Best Tech Startups Of 2025

Founded in 2022 by former researchers from OpenAI, Google, and Meta (talk about a dream team), Perplexity isn't just another search engine. It's what they call an "answer engine" – it actually understands what you're asking and gives you real, cited answers.

The numbers speak for themselves: they're processing over 780 million queries monthly, with 30 million active users who seem absolutely hooked on this new way of finding information. Their annual recurring revenue is approaching $200 million. (insane for a company that's barely 3 years old). Also, they just topped LinkedIn's 2025 Top Startups list.

Perplexity has rocketed to a mind-blowing $20 billion valuation, making it the hottest ticket in Silicon Valley right now. What makes them special? Their Comet browser, which is Chrome but with AI abilities. In fact, the startup even made a $34.5 billion bid to buy the monopolistic Chrome when the possible option arose. Though it didn't pan out, the sheer audacity tells you everything about their ambitions.

Ramp has somehow made corporate expense management easier and valuable. We're talking about an impressive $22.5 billion valuation. That’s not bad for a company that started in 2019.

This New York-based fintech unicorn offers a corporate card and spend management platform that businesses actually want to use. They've raised a whopping $500 million in their Series E. The company is solving real problems that every business faces: tracking expenses, managing budgets, and providing a unified platform for it.

The platform combines physical cards with smart software that helps companies track, control, and optimize their spending. You can essentially have a CFO in your pocket, minus the hefty salary. Companies are loving it because Ramp doesn't just help them spend money – it helps them spend it smarter.

Cohere is quietly becoming the backbone of enterprise AI—and they just hit a $7 billion valuation to prove it. This Toronto-based startup raised $500 million in August 2025, followed by another $100 million in September.

Cohere is laser-focused on helping enterprises build their own AI solutions. They provide the models that companies use to build their own AI-powered products. Founded by ex-Google researchers, including Aidan Gomez (who co-authored "Attention Is All You Need"), Cohere has grown to $200 million in annual revenue.

They're serving heavyweights like Oracle, Dell, and Notion, who use their tech for everything from writing website copy to powering internal chatbots. The genius move? Being cloud-agnostic and privacy-first. While others tie you to their infrastructure, Cohere lets companies deploy AI wherever they want – on-premise, private cloud, you name it.

Harvey is making the Lawyers and AI relationship work beautifully. With a fresh $5 billion valuation (up from $3 billion just four months earlier), this legal AI platform is transforming how law firms operate.

Started by Winston Weinberg, a former lawyer, and Gabe Pereyra, an AI researcher from DeepMind and Meta, Harvey gets what lawyers actually need. The platform helps with everything from document review to contract drafting, and major players like Paul, Weiss, KKR, and PwC are already on board.

Harvey hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue, serving 337 legal clients across 53 countries. For a three-year-old company in the notoriously slow-moving legal industry, this is something unheard of. Plus, they've got 42% of AmLaw 100 firms using their platform.

What sets them apart is their hybrid approach. The company has actual lawyers on staff (about 18% of their workforce) who ensure the AI understands legal nuance. This is a smart move because nobody wants their AI assistant to miss a crucial legal detail.

While everyone was busy watching crypto implode, Airwallex was quietly building the rails for actual global commerce. Founded in 2015 by Jack Zhang and four co-founders, Airwallex started by solving a simple problem: cross-border payments suck. They're slow, expensive, and complicated.

Airwallex built its own global infrastructure from scratch, with direct integrations into local clearing systems in 150+ countries. Now 95% of their transactions arrive same-day, with 68% processed instantly.

This Melbourne-born (now Singapore-based) fintech just raised $300 million at a $8 billion valuation, and they're on track to hit $1 billion in annual revenue. Not bad for a company that have just come in the limelight.

They're serving 150,000 businesses, including brands like BILL, Brex, Rippling, and Qantas. Revenue grew 90% year-over-year to $720 million, and they're expanding aggressively into Latin America, the Middle East, and everywhere in between. They've got licenses in over 60 countries, basically building what traditional banks should have built decades ago.

