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Top Unicorn Startups in San Francisco for 2026

In San Francisco, we rank 178 unicorn startups based on an algorithm that considers factors such as total investment, quarterly employee count, and website traffic. Unicorns in San Francisco are falling behind the performance of their global counterparts.

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Top Unicorn Startups in San Francisco for 2026

SB Score:1000

OpenAI, an AI research and product company, enhances digital intelligence for the greater good. Their innovations, like ChatGPT, aim to improve technology for the benefit of humanity.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

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SB Score:906

Stripe is the ultimate platform for managing your online business. It streamlines all your operations, from processing payments to tracking sales, in one easy-to-use interface. Get started today and watch your internet business thrive with Stripe.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Payments

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SB Score:877

Discord connects communities with chat, voice, and video features, perfect for gamers and interest groups. Join the fun in real-time conversations and calls on this popular communication platform.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Software

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Total amount:178

Best Software & Data Startups in San Francisco for 2026

San Francisco startups in the Software & Data industry are overperforming their global industry peers. The top three Software & Data unicorns in San Francisco have raised more than USD 2.77B, an amount that is higher than the global industry average.
SB Score:1000

OpenAI, an AI research and product company, enhances digital intelligence for the greater good. Their innovations, like ChatGPT, aim to improve technology for the benefit of humanity.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

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SB Score:877

Discord connects communities with chat, voice, and video features, perfect for gamers and interest groups. Join the fun in real-time conversations and calls on this popular communication platform.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Software

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SB Score:832

Anthropic is an AI-driven research company that focuses on increasing the safety of AI systems. Its research interests span multiple areas including natural language, human feedback, scaling laws, reinforcement learning, code generation, and interpretability. The initial product from the company is Claude, an AI helper for tasks of any size. Anthropic envisions a future where AI systems are developed, emphasizing safety, transparency, and alignment with human values. The company seeks to contribute to creating AI technologies that enhance human well-being and are trustworthy and reliable.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

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Total amount:96

Most Valuable Unicorns in San Francisco for 2026

The top three most valuable unicorns in San Francisco have raised total funding of more than USD 21.3B. Among the top three funded unicorns, the most popular industry, based on total funding, is Software & Data.
SB Score:1000

OpenAI, an AI research and product company, enhances digital intelligence for the greater good. Their innovations, like ChatGPT, aim to improve technology for the benefit of humanity.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

0

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Regional Rank (North America)

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SB Score:906

Stripe is the ultimate platform for managing your online business. It streamlines all your operations, from processing payments to tracking sales, in one easy-to-use interface. Get started today and watch your internet business thrive with Stripe.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Payments

City Rank (San Francisco)

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SB Score:764

Databricks provides a unified analytics platform, facilitating collaboration between data scientists, engineers, and business analysts to innovate faster.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Data Analytics

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SB Score:808

Chime is a mobile banking and finance platform. Their platform sets aside a pre-determined amount of money in savings after a transaction, and the company earns revenue from transaction fees paid by the merchant, aligning company incentives, enabling users to avoid fees, save money, and lead healthier financial lives.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Financial Services

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5th

Miro
SB Score:775

Miro is an online, visual collaboration platform designed to unlock creativity and accelerate innovation among teams of all kinds. The platform’s infinite canvas enables teams to lead engaging workshops and meetings, design products, brainstorm ideas, and more. Miro, co-headquartered in San Francisco and Amsterdam, serves more than 50M users worldwide, including 99% of the Fortune 100. Miro was founded in 2011 and currently has more than 1,500 employees in 12 hubs around the world.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Apps

City Rank (San Francisco)

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SB Score:832

Anthropic is an AI-driven research company that focuses on increasing the safety of AI systems. Its research interests span multiple areas including natural language, human feedback, scaling laws, reinforcement learning, code generation, and interpretability. The initial product from the company is Claude, an AI helper for tasks of any size. Anthropic envisions a future where AI systems are developed, emphasizing safety, transparency, and alignment with human values. The company seeks to contribute to creating AI technologies that enhance human well-being and are trustworthy and reliable.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

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Regional Rank (North America)

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SB Score:877

Discord connects communities with chat, voice, and video features, perfect for gamers and interest groups. Join the fun in real-time conversations and calls on this popular communication platform.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Software

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SB Score:682

Scale AI develops a data-oriented platform that provides training and validation data for artificial intelligence applications. The company's LiDAR, video, and image annotation APIs allow self-driving, drone, and robotics teams at companies like Lyft, OpenAI, Zoox, Pinterest, and Airbnb to focus on building differentiated models vs. labeling data.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

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SB Score:725

Plaid is a data network that helps millions of people manage their finances by connecting their accounts to popular apps like Venmo and SoFi. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies and major banks, Plaid makes it easy for users to access the tools they need for a healthier financial life.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Data Analytics

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SB Score:747

Rippling is a HR management company that handles payroll, benefits, and IT for employees. Streamlining processes, they manage devices and apps, making employee management a breeze.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Enterprise Technology

City Rank (San Francisco)

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Total amount:178

Top Hiring Unicorns in San Francisco by Employee Number

The top three hiring unicorns in San Francisco have an average employee size that is larger than to the global average. Among these, the Software & Data industry features the unicorn with the largest workforce.
SB Score:1000

OpenAI, an AI research and product company, enhances digital intelligence for the greater good. Their innovations, like ChatGPT, aim to improve technology for the benefit of humanity.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

0

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SB Score:681

Tonal is a smart home gym powered by AI and expert coaching for personalized strength training. Get fit with Tonal's innovative technology and guidance, all from the comfort of your own home.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

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SB Score:557

GrubMarket is the AI-powered major B2B eCommerce company operating in the American food supply chain industry. Besides being the first mover of building B2B eCommerce, GrubMarket is also the first mover of providing Enterprise AI Solutions to the American food supply chain industry. It is one of the largest private food tech companies in the U.S. and the world.

Industry:
Software & Data
Subindustry:
Artificial Intelligence

City Rank (San Francisco)

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Regional Rank (North America)

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

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SB Score:906

Stripe is the ultimate platform for managing your online business. It streamlines all your operations, from processing payments to tracking sales, in one easy-to-use interface. Get started today and watch your internet business thrive with Stripe.

Industry:
Fintech
Subindustry:
Payments

City Rank (San Francisco)

0

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Regional Rank (North America)

0

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Global Rank (WorldWide)

0

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Total amount:178

Explore the Startup Ecosystem of San Francisco

National Rank

(United States)

1st

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Regional Rank

(North America)

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Global Rank

(WorldWide)

1st

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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 ScoreAnnual Growth

Access subscores for 1000 cities and 100 countries

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