd and Accel, Nimble is building a national network of next-generation robotic warehouses to provide faster, lower-cost logistics. It aims to solve a critical pain point for customers like Puma and AdoreMe, who are attempting to scale operations while facing a national shortage of warehouse workers. The company most recently raised $106 million in a round co-led by FedEx and Cedar Pine that propelled its valuation to $1 billion.
Norm Ai
HQ: New York
Total raised: $38 million
What it does: Builds AI agents to automate compliance tasks and regulatory assessments.
What makes it promising: Norm's AI platform takes complex regulations and converts them into code that can be parsed by computers, allowing companies to clearly explain compliance findings, for example. The startup raised three rounds of funding — a Series A and two follow-on investments — in just 11 months. Coatue Management led its $27 million Series A, and Bain Capital Ventures, Blackstone Innovations Investments, and others participated.
Please
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Total raised: Undisclosed
What it does: Please develops an AI assistant that helps consumers with their plans, using agents to complete actions like booking trips and managing reservations.
What makes it promising: The startup, which rebranded from MultiOn to Please in January, develops web-based AI agents that are powered by LLMs. Major players like Amazon and General Catalyst invested in the company in a round that valued it at $100 million, The Information reported.
Reality Defender.
HQ: New York
Total raised: $40 million
What it does: Reality Defender has developed a deepfake detection platform that spots AI-generated content.
What makes it promising: As the use of AI-generated content burgeons, the technology has also been increasingly used to create fraudulent content and misinformation. Reality Defender's platform can detect if something is AI-generated in images, text, video, and audio.
In particular, the startup has found a niche in providing its services to enterprise clients to help identify deepfakes. It has developed an API and web app that allows users to analyze content and gauge if it's been modified by AI; however, it doesn't directly discern if something is a deepfake. Rather, users are given inference points so they can determine the extent to which AI has altered something.
In October 2024, the startup raised a fresh $33 million to grow its offerings in the financial sector.
Remark
HQ: Boston
Total raised: $10 million
What it does: Remark develops a shopping guidance platform that connects shoppers with online product experts.
What makes it promising: Remark helps shoppers make purchase decisions by allowing them to asynchronously chat with product experts, both human and AI, simulating the experience of chatting with a sales associate at a brick-and-mortar store. The two-year-old company helps consumers looking to purchase items in the fashion, home goods, outdoor, baby products, beauty, and skincare industries, Remark told Business Insider. And it's already seeing promising results: Brands using Remark have seen a 10-12% revenue lift and a 30+% conversion rate, according to the company.
Robin AI
HQ: London and New York
Total raised: $71 million
What it does: Robin AI develops an AI legal assistant that drafts and analyzes contracts for companies and their legal teams.
What makes it promising: Robin AI announced not one but two rounds of funding in 2024: a $26 million Series B, led by Temasek, and a $25 million follow-on investment, with participation from Paypal Ventures and Cambridge University. The company's AI-powered platform helps in-house counsel teams and enterprises streamline their contract review processes. Richard Robinson, who worked as a lawyer at Clifford Chance, and James Clough, previously a machine learning researcher, founded the company in 2019.
Rogo
HQ: New York
Total raised: $27 million
What it does: Rogo develops an AI agent that helps Wall Street professionals with tasks such as company research and memo drafting.
What makes it promising: Investment banking may look high-octane on HBO's "Industry," but working on Wall Street is a grind. Enter Rogo. The AI-powered platform helps analysts quickly analyze earnings, construct market maps, and other tasks. Two of Rogo's cofounders, Gabe Stengel and John Willett, previously worked in investment banking. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Jack Altman's AltCapital, AlleyCorp, and BoxGroup.
Rox
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $50 million
What it does: Rox's team of AI sales assistants automates tasks and provides data-driven insights for sales teams.
What makes it promising: AI-powered tools like Rox are gaining traction with sales teams by reducing administrative work and improving deal execution. The company streamlines CRM updates, summarizes relevant news events, and drafts outreach in its platform, helping sales reps focus on closing deals rather than on tedious tasks. As of November 2024, over 35 enterprise sales teams from companies such as MongoDB and Ramp have used Rox. The startup raised both its seed round, led by Sequoia with participation from Google Ventures, and its Series A, led by General Catalyst, in stealth. It's currently in public beta.
AFP/Stringer/Getty Images
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $285 million
What it does: Seirra's AI-powered conversational agents interact with customers.
What makes it promising: Founded by OpenAI chairman and ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and former Google executive Clay Bavor, Sierra's valuation soared to $4.5 billion at the end of 2024. Just don't call it a chatbot, as Taylor prefers to be thought of as "conversational AI." Whatever you call it, companies like ADT, Casper, and Sonos have used Sierra to handle customer service inquiries.
SkyFire
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $8.5 million
What it does: Skyfire is a payment network that lets AI agents autonomously spend money on behalf of their human counterparts.