Zhang's vision of AI agents handling autonomous payments could be the next evolution of fintech. While Ramp dominates the US market at a $22.5 billion valuation, Airwallex is playing a different game – they're building for companies that think globally from day one.

Shiprocket is a startup that's solving a massive problem most of us don't even think about. How do small businesses in India ship their products efficiently? Shiprocket has figured it out, and they're sitting on a $1.2 billion valuation with plans for a $330 million IPO.

Founded in 2012 by Saahil Goel and team, Shiprocket aggregates 17 courier partners, including FedEx, DHL, and local players, to give small businesses Amazon-like shipping capabilities. They're working with 250,000 merchants processing 200 million transactions annually. 

Their revenue jumped to $160 million in FY24, and they just raised another $26 million led by KDT Ventures. Though they're still burning cash, that's the price of dominating a market that's growing at 30% annually.

Plus, they're also planning to launch D2C marketplaces, cross-border shipping, and even buy-now-pay-later services. With India's e-commerce boom showing no signs of slowing and its IPO getting SEBI approval, Shiprocket is positioned to become the logistics backbone of India's digital economy.

Everybody knows about the humongous potential of AI in Healthcare, and Ambience Healthcare is leading the charge, and leading it well. After raising $243 million in their Series C, this startup is valued at $1.25+ billion and is revolutionizing how healthcare documentation works.

Doctors spend more time typing notes than actually talking to patients. Ambience fixes this with an AI operating system that handles documentation, coding, and clinical workflows. Basically, it's like giving doctors their time back so they can actually practice medicine.

The platform is already being used across the healthcare industry, and with the backing of Andreessen Horowitz, they're positioned to become the standard for AI in healthcare. Their growth from 2020 to now has been nothing short of explosive, going from a small team to over 100 employees who are all focused on making healthcare less of a paperwork nightmare.

Defense technology might not be the most exciting sector, but Anduril is changing that narrative fast. With a jaw-dropping $30 billion valuation after raising $2 billion in their Series G, this company is redefining what modern defense looks like.

Founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey (the Oculus VR guy), Anduril builds everything from autonomous surveillance systems to counter-drone technology. They're basically bringing Silicon Valley innovation to an industry that desperately needs it. And with 500-1000 employees working on cutting-edge military tech, their ambitions are clear and vast.

The company's success comes from understanding that modern warfare is increasingly digital and autonomous. Their products are being used for military agencies and border surveillance, and with recent global events highlighting the importance of defense innovation, their timing couldn't be better.

Sometimes the best businesses are the ones selling shovels during a gold rush. OpenRouter is doing exactly that for the AI boom. After raising $40 million in their Series A from Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz, this platform is becoming the critical infrastructure connecting AI applications with large language models and cloud hosting providers.

With a valuation of $500+ million, their USP is solving a real pain point! Developers want to use AI, but managing all the different models, APIs, and hosting solutions is a nightmare. OpenRouter makes it simple, acting as the middleman that makes everything just work.

Despite being a small team (under 10 employees), they're processing an insane amount of AI traffic and becoming indispensable to the ecosystem. It's the kind of mundane but essential business that investors love because everyone needs what they're building.

Gecko Robotics is the company sending robots into the places humans really shouldn't go. With a fresh $125 million Series D, raising their valuation to $1.2 billion, these folks are revolutionizing infrastructure inspection.

Founded way back in 2013 (making them the oldest on this list), Gecko builds robots that climb into confined, dangerous spaces to perform inspections. Its use cases span oil refineries, power plants, naval ships, etc.—all places where a mistake could be catastrophic.

Gecko isn't aiming to replace human inspectors; they’re focusing on gathering 1000x more data than traditional methods. Their robots can detect problems before they become disasters. This potentially saves lives and prevents environmental catastrophes. With 100-200 employees and backing from Founders Fund and Y Combinator, they're scaling up to meet massive demand.