Startup ecosystem
Top startups in San Francisco.
San Francisco and the wider Bay Area remain the densest startup ecosystem on earth — the home base for the current wave of foundation-model and AI companies alongside the fintech and SaaS giants of the last cycle.
Notable startups
A curated list of companies headquartered in San Francisco, spanning the sectors that define its ecosystem. Each links to the company; where we hold their pitch deck, it's linked too.
The AI research company behind ChatGPT and the GPT model family, and one of the defining companies of the generative-AI era.
Founded
2015
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$300B
AI safety company building the Claude family of models, focused on reliable, steerable, and interpretable AI systems.
Founded
2021
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$180B
The data and AI platform built around the lakehouse architecture, used by enterprises to unify analytics, data engineering, and machine learning.
Founded
2013
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$62B
Payments infrastructure for the internet — APIs that let businesses accept payments and run financial operations at global scale.
Founded
2010
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$70B
The global marketplace for short-term stays and experiences that turned spare rooms into a category-defining travel business.
Founded
2008
Stage
Public
Grocery delivery and pickup marketplace connecting shoppers with local stores across North America.
Founded
2012
Stage
Public
The data network that connects apps to users' bank accounts, powering much of the modern fintech stack.
Founded
2013
Stage
Series D+
Valuation
~$6B
Corporate cards and spend management built for startups and growth companies.
Founded
2017
Stage
Series D+
Valuation
~$12B
An all-in-one workspace that blends docs, wikis, and databases, with AI woven throughout.
Founded
2013
Stage
Series C
Valuation
~$10B
The browser-based collaborative design platform that became the default tool for product and interface design.
Founded
2012
Stage
Public
Data infrastructure for AI — labeling, evaluation, and model-training data for frontier labs and enterprises.
Founded
2016
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$14B
One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges and on-ramps, and a bellwether for the crypto sector.
Founded
2012
Stage
Public
A workforce platform unifying HR, IT, and finance — payroll, devices, apps, and spend in one system.
Founded
2016
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$16B
Maker of Cursor, the AI-native code editor that became one of the fastest-growing developer tools.
Founded
2022
Stage
Series C
Valuation
~$10B
The AI answer engine reframing search as cited, conversational Q&A.
Founded
2022
Stage
Late Stage
Valuation
~$18B
Conversational AI platform for building customer-facing agents, founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor.
Founded
2023
Stage
Series B
Valuation
~$10B
Valuations are approximate, drawn from the most recent reported figures as of Jul 2026.
Accelerators in San Francisco
San Francisco founders can apply to 118 accelerator programs in our directory — including 500 Global, Age 1, Alchemist Accelerator, alliance.sv, AngelHack, AngelPad.