Top 38 San Mateo Startups to Watch in 2026
San Mateo is a central hub within Silicon Valley's technology landscape. The city hosts a variety of companies specializing in fields like artificial intelligence and financial technology.
Among them is AI drone company Skydio, which has raised $740M in funding. Another recent addition is Aurasell, a 2024 startup that secured a $30M seed round.
Below is our list of 38 San Mateo startups worth keeping an eye on.
Failory's Top 10 Picks
FalconX provides a digital assets prime brokerage with trading, financing, and custody services for institutional clients. Their platform offers comprehensive access to global cryptocurrency liquidity for the world's leading institutions.
| Year Founded | 2018 |
| Founders | Prabhakar Reddy, Raghu Yarlagadda |
| Funding Amount | $477M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Debt Financing |
| Top Investors | Wellington Management, Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, B Capital |
Skydio develops highly autonomous drones powered by artificial intelligence for complex tasks. These flying robots are used across consumer, enterprise, and government sectors for everything from creative filming to critical inspections.
| Year Founded | 2014 |
| Founders | Abraham Bachrach, Adam Bry, Matt Donahoe |
| Funding Amount | $740M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series E |
| Top Investors | Andreessen Horowitz, NVIDIA, Accel, Playground Global, IVP |
SnapLogic builds an intelligent integration platform that helps enterprises connect their various applications and data sources. Their platform provides a low-code environment for automating business processes and managing data across both cloud and on-premise systems.
| Year Founded | 2006 |
| Founders | Mike Pittaro |
| Funding Amount | $371.3M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series H |
| Top Investors | Andreessen Horowitz, Sixth Street, Vitruvian Partners, Microsoft, Floodgate |
QuSecure builds software to protect enterprise and government clients from the security threats posed by quantum computing. Their core platform orchestrates post-quantum cryptography across an organization's existing network to make it quantum-resilient.
| Year Founded | 2019 |
| Founders | Austin Bosarge, Dave Krauthamer, Garrison Buss, Konstantin Vilk, Rebecca Krauthamer, Skip Sanzeri |
| Funding Amount | $42.2M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series A |
| Top Investors | Franklin Templeton, Techstars, Two Bear Capital, Accenture Ventures, EvoNexus |
Notable builds an AI platform that automates administrative and clinical workflows for healthcare providers. Their technology connects with electronic health records to identify the next best action for any patient, reducing the administrative burden on staff.
| Year Founded | 2017 |
| Founders | Adam Ting, Justin White, Pranay Kapadia |
| Funding Amount | $119.2M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series B |
| Top Investors | Oak HC/FT, 8VC, ICONIQ Growth, Maverick Ventures, Greylock |
Aurasell is building an AI-native platform that manages the entire go-to-market process for sales and operations teams. Their software automates workflows and generates insights to help companies drive revenue growth from lead to close.
| Year Founded | 2024 |
| Founders | Jason Eubanks, Srinivas Bandi |
| Funding Amount | $30M |
| Startup Size | Founding Team (1-10) |
| Last Funding Status | Seed |
| Top Investors | Menlo Ventures, Unusual Ventures, N47 |
Sendbird builds a communication platform that allows companies to add messaging, voice, and video features into their own apps and websites. The platform combines developer-friendly APIs with AI-powered tools to help businesses create modern customer service experiences.
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Brandon Y Jeon, Forest Lee, Harry Kim, John Kim |
| Funding Amount | $220.7M |
| Startup Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Venture Round |
| Top Investors | Techstars, Y Combinator, Emergence Capital, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global Management |
Luminary Cloud has developed a Physics AI platform that helps engineers accelerate the design and optimization of physical products. Their software uses AI to run complex simulations, allowing for faster design cycles and more thorough product exploration.
| Year Founded | 2019 |
| Founders | Jason Lango, Juan Alonso, Mike Speiser |
| Funding Amount | $187M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series B |
| Top Investors | NVentures, Sutter Hill Ventures, N47 |
Hammerspace develops a data platform that eliminates access delays for teams working in AI and high-performance computing. It unifies data across disparate storage systems and locations into a single global namespace, making files accessible to any application.
| Year Founded | 2018 |
| Founders | David Flynn, Douglas Fallstrom, Trond Myklebust |
| Funding Amount | $156.7M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series B |
| Top Investors | Alumni Ventures, ARK Investment Management, Altimeter Capital, Prosperity7 Ventures, Pier 88 Investment Partners |
Helix operates a platform for population genomics, helping to bridge the gap between genetic research and clinical applications. They provide health systems and life science companies with the tools to implement large-scale genomic screening and research programs.
| Year Founded | 2015 |
| Founders | James Lu, Justin Kao, Scott Burke |
| Funding Amount | $403M |
| Startup Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series C |
| Top Investors | Temasek Holdings, Kleiner Perkins, DFJ Growth, Warburg Pincus, National Institutes of Health |
28 Additional San Mateo Startups Worth Following
Our top ten picks only scratch the surface of what's happening in San Mateo. Many other founders are focused on fields like AI and analytics, and have raised over $3 billion combined.
Some companies are just getting started, while others are already well on their way. Here’s a look at the rest of the startups shaping the local ecosystem.
| Startup | Industry | Year Founded | Amount Raised | Last Funding Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brilliant | Hardware | 2015 | $73.7M | Venture Round |
 Citizen Health | AI | 2023 | $44.5M | Series A |
 BeyondTrucks | Fintech | 2019 | $4M | Series A |
 Kiteworks | Security | 1999 | $592M | Private Equity |
 Wisdom AI | Analytics | 2023 | $23M | Seed |
 Cloudian | Data | 2011 | $256.1M | Private Equity |
 Yellow.ai | AI | 2016 | $102.2M | Series C |
 Neo4j | Analytics | 2007 | $805.1M | Private Equity |
 Sleeper | Gaming | 2015 | $67.3M | Series C |
 Bold | Sports | 2020 | $27M | Series A |
 Windfall Bio | AgTech | 2022 | $37M | Series A |
 nue.io | Enterprise | 2019 | $35M | Series A |
 Vyond | Marketing | 2007 | $50M | Venture Round |
 PingPong | Retail | 2015 | $122M | Series D |
 Celigo | Cloud | 2011 | $80.3M | Series C |
 Observe | Analytics | 2017 | $463M | Series C |
 OpenEnvoy | AI | 2020 | $21.5M | Series A |
 BigHat Biosciences | AI | 2019 | $99.3M | Series B |
 Swing Education | Education | 2015 | $80.8M | Debt Financing |
 Tobiko Data | Infrastructure | 2022 | $21.8M | Series A |
 Evidation Health | Analytics | 2012 | $259M | Series E |
 Gr4vy | Fintech | 2020 | $27.2M | Venture Round |
 SuperAnnotate | AI | 2018 | $67M | Series B |
 Alluxio | Analytics | 2015 | $73M | Series C |
 Refold (formerly Cobalt) | AI | 2023 | $7.7M | Seed |
 TheLoops | Infrastructure | 2020 | $8.8M | Seed |
 Bluejay Therapeutics | Biotech | 2019 | $242.2M | Series C |
 Cala Health | Healthcare | 2014 | $198.3M | Venture Round |
