We analyzed the branded search growth of 2,700 software companies to discover the hottest trending startups in tech.
Here’s how we built this list (and how you can do the same using Ahrefs):
- Used Keywords Explorer to find keyword data for every company’s brand name (e.g. “stealthgpt” for StealthGPT)
- Used the Trending filter to identify high-growth keywords (this sorts keywords by their 12-month growth trend¹ and sets a minimum monthly search volume²)
- Filtered to keywords with Branded search intent³
- Excluded a few companies where growth was caused by recent rebrands (e.g. “Xodo Sign” rebranded from “Eversign”, “Mailgun” was acquired and became “Sinch Mailgun”)
| Rank | Company | Brand Search Growth (12mo) | Global Branded Search Volume | Total Funding | Estimated Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | StealthGPT | +139% | 9,100 | $0.0M | $0.5M |
| 2 | Oneleet | +76% | 600 | $0.0M | $5.5M |
| 3 | Spinach AI | +75% | 450 | $10.0M | $5.5M |
| 4 | Perplexity AI | +71% | 3,580,000 | $377.3M | $17.5M |
| 5 | Factored Quality | +64% | 700 | $6.5M | $5500.0M |
| 6 | Gymdesk | +63% | 5,200 | $29.5M | $5.5M |
| 7 | Infisical | +58% | 3,400 | $3.0M | $0.5M |
| 8 | Cartpanda | +58% | 19,000 | $0.1M | $5.5M |
| 9 | FlutterFlow | +54% | 142,000 | $23.2M | $17.5M |
| 10 | HockeyStack | +54% | 2,800 | $2.9M | $5.5M |
| 11 | beehiiv | +52% | 35,000 | $49.7M | $49.7M |
| 12 | Blaze AI | +47% | 16,000 | $0.0M | $5.5M |
| 13 | Heptabase | +47% | 20,000 | $0.0M | $37.5M |
| 14 | Findymail | +46% | 3,400 | $0.0M | $0.5M |
| 15 | Arize AI | +44% | 4,100 | $61.0M | $55.5M |
| 16 | DocuClipper | +43% | 3,200 | $0.0M | $0.5M |
| 17 | Cloud Software Group | +42% | 6,600 | $1.3M | $0.0M |
| 18 | Storydoc | +42% | 2,900 | $0.0M | $5.5M |
| 19 | PropelAuth | +42% | 600 | $2.8M | $0.5M |
| 20 | Heyflow | +42% | 4,800 | $22.0M | $75.0M |
| 21 | Serif Health | +42% | 200 | $2.5M | $0.5M |
| 22 | Terra API | +42% | 1,300 | $2.8M | $5.5M |
| 23 | Coperniq | +41% | 350 | $4.6M | $5.5M |
| 24 | Topline Pro | +40% | 500 | $17.1M | $175.0M |
| 25 | Tuva Health | +40% | 200 | $0.5M | $5.5M |
| 26 | Onebrief | +40% | 450 | $49.5M | $17.5M |
| 27 | Bettermode | +39% | 3,300 | $7.5M | $5.5M |
| 28 | Rocketlane | +38% | 5,600 | $45.0M | $4.4M |
| 29 | La Growth Machine | +36% | 5,500 | $0.0M | $5.5M |
| 30 | SigNoz | +40% | 450 | $5.4M | $5.5M |
| 31 | incident.io | +39% | 3,300 | $38.9M | $17.5M |
| 32 | EasyDMARC | +38% | 5,600 | $22.3M | $5.5M |
| 33 | Cradlewise | +36% | 5,500 | $7.0M | $17.5M |
| 34 | DraftWise | +36% | 7,600 | $28.0M | $1.0M |
| 35 | Excalidraw | +36% | 800 | $0.0M | $5.5M |
| 36 | Zenduty | +35% | 6,100 | $1.9M | $17.5M |
| 37 | VEED.IO | +35% | 11,000 | $35.0M | $175.0M |
| 38 | Stock Unlock | +35% | 1,200 | $0.5M | $0.5M |
| 39 | Govly | +35% | 219,000 | $16.9M | $5.5M |
| 40 | Dripos | +34% | 1,700 | $17.4M | $17.5M |
| 41 | Reclaim.ai | +34% | 28,000 | $11.0M | $1.0M |
| 42 | OneSchema | +33% | 2,200 | $6.3M | $5.5M |
| 43 | ElevenLabs | +33% | 300 | $101.0M | $75.0M |
| 44 | Kraftful | +33% | 2,000 | $5.3M | $0.5M |
| 45 | Better Stack | +32% | 1,900 | $28.6M | $0.5M |
| 46 | Codeium | +32% | 1,300 | $246.0M | $17.5M |
| 47 | OpenReplay | +32% | 1,300,000 | $5.4M | $5.5M |
| 48 | SureTriggers | +31% | 700 | $0.0M | $1.0M |
| 49 | The Browser Company | +31% | 4,200 | $335.8M | $17.5M |
| 50 | Riverside.fm | +31% | 65,000 | $47.0M | $75.0M |
Here are the 10 startups with the greatest growth in branded search volume in the past year. Screenshots show historical and predicted brand search growth in the US.