What makes it promising: With AI agents expected to be a big theme in 2025, investors are excited about the types of tasks they can take over from humans. While other AI agents are handling customer service and sales calls, Skyfire is an early agentic player in the fintech space and is tackling the regulatory and societal considerations that come with giving a robot license to swipe a credit card.
Skyfire launched from stealth last summer and raised $8.5 million in seed funding from financial firms Neuberger Berman, DRW, and Brevan Howard Digital, plus Intersection Growth Partners, Arrington Capital, RedBeard Ventures, and others.
Smartcat
HQ: Amsterdam
Total raised: $75 million
What it does: Smartcat provides AI-generated translation services for businesses.
What makes it promising: For companies that want to scale globally, Smartcat offers a more cost-effective solution than hiring a gaggle of human translators. Smartcat's AI can translate both written and spoken words into more than 280 languages, making it easier to deploy corporate content, such as marketing materials and internal training videos, to office locations around the world.
Smartcat raised a $43 million Series C last year from Left Lane Capital, Koro Capital, Marbruck Investments, and Chrome Capital.
StackGen
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $12.3 million
What it does: StackGen uses AI to auto-generate infrastructure such as servers, databases, and networking from code.
What makes it promising: The AI revolution is coming for developers, with plenty of startups cropping up to help — and in some cases, replace — software engineers designing apps and building websites. StackGen is unique because it operates at the infrastructure layer of software development: Its AI reads code created by human developers and uses the information to generate technical infrastructure like servers and databases. StackGen raised $12.3 million last fall from a group of investors, including Thomvest Ventures, FireBolt Ventures, WestWave Capital, and Secure Octane.
Sublime Security
HQ: Washington, DC
Total raised: $94 million
What it does: Sublime's email security platform detects and prevents malicious behaviors in the inbox, enabling organizations to defend against phishing, email fraud, and other cyberattacks.
What makes it promising: Sublime's business has exploded as generative AI gives attackers a way to rapidly produce mass spear-phishing campaigns. The company has quadrupled its customer base over the past year and added enterprise customers like Elastic, Benteler, and SentinelOne to a roster of existing customers like Spotify, Reddit, and Brex. The company has won backing from top investors, including IVP, Index Ventures, and Slow Ventures.
Synthesia
HQ: London
Total raised: Over $350 million
What it does: Synthesia is an AI video creator that helps companies with tasks such as employee training, customer support, and sales.
What makes it promising: Founded in 2017, Synthesia was early to the generative AI boom. It reportedly doubled its valuation in 2024 and moved beyond video creation to help businesses solve a wider range of needs. More than 5,000 companies use Snythsia, from Heineken to Dupont to Zoom.
Torq
HQ: New York
Total raised: $192 million
What it does: Torq has created autonomous security operations to help companies guard against cyber attacks.
What makes it promising: Torq achieved 300% revenue growth and increased its headcount by 200% in 2024, according to the company. It recently hired a new head of sales Usman Gulfaraz, to help the company get to $100 million in annual recurring revenue for 2026. Customers include Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inditex, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Siemens.
Vapi
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $20 million
What it does: Vapi is building an infrastructure tool for developers to build AI voice agents.
What makes it promising: Investors are foaming at the mouth to back promising AI agents, and one group of startups is specifically using the tech to understand spoken commands. One of these so-called AI voice agent startups is Vapi, which is creating a tool for developers to create, test, and deploy AI voice agents of their own that can be applied in a number of business settings, from reception desk to employee training to sales call.
Vapi raised $20 million at the end of 2024 from Bessemer Venture Partners. Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator, Saga Ventures, and Michael Ovitz.
May Habib
HQ: San Francisco
Total raised: $326 million
What it does: Writer is a full-stack generative AI platform that gives businesses tools to create their own AI applications and automate other workflows.
What makes it promising: Writer has carved out a niche in enterprise AI and offers a secure, customizable generative AI platform tailored for businesses — which sets it apart from more generalist models like OpenAI. The company has attracted major clients, including Fortune 500 firms, by focusing on data privacy, compliance, and domain-specific AI solutions, and its recently released AI model emphasizes control, security, and enterprise-grade performance.
Writer raised a $200 million Series C in November 2024 from Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Workday Ventures, Accenture, Balderton, Insight Partners, and Vanguard. The round valued the startup at $1.9 billion.
7AI
HQ: Boston
Total raised: $36 million
What it does: 7AI uses AI agents to autonomously respond to alerts and investigate cyber threats on behalf of security operations teams.
What makes it promising: 7AI cofounders Lior Div and Yonatan Striem Amit previously cofounded Cyberreason, another cybersecurity company. 7AI raised a $36 million seed round in June 2024 that valued the company at over $100 million. The financing was led by Greylock Partners, with participation from Spark Capital and CRV.
