20 Most Successful Startups of All Times

Airbnb Toronto Office. Photo by Open Grid Scheduler / Scalable Grid Engine. Wikimedia Commons

20 Most Successful Startups of All Times

Reading inspiring stories about the most successful startups of all times is one of the best ways to motivate entrepreneurs to launch their startups. 

The road to a successful startup is full of ups and downs as most entrepreneurs can testify.

Most of the most successful startups are in the technology sector such as ByteDance of China, SpaceX of USA and AirBnB.

The 20 most successful startups of all times include the following.

1. ByteDance

In just ten years, the startup ByteDance has surpassed its competitors to become one of the most valued startups of all time.

The company releases content which includes education and entertainment which encourages people across languages, cultures and religions, etc being a tech company.

The startup operates a variety of content which includes TikTok and Tech for Good among others.

The company which operates in the artificial intelligence space has a valuation estimated at $140 Billion 

Founded by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo in 2012, the company is based in China and operates a platform available in over 150 countries with approximately 1.9 billion monthly active users.

In 2021 the company reported revenues of US$58 billion and had a about 130,000 employees in its payroll.

2. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

Elom Musk. Photo by Debbie Rowe. Wikimedia Commons

SpaceX is an American space transport service company and an American aeroscope manufacturer founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

SpaceX is the first among its competitors judging by employee numbers as it employs 12,000 employees.

Operating in the space flight industry, the company’s products include Rocket Engines, Dragon Capsules and Orbital Rocket among others.

In 2018 the company reported revenues of US$2 billion dollars. With a valuation of $100 billion in 2012, SpaceX is one of the most valued startups of all time.

3. Shein

Nanjing, China. Photo by alexrudd. Wikimedia Commons

Founded in 2008 by Chris Xu, Shein is a Chinese online fast fashion retailer known for its affordably priced apparel and headquartered in Nanjing in China.

The startup has become the most powerful startup on the internet due to its eCommerce platform which has taken the world by storm.

Shein has become the shopaholics’ favourite dealing with some leading brands like Zara and H&M.

 As of 2022, Shein was the world’s largest fashion retailer shipping across 220 countries. Shein is one of the leading startups with a valuation of over $100 billion dollars.

4. Stripe

Patrick Collison. Photo by randy stewart. Wikimedia Commons

Stripe is a fintech company, launched in 2010 in San Francisco, California in the United States of America.  The company was founded by Patrick and John Collison some 12 years ago.

The startup which offers payment processing software and application programming interfaces (APIs) for e-commerce websites and mobile applications is dually-headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and South San Francisco, California.

The company which was valued at $95 billion in a Series H funding round in 2022, reported US$12 billion in 2021 and employed 8,000 employees in 2022 making it one of the most successful startups ever.

5. Klarna Bank AB

Klarna Entrance. Photo by Klarna AB. Wikimedia Commons

Founded in 2005, Klarna Bank AB is a Stockholm based fintech founded by Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson.

Klarna Bank AB provides online payment services to enable digital payments and is currently the second most valued fintech startup in the world.

As of June 2021, the startup raised $639 million in funding led by Softbank Vision Fund II with other investors, bringing its valuation to $45 billion.

6. Airbnb

Brian Chesky. Photo by U.S. Department of State from United States. Wikimedia Commons

Founded in founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia,

Airbnb operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences and is based in San Francisco, California.

The company charges a commission from each booking and hence acts as a broker.  The startup took years to make a profit and even attract funding.  The company reported revenues of US$5.99 billion as of 2021 with about 6,132 employees in its payroll.

The company is a public company traded on the Nasdaq and one of the constituent companies of the Nasdaq-100 component.

With   a valuation of about $3.4 billion, AirBnB is one of the most successful startups of all time.

7. Instagram

Kevin Systrom. Photo by Christopher Michel from San Francisco, USA. Wikimedia Commons

Owned by American company Meta Platforms, Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service.

Users can upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging using the app.

Users can share their posts with preapproved followers or publicly in the app.

Using tag and location to view trending content, like photos, users can browse other users’ content among many other capabilities. 

Instagram rapidly gained popularity, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion by June 2018 after it was originally launched for iOS in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

Facebook Inc. acquired the service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock in April 2012 making Instagram one of the most successful startups of all time.

8. Mailchimp

Ben Chestnut, Co-founder & CEO, Mailchimp. Photo by Collision Conf. Wikimedia Commons

Mailchimp is the trade name of its operator, Rocket Science Group, an American company founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut, Mark Armstrong and Dan Kurzius.

The company operates a marketing automation platform and email marketing service by the name “Mailchimp”.

More than 600 million emails are sent through the platform every two days according to statistics. Mailchimp was ranked No. 7 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list in 2016. 

The company was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies for the year 2017 in February of that year.

Mailchimp was valued at $4.2 billion making the startup one of the most successful startups of all time.

9. Uber Technologies Inc

Travis Kalanick. Photo by Heisenberg Media. Wikimedia Commons

Founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick, Uber is a popular ride-sharing app available on mobile phones.

Uber allows users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi. Uber also offers food delivery namely Uber Eats and Postmates, package delivery, couriers, and freight transportation among others.

Uber is a public company listed on the NYSE and is a constituent company of Russell 1000.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company serves approximately 72 countries in about 10,500 cities.

In 2021 the company reported revenues of   US$17.46 billion dollars and employed 29, 300 people.

10. Pinterest

Ben Silbermann. Photo by Anya. Wikimedia Commons

Operated by Pinterest, Inc., based in San Francisco, Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet.

