Palo Alto remains a key location for technology development, with a strong concentration in artificial intelligence. The area's leading startups are largely focused on creating new AI products for both enterprise and consumer use.
Among them, travel and expense company Navan has attracted $2.2 billion in funding. AI search engine Glean has also raised a significant amount, securing $768.2 million.
Below is our list of 100 Palo Alto startups worth keeping an eye on.
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Get the Sheet for $50Glean offers a generative AI platform that acts as a central search engine for a company's internal knowledge and applications. It provides employees with personalized and contextual answers, helping them find information instantly and work more efficiently.
| Year Founded | 2019 |
| Founders | Arvind Jain, Piyush Prahladka, Prafful Goel, Sharvanath Pathak, Tony Gentilcore, TR Vishwanath |
| Funding Amount | $768.2M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series F |
| Top Investors | General Catalyst, Wellington Management, Citi, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners |
You.com is building a personalized AI search engine designed to give users more control over their information discovery. The platform integrates a conversational AI chatbot, allowing for natural language queries and customized recommendations.
| Year Founded | 2020 |
| Founders | Bryan McCann, Richard Socher |
| Funding Amount | $195M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series C |
| Top Investors | Norwest Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures, NVIDIA, Radical Ventures, DuckDuckGo |
BitGo provides institutional-grade custody, security, and financial services for digital assets. Their platform offers core infrastructure and security solutions that help investors and businesses manage their cryptocurrency holdings.
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Ben Davenport, Mike Belshe, Will O'Brien |
| Funding Amount | $171.5M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Corporate Round |
| Top Investors | Valor Equity Partners, Pantera Capital, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, Goldman Sachs |
Vectara provides a developer platform for building generative AI features into new or existing applications. Their technology is focused on grounding AI-generated answers in a company's own data to help eliminate hallucinations.
| Year Founded | 2022 |
| Founders | Amin Ahmad, Amr Awadallah, Tallat Shafaat |
| Funding Amount | $53.5M |
| Startup Size | Lean Team (11-50) |
| Last Funding Status | Series A |
| Top Investors | Alumni Ventures, Samsung NEXT, FPV Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Fusion Fund |
Navan offers a unified platform that combines corporate cards with travel and expense management. Their software helps companies automate tedious financial tasks and gain better control over their spending.
| Year Founded | 2015 |
| Founders | Ariel Cohen |
| Funding Amount | $2.2B |
| Startup Size | Major Organization (1,001-5,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Convertible Note |
| Top Investors | Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Coatue, Group 11 |
Zania builds autonomous AI agents to help businesses manage their security, risk, and compliance posture. The platform automates complex security operations, allowing teams to maintain continuous adherence to industry standards.
| Year Founded | 2023 |
| Founders | Shruti Gupta |
| Funding Amount | $18M |
| Startup Size | Lean Team (11-50) |
| Last Funding Status | Series A |
| Top Investors | Anthropic, Menlo Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Palm Drive Capital, George Kurtz |
Modular builds a unified platform to accelerate AI development and deployment for developers. The company is known for creating Mojo, a new programming language that blends the usability of Python with the performance of C.
| Year Founded | 2022 |
| Founders | Chris Lattner, Tim Davis |
| Funding Amount | $380M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series C |
| Top Investors | General Catalyst, US Innovative Technology Fund, SV Angel, DFJ Growth, Greylock |
Luma AI builds generative AI technology that transforms text descriptions into high-quality 3D models. Their platform allows creators to generate assets for use in virtual reality, augmented reality, and video games.
| Year Founded | 2021 |
| Founders | Alberto Taiuti, Amit Jain |
| Funding Amount | $157.3M |
| Startup Size | Lean Team (11-50) |
| Last Funding Status | Series B |
| Top Investors | General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, NVIDIA, South Park Commons, Amazon |
PlayAI builds generative AI technology to produce human-sounding voices for natural conversations. Their platform is engineered to capture emotive nuances, making digital interactions feel more authentic and engaging.
| Year Founded | 2022 |
| Founders | Hammad Syed, Mahmoud Felfel |
| Funding Amount | $23.7M |
| Startup Size | Lean Team (11-50) |
| Last Funding Status | Seed |
| Top Investors | 500 Global, Y Combinator, Kindred Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Race Capital |
EarnIn provides a financial wellness app that gives people access to their wages as they earn them. The service is designed to help users avoid overdraft fees and manage their money without waiting for a traditional payday.
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Ram Palaniappan |
| Funding Amount | $415.1M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Debt Financing |
| Top Investors | Andreessen Horowitz, Cross River Bank, Ribbit Capital, Coatue, Spark Capital |
90 Additional Palo Alto Startups Worth Following
Our top ten picks are only the beginning of the story in Palo Alto. Across the city, founders are working on everything from AI to biotech, raising billions of dollars in the process.
Some of these companies are brand new, while others are growing fast. Below is a look at the other startups that are shaping the local scene.