StartupBlink

Top Unicorn Startups in San Francisco for 2026

In San Francisco, we rank 179 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

1st
OpenAI logo
OpenAISB 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.

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Website
openai.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$168.6B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Stripe logo
StripeSB Score: 940

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.

View Full Page
Website
stripe.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$8.7B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
Discord logo
DiscordSB Score: 906

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.

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Website
www.discord.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$982.6M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:170

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.
1st
OpenAI logo
OpenAISB 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.

View Full Page
Website
openai.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$168.6B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Stripe logo
StripeSB Score: 940

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.

View Full Page
Website
stripe.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$8.7B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
Databricks logo
DatabricksSB Score: 772

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

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Website
databricks.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$10B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
4th
Chime logo
ChimeSB Score: 818

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.

View Full Page
Website
www.chime.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$2.3B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
5th
Miro logo
MiroSB Score: 789

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.

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Website
miro.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$476.3M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
6th
Anthropic logo
AnthropicSB Score: 835

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.

View Full Page
Website
www.anthropic.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$59.9B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
7th
Discord logo
DiscordSB Score: 906

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.

View Full Page
Website
www.discord.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$982.6M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
8th
Scale AI logo
Scale AISB Score: 688

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.

View Full Page
Website
scale.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$15.9B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
9th
Plaid logo
PlaidSB Score: 419

Plaid empowers businesses with the resources and connectivity required to build a modern, digital financial infrastructure.

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Website
plaid.co.jp
Employee range
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
10th
Rippling logo
RipplingSB Score: 762

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.

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Website
www.rippling.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$1.8B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:170

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.
1st
OpenAI logo
OpenAISB 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.

View Full Page
Website
openai.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$168.6B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Tonal logo
TonalSB Score: 685

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.

View Full Page
Website
www.tonal.com
Employee range
10,001+
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$580M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
GrubMarket logo
GrubMarketSB Score: 561

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.

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Website
www.grubmarket.com
Employee range
10,001+
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$599.1M
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
4th
Stripe logo
StripeSB Score: 940

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.

View Full Page
Website
stripe.com
Employee range
5,001 – 10,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$8.7B
National Rank(United States)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:179

Explore More Top Startups

Explore the Startup Ecosystem of San Francisco

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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

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