Pinterest was founded in 2009 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. Pinterest is a public company listed on the NYSE and is one of the constituent companies of the Russell 1000.

Time magazine listed Pinterest in its “50 Best Websites of 2011” article in 2011.

According to Hitwise data, the social network service recorded 11 million total visits per week becoming one of the top 10 largest social network services as at December 2011.

Due to their focus on building the experience for existing users and developing a completely unique social media experience, Pinterest grew to be an $11 billion company.

11. ShoeDazzle

Kimberly Kardashian. Photo by Love Lira Fashion. Wikimedia Commons

Founded by Kimberly Kardashian, Brian Lee, Robert Shapiro, and M.L. Lee,  ShoeDazzle is an American online fashion subscription service.

The company was at one time considered a failed startup by many, despite its star-studded list of founders.

ShoeDazzle secured its first round of $7 million funding from Polaris Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments in November of 2009.

ShoeDazzle signed up a record one million new members in July 2012 and reached 10 million members marking a meteoric rise in members.

The startup merged with JustFab, Inc. in 2013 to maximize its latent value.

12. Pandora

Developed out of founder Tim Westergren’s Music Genome Project and a strong passion for music, Pandora is a radio streaming service.

The Music Genome Project and Pandora radio came into existence following two realizations from Westergren’s experience as a traveling musician and feature film composer.

Westergren realized that there was a need for the technology to establish musical profiles based on personal preferences and that there was a plethora of undiscovered musical acts.

Sirius XM holdings acquired Pandora for $3.5 billion after its launch making it one of the most successful startups of al time.

13. WhatsApp

Owned by American company Meta Platforms, WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum.

WhatsApp is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service app.

WhatsApp was the primary means of Internet communication in most regions throughout the world by 2016.  By February 2020, WhatsApp had 2 billion users worldwide.

Acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion, WhatsApp’s client application was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California.

14. Netflix

Reed Hastings. Photo by JD Lasica. Wikimedia Commons

Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph and based in Los Gatos, California, Netflix is an American subscription streaming service and production company.

Netflix is a shining example of how pivoting a business model can drastically change the trajectory of a company with its recent valuation of over $30 billion dollars.

Netflix changed to creating award-winning content and maintaining a steady trajectory amidst a plethora of competitors from initial business model of providing DVD by mail service.

 Netflix had 222 million subscribers worldwide, including 73.3 million in the United States and Canada alone as of September, 2022.

15. Lyft

Lyft, Inc., is an American company based in San Francisco, California founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer in 2012.

Lyft offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters etc and food delivery in the United States and in several Canada’s selected cities.

From an initial idea of on-demand carpooling, the founders realized the market for ridesharing was enormous which then informed the formation of Lyft.

The company managed to grow its market share by providing a more personal touch with their drivers and by offering things like free rides for new users.

The company reported revenues of US$3.21 billion in 2021 and employed about 4,453 employees.

16. The Honest Company

Jessica Alba. Photo by TechCrunch. Wikimedia Commons

Founded by actress Jessica Alba in 2011, The Honest Company, Inc. is an American eco-friendly digital-first consumer goods company.

The actress founded the company after struggling to find safe and natural baby products after she had her first child.

She founded the company to fill the void in the market for these types of products. Many entrepreneurs have been inspired to enter the eco-friendly market by The Honest Company which is now a billion-dollar business.

17. Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Silverisdead. Wikimedia Commons

 While a student at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004. Owned by American company Meta Platforms, Facebook is an online social media and social networking service.

Facebook has changed the way users communicate and connect with each other and has become one of the most popular websites in the world.

Facebook claimed 2.93 billion monthly active users and was ranked the third worldwide among the most visited website in July 2022.

18. DoorDash

Based in San Francisco, California, DoorDash, Inc was founded in 2013 by Tony Xu, Andy Fang, Stanley Tang and Evan Moore.

Operating an online food ordering and food delivery platform, the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The founders realized that small businesses did not have the infrastructure to complete the deliveries they were receiving on a daily basis and they strove to fill that gap.

Doordash began with the founders delivering orders themselves to students on their campus initially using the former company name of Palo Alto Delivery.

Today Doordash offers delivery services in all 50 states and boasts of a current market capitalization is $42.7 billion.

19. Njoy

Founded in 2007, Njoy is an independent American company that manufactures and distributes electronic cigarettes and vaping products  and is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, United States.

Njoy which controlled 30% of the electronic cigarette as at 2014  was able to attract $70 million in funding during the period.

Billionaire Peter Thiel, ex-Facebook president Shawn Parker, Morgan Stanley, and Brookside Capital are some of the investors of Njoy.

The company’s development is promoted by the global tightening of anti-tobacco laws since 2006.

With a market for electronic cigarettes in the USA being estimated at about $2 billion, Njoy is one of the most successful startups of all time.

20. Aleph Farms

Leonardo DiCaprio. Photo by Georges Biard. Wikimedia Commons

Headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, Aleph Farms is a cultivated meat company co-founded in 2017 with the Israeli food-tech incubator “The Kitchen” of Strauss Group Ltd., and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg.

Aleph Farms released its prototype, a steak grown directly from cow cells in December 2018.

Aleph Farms unveiled the world’s first cell-based ribeye steak, produced through 3D bioprinting in February, 2021.

The startup attracted US$12M funding round led by Vis Vires New Protein in 2019 and $105 million in a Series B investment round led by L Catterton’s Growth Fund and DisruptAD.

Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio announced that he had funded Aleph Farms for undisclosed amounts of money in 2021.

The amount of funding that the company has attracted since it was founded makes it one of the most successful startups of all time.  

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