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Top Unicorn Startups in San Diego for 2026

In San Diego, we rank 6 unicorn startups based on an algorithm that considers factors such as total investment, quarterly employee count, and website traffic. Unicorns in San Diego are falling behind the performance of their global counterparts.

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Top Unicorn Startups in San Diego for 2026

1st
ClickUp logo
ClickUpSB Score: 773

ClickUp combines tasks, docs, spreadsheets, goal tracking, resources, and an inbox in one app for seamless organization. Streamline your workflow and stay productive with all your essential tools in one place.

View Full Page
Website
www.clickup.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$537.5M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Seismic logo
SeismicSB Score: 651

Seismic provides software solutions for global sales and marketing teams, enabling them to streamline processes and drive revenue.

View Full Page
Website
seismic.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$446.5M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
Shield AI logo
Shield AISB Score: 595

Shield AI utilizes advanced artificial intelligence to safeguard both service members and civilians. Their mission is to provide protection through intelligent systems, ensuring safety and security in high-risk situations.

View Full Page
Website
www.shield.ai
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$1B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:6

Most Valuable Unicorns in San Diego for 2026

The top three most valuable unicorns in San Diego have raised total funding of more than USD 198M. Among the top three funded unicorns, the most popular industry, based on total funding, is Software & Data.
1st
ClickUp logo
ClickUpSB Score: 773

ClickUp combines tasks, docs, spreadsheets, goal tracking, resources, and an inbox in one app for seamless organization. Streamline your workflow and stay productive with all your essential tools in one place.

View Full Page
Website
www.clickup.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$537.5M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Seismic logo
SeismicSB Score: 651

Seismic provides software solutions for global sales and marketing teams, enabling them to streamline processes and drive revenue.

View Full Page
Website
seismic.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$446.5M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
Shield AI logo
Shield AISB Score: 595

Shield AI utilizes advanced artificial intelligence to safeguard both service members and civilians. Their mission is to provide protection through intelligent systems, ensuring safety and security in high-risk situations.

View Full Page
Website
www.shield.ai
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$1B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
4th
Drata logo
DrataSB Score: 572

Drata is an advanced security and compliance automation platform with the mission to help companies earn and keep the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects. Drata helps thousands of companies streamline their security compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA, CMMC, NIST CSF, etc.) through continuous, automated control monitoring and evidence collection, resulting in lower costs and time spent preparing for annual audits. Drata was founded in 2020 by Adam Markowitz, Daniel Marashlian, and Troy Markowitz and is based in San Diego, California, United States.

View Full Page
Website
drata.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$328.2M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
5th
Biosplice Therapeutics logo

Biosplice Therapeutics specializes in developing advanced treatments for tissue regeneration at the cellular level. Our cutting-edge research focuses on restoring damaged tissues to improve overall health and well-being.

View Full Page
Website
www.biosplice.com
Employee range
51 – 100
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$778M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
6th
Tealium logo
TealiumSB Score: 561

Tealium is a provider of customer data orchestration tools aimed to address challenges in online search, analytics, marketing, and segment targeting. It helps clients solve their customer data integration challenges at the source The company connects customer data – spanning web, mobile, offline, and IoT devices, enabling brands to connect with their customers. Tealium's turnkey integration ecosystem supports over 1,300 client-side and server-side vendors and technologies, empowering brands to create a unified, real-time customer data infrastructure. The Tealium Customer Data Hub encompasses tag management, an API hub, a customer data platform with machine learning, and data management solutions that make customer data more valuable, actionable, and secure. More than 1,000 businesses worldwide trust Tealium to power their customer data strategies. Tealium is funded by Battery Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Presidio Ventures, Georgian, and Silver Lake Waterman. It was named to Forbes’ list of “America’s Most Promising Companies,” and is also a recent winner of the 2013 Red Herring Global 100 Award. Former WebSideStory colleagues Ali Behnam and Mike Anderson co-founded the San Diego, California-based Tealium in 2008.

View Full Page
Website
www.tealium.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$263.9M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:6

Top Hiring Unicorns in San Diego by Employee Number

The top three hiring unicorns in San Diego have an average employee size that is smaller than to the global average. Among these, the Software & Data industry features the unicorn with the largest workforce.
1st
Seismic logo
SeismicSB Score: 651

Seismic provides software solutions for global sales and marketing teams, enabling them to streamline processes and drive revenue.

View Full Page
Website
seismic.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$446.5M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Shield AI logo
Shield AISB Score: 595

Shield AI utilizes advanced artificial intelligence to safeguard both service members and civilians. Their mission is to provide protection through intelligent systems, ensuring safety and security in high-risk situations.

View Full Page
Website
www.shield.ai
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$1B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
ClickUp logo
ClickUpSB Score: 773

ClickUp combines tasks, docs, spreadsheets, goal tracking, resources, and an inbox in one app for seamless organization. Streamline your workflow and stay productive with all your essential tools in one place.

View Full Page
Website
www.clickup.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$537.5M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
4th
Drata logo
DrataSB Score: 572

Drata is an advanced security and compliance automation platform with the mission to help companies earn and keep the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects. Drata helps thousands of companies streamline their security compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA, CMMC, NIST CSF, etc.) through continuous, automated control monitoring and evidence collection, resulting in lower costs and time spent preparing for annual audits. Drata was founded in 2020 by Adam Markowitz, Daniel Marashlian, and Troy Markowitz and is based in San Diego, California, United States.

View Full Page
Website
drata.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$328.2M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:6

Explore More Top Startups

Explore the Startup Ecosystem of San Diego

National Rank

(United States)

10th

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Regional Rank

(North America)

10th

1

Global Rank

(WorldWide)

23rd

1

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Top Cities for Startups in United States - Ranked by StartupBlink

StartupBlink ranks the startup ecosystems of more than 100 countries and 1,000 cities. Download our latest Global Startup Ecosystem Report.
2026 National Rank CityGlobal RankTotal Score & National ShareAnnual Growth

Access subscores for 1000 cities and 100 countries

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152.3715.7%
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127.1194.8%
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