San Francisco CA. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) fintech. Founded by Max Levchin (PayPal CTO) + others. NASDAQ: AFRM. $2.6B+ revenue FY2025. One of largest BNPL platforms globally.

Online marketplace for short-term rentals and experiences. San Francisco CA. Y Combinator W09 + Sequoia + a16z. IPO Dec 2020 at $47B. Co-founders: Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk.

Berkeley CA. Leading academic AI research lab. Faculty include Pieter Abbeel (robotics, Covariant AI co-founder), Stuart Russell (AI safety), Ion Stoica (Anyscale, Apache Spark co-creator), Ken Goldberg. Strong Bay Area AI startup spinout culture. OctoAI, Covariant, Anyscale emerged from BAIR ecosystem.

Ultra-compact, high-torque electric drive / actuator-motor systems with category-leading torque density (43% over Bosch/Shimano e-bike drives), designed and assembled in the USA. Flagship Elevate is a removable bolt-on e-bike powertrain; also a search-and-rescue (SAR) kit and a mid-drive in development. Born in mobility, expanding into robotics and automation — modular motors and motion control. E

Spend management and corporate cards for startups. San Francisco CA. Y Combinator + Ribbit + DST. Raised $200M 2024. Shifted focus from SMB to enterprise.

Online graphic design platform. HQ: Sydney AU, major US presence San Francisco. General Catalyst + Sequoia. 220M+ users. Raised $250M 2024 at $26B valuation. CEO: Melanie Perkins.

Los Angeles CA. Secure document sharing and virtual data room for M&A/dealmaking. Co-founded by Eric M. Jackson (PayPal, author of The PayPal Wars).

Tech-enabled urgent and primary care. San Francisco CA. General Catalyst + DCVC. 100+ clinic locations.

Equity management platform for startups and investors. San Francisco CA. a16z + Spark Capital. $7.4B valuation. Used by 40,000+ companies to manage cap tables.

Internet infrastructure and security company. San Francisco CA. NEA + Fidelity. IPO Sept 2019. $40B+ market cap. CDN, DDoS protection, zero-trust security. NYSE: NET.

Commure is an AI-native healthcare technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California, that builds financial infrastructure and ambient AI platforms for health systems. Serving over 150 health systems, the company raised $70 million at a $7 billion valuation to transform healthcare operations using AI.

Palo Alto CA. Founded 1998 by Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, Yu Pan. Original money-transfer/Palm Pilot payment service. Merged with X.com (Elon Musk) 1999 → became PayPal.

Orbital AI data centers. San Francisco CA. Raised $275M from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Construct Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, SAIC, Interlagos, Baiju Bhatt. Signal source: Google Alert — nea venture investment, May 12 2026.

Designer Fund is a venture capital firm founded by designers that invests between $100K and $1M in early-stage tech companies that use design to improve health, sustainability, or prosperity. Its portfolio includes companies such as Stripe, Gusto, and Omada Health.

Santa Clara CA. ARM-based 5G base station chip with integrated AI. Threshold Ventures portfolio (Mo Islam board). Targeting Open RAN infrastructure — combines connectivity and compute on a single chip. Raised $75M+ Series B. Relevant to defense/DoD 5G private network buildout.

San Carlos CA. Cell-free DNA synthesis — produces long, complex DNA rapidly without cloning. IQT Summer 2025 investment. ENFINIA platform. Enables synthetic biology workflows at speed. National security applications: biodefense, biodetection, rapid vaccine/countermeasure development.

AI voice generation platform. San Francisco CA. Andreessen Horowitz + Sequoia. Raised $180M Series C 2025. Best-in-class voice cloning and synthesis.

San Francisco CA. Social enterprise developing low-cost infant warmers for premature/low-birth-weight babies in developing countries. Co-founded by Jane Chen (TED2012 Senior Fellow), Naganand Murty, Linus Liang, Rahul Panicker. 1M+ babies impacted in 25 countries. Series A: Vinod Khosla Impact Fund 2012. Marc Benioff angel investor 2014. Jane Chen subsequently moved to King River Capital (VC inves

Pressure exchangers for desalination and industrial water reuse. If water scarcity becomes binding constraint on data center site selection, desalination exposure becomes highly material.

Farther is a New York-based intelligent wealth management firm that combines proprietary technology with expert financial advisor guidance. It operates a wealth platform natively built to empower both advisors and clients with cutting-edge tools, and has been named the #1 fastest growing firm in the industry.