In a tough year for tech firms and venture capital funding, here are 25 reasons why they should thrive

WWhile we were picking companies for this year’s list of the next billion dollar startups, two we strongly considered — Collect and Calibrate — laid off more than 20% of their employees. With the market slowing and tech investors shrinking, it’s a critical time to find startups that thrive.

One reason we’re feeling confident: The companies on this year’s list have much higher earnings than those in last year’s weakest market. The average 2021 revenue of companies on this year’s list is $24 million, more than double last year’s average of $12 million. Some are slightly larger than that. Flexible-lease, furnished-apartment startup Lodging (which we profiled in the magazine’s August/September issue) expects $200 million in revenue this year, while semiconductor startup Astera Labs should reach $100 million.

“The market is doing gymnastics at the moment. We don’t control that,” said Astera CEO Jitendra Mohan, a first-time founder who previously worked at Texas Instruments. “What keeps me up at night is making sure we don’t squander this opportunity because of a mistake.”

Tracking the list of 175 students: 116 unicorns, 22 achieved, nine official before hitting the mark. Only five have closed or closed.

Likewise, many of the companies on this year’s list have accumulated cash to continue their growth and protect against future storms. Among them: Atobi, which offers payment cards to truck drivers, has raised an undisclosed $75 million in equity funding. “When the business model is strong, there is a healthy appetite from investors,” says Atobi founder and CEO Vignan Velivela.

In last year’s list, 10 of the 25 companies on it reached or exceeded the $1 billion valuation mark, although some valuations seem to be too high in the new environment.

Product Board, which allows product specialists to track customer feedback in one place, raised $125 million in February at a $1.7 billion valuation. Then in April, Viz.ai, which uses artificial intelligence to detect and quickly treat strokes, raised $100 million at a $1.2 billion valuation. In July, the company announced that it had received FDA approval for its technology to detect subdural hematomas, following regulatory approval earlier in the year to detect brain aneurysms.

And in a round of funding for blockchain startups, San Francisco-based Alchemy, which makes it easy to read and write on blockchains like Ethereum and Flow, raised $200 million in February at a $10.2 billion valuation, tripling its value in just three months. Earlier.

Long-term, of the total 175 graduates of this list since 2015, 116 have become unicorns, another 22 have achieved and nine have gone public before hitting the mark. Only five have closed or closed.

In times of volatility, like now, the best founders focus on what they can control—their own operations—rather than where the market is. “You can’t bet on me as a CEO because I can predict the future,” says Sumir Meghani, founder and CEO of Instawork, who matches hourly workers with companies that need them. “Our series C [$60 million in July 2021] To ensure that this is the last round of capital to be profitable.

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