The trend of converting novel ideas into reality by establishing a startup has become increasingly popular over the last decade. However, few startups manage to survive and become profitable ventures. In 2021, the highest-valued startups in the world are:
ByteDance
ByteDance Limited is the parent company of the popular video-sharing app TikTok that allows people to make short videos of 15 seconds to 1 minute for a variety of purposes. Founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012, this Chinese startup has a net worth of USD 40 Billion. The company, headquartered in Beijing, mainly aims at developing social networking and video sharing services. Apart from TikTok, its other products include Douyin, a Chinese version of TikTok, and TouTiao, a Chinese news platform. Despite bans from various countries, TikTok remains the most popular and profitable product of ByteDance, making it the highest-valued startup globally.
Stripe
Founded by Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison, Stripe ranks second in our list. With a net worth of USD 95 billion, this fintech company has attained global recognition. The company primarily deals with payment processing services and focuses on strengthening the economic infrastructure on the web. One of its developments, Stripe Atlas helps startups to launch their businesses in an easier and faster way. It has headquarters in both San Francisco and Dublin, making it an Irish-American company. Today, software applications released by Stripe are used worldwide by all sorts of organizations to manage business online and for accepting payments.
SpaceX
SpaceX is the brainchild of one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk. It is an American company involved in space transportation. It also indulges in aerospace manufacturing and has launched numerous space ships. Valued at USD 74 billion, the company aims at reducing the costs of space transportation with the ultimate objective of establishing colonies on Mars. SpaceX has already become a pioneer in various sectors. For instance, it is the first company whose privately funded rocket (Falcon 1) reached orbit. It also became the first private company to send its spaceship (Dragon) and astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX continues to innovate, update, and invent new products to achieve its unique mission.
DiDi Chuxing
DiDi Chuxing is a privately held transportation company founded by Cheng Wei in 2012. Earlier known as Didi Dache and Didi Kuaidi, this Chinese startup provides vehicle-for-hire services. In 2021, it boasted a net worth of USD 62 Billion with over 500 million users. Today, it is the world’s leading transportation platform providing services across the globe. In its huge portfolio, it supplies a wide range of app-based services like taxi-hailing, ride-sharing, delivery, private car-hailing, financial services, and so on. The company is reputed for providing its drivers, car owners, and partners flexible work schedules. In 2016, DiDi also acquired its major competitor Uber China. Recently, TIME Magazine enlisted DiDi among the top 100 most influential companies in the world.
Instacart
Instacart is an American startup established by Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brando Leonardo. The company that essentially provides grocery pick-up and delivery services in the US and Canada is valued at USD 39 Billion. Instacart follows a service model that allows customers to purchase groceries via a website or app through a personal shopper. The personal shopper is responsible for picking the order, packing it, and delivering it to the customer within the time frame. Customers have several digital payment options to complete the transaction. It is also a known fact that one of the co-founders, Apoorva Mehta, launched as many as 20 startups before he hit the jackpot with Instacart.
UiPath
UiPath is the world’s leading company in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). It was founded by Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă as DeskOver in 2005 in Romania. In the beginning, the startup outsourced automated libraries and software to big companies. The founders soon changed DeskOver’s name to UiPath and established headquarters in New York City. UiPath software applications help businesses to automate their everyday tasks by observing user activity. At present, the startup has offices in almost all the major cities in the world including London, Bangalore, Singapore, Tokyo, Paris, and Washington D.C.
UiPath has a net worth of USD 25 Billion.
Klarna
Klarna is a fintech company that aims at making online payments transparent and simple to the greatest extent possible. Initially, the founders of the start-up, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth, and Victor Jacobsson had difficulty attracting investors. This, however, did not demotivate them, and they went ahead with the idea. Eventually, they received ample investment and started operating in Sweden. Currently, they are valued at USD 31 billion with 90 million active users and offices in 17 countries.
Epic Games
Tim Sweeney founded Epic Games in 1991. The American company has a net worth of USD 28.7 Billion. The company’s headquarters are in North Carolina but it operates worldwide. With over 40 offices distributed globally, Epic Games is one of the top interactive entertainment companies at present. Its most recent and successful product is Fortnite, having more than 350 million players. Another development of the startup is Unreal Engine that helps in providing developers and creators an end-to-end digital ecosystem. Guinness World Record even titled Unreal Engine as the most successful video game engine in 2014.
Databricks
Databricks is an American data management company with headquarters in San Francisco. Founded by the developers of Apache Spark in 2013, this company is valued at USD 28 Billion. Some creations of Databricks are Delta Lake, Koalas, and MLflow that work in the fields of data engineering, machine learning, and data science. Today the startup has offices in America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Some famous customers of Databricks are Shell, HSBC, and Comcast.
Rivian
Rivian is an American startup founded by an MIT doctorate Robert “RJ” Scaringe in 2009. Initially called Avera Automobile, Rivian Automotives deal with the manufacture of electric vehicles and automotive technology. The company has manufacturing units spread all across the US and UK and has a net worth of USD 27.6 Billion.