Year founded: 2023
Location: Miami, Florida
Estimated revenue: $0.5M
Total funding: $0
Global search volume: 9,100 searches per month
StealthGPT is an AI tool that generates human-like text designed to evade AI detection systems. It offers tools for creating (purportedly) undetectable content, including academic papers and blogs, and features an AI Humanizer to refine AI-generated text.
Year founded: 2022
Location: Atlanta
Estimated revenue: $5.5M
Total funding: $0
Global search volume: 600 searches per month
Oneleet is a cybersecurity platform that streamlines compliance processes for frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. It offers penetration testing, security program development, and third-party audits, aiming to simplify business security compliance.
Year founded: 2021
Location: Remote
Estimated revenue: $5.5M
Total funding: $10M
Global search volume: 450 searches per month
Spinach AI is an AI-powered meeting assistant. It automates note-taking, action item tracking, and ticket creation, and integrates with tools like Slack and Jira. Spinach supports over 100 languages and provides meeting summaries and insights to streamline team workflows.
Year founded: 2022
Location: San Francisco
Estimated revenue: $17.5M
Total funding: $377.3M
Global search volume: 3,580,000 searches per month
Perplexity.ai is an AI-driven search engine that delivers concise, cited answers to user queries. It combines large language models with real-time web data to provide accurate and up-to-date information.
Year founded:
Location: New York City, NY
Estimated revenue: $5,500M
Total funding: $6.5M
Global search volume: 700 searches per month
Factored Quality is a platform that centralizes quality control and compliance operations for businesses. It connects brands with a global network of inspectors, auditors, and labs, facilitating services such as inspections, audits, and compliance testing. The platform offers digital management tools, analytics, and integrations to streamline quality assurance processes across supply chains.
Year founded: 2016
Location: Shibuya
Estimated revenue: $5.5M
Total funding: $29.5M
Global search volume: 5,200 searches per month
Gymdesk is gym management software for fitness centers, martial arts schools, and yoga studios. It offers digital membership management, billing, attendance tracking, online booking, and a website builder. The platform aims to simplify administrative tasks, allowing gym owners to focus on growing their business.
Year founded: 2022
Location: San Francisco
Estimated revenue: $0.5M
Total funding: $3.0M
Global search volume: 3,400 searches per month
Infisical is an open-source secret management platform that enables teams to securely manage application configurations and secrets across various infrastructures. It provides tools like a CLI for synchronizing secrets, a web dashboard for management, secret leak prevention mechanisms, and secret versioning.
Year founded: 2019
Location: Delaware
Estimated revenue: $5.5M
Total funding: $0.1M
Global search volume: 19,000 searches per month
Cartpanda is an e-commerce platform that allows users to sell physical and digital products globally through customizable online stores and checkouts. It offers back office for managing orders and payments, support for multiple currencies and languages, and tools to enhance sales like order bumps and upsell funnels.
Year founded: 2020
Location: Mountain View, CA
Estimated revenue: $17.5M
Total funding: $23.2M
Global search volume: 142,000 searches per month
FlutterFlow is a visual development platform that enables users to build mobile, web, and desktop applications quickly. It provides a drag-and-drop interface with over 200 pre-designed UI elements, supports integrations with Firebase and RESTful APIs, and allows for the export of clean Flutter code.
Year founded: 2021
Location: San Francisco, California
Estimated revenue: $5.5M
Total funding: $2.9M
Global search volume: 2,800 searches per month
HockeyStack is a B2B analytics platform that enables marketing and sales teams to drive pipeline efficiently and close deals faster through attribution, buyer journey analysis, and account insights.
Final thoughts
All of the growth data for this article comes from Ahrefs. Want to find trending companies for yourself? Check out Keywords Explorer.
