Top Startups of 2021 💎
From Series A to C
Welcome back to Top Startups! Each week, I share who’s freshly funded by the best investors, and looking to hire.
This week is special: it’s the 2021 year-end review! These top 5 startups of the year have all raised from Tier 1 investors, and are growing quickly.
Loyal | Biotech | 💸 $27M Series A from Khosla | 30 employees 👤
What they do: Developing medicines that help dogs live healthier and longer with the long-term goal of helping humans do the same
What I like: Female founder with a strong science background, clarity of thought, starting with a highly beloved niche
Hiring: 20 roles incl. eng, product, design, data / research in SF, remote
Stytch | Enterprise SaaS | 💸 $90M Series B from Benchmark | 35 employees 👤
What they do: Building passwordless authentication to start, with an eye towards making the passport of the internet
What I like: Who doesn’t hate passwords? If we were redesigning the internet, the password would be left in the dust; demand agrees — Stytch has grown developer count 10X in 4 months, and they’re the newest unicorn in town
Hiring: 30 roles incl. product, eng, design, sales, bizops in Remote, SF, NYC
Modern Treasury | FinTech | 💸 $85M Series C from Benchmark | 60 employees 👤
What they do: Build gnarly payments infrastructure to help companies move money more reliably than manual ACH, wires and checks
What I like: Explosive growth from $10M in volume / month two years ago to $100M last year to $2B / month today; still early enough for big upside
Hiring: 20 roles incl. eng, product, design, growth, sales in SF, NYC, Remote
Royal | DeFi Music | 💸 $55M Series A from A16Z | 15 employees 👤
What they do: Allow consumers to buy ownership in songs and earn royalties alongside artists
What I like: If fans get upside and artists keep more of what they make… will we want to return to the past? Of course not! Here’s why I believe concert tickets need to be on the blockchain and Royal is so well-positioned to change the music industry
Hiring: 5 roles incl. eng, design, finance and community in Remote, Austin
Medallion | Health | 💸 $30M Series B from Sequoia | 60 employees 👤
What they do: Automates credentialing, licensing and compliance for healthcare companies, aka digitizing the healthcare back office
What I like: What’s synonymous with healthcare? Administrative headaches. Medallion is automating away the pain, building valuable and lucrative infrastructure as more healthcare companies come online
Hiring: 25 roles incl. eng, product, sales, ops, marketing in Remote
That’s my top 5 for the year! Check out all newly funded startups and jobs (it’s ordered by recency).
💰 Btw, do you know if your startup salary and equity is fair? Or what to even negotiate for? I’m building a database of real startup compensation filterable by role, experience, stage and location. Officially in private beta! 💰
Any questions or feedback, respond to this email. Happy holidays, and see you in the new year! ✌️
Subscribers get early access to salary & equity database; and option of private referrals to top startups:
Thanks,
-Linda