Nominations Now Open For Forbes List Of Companies Most Likely To Become Unicorns

With this year’s Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, we’re looking for fast-growing companies with staying power.

Startup valuations have been slashed, companies have been laying off employees and cutting costs and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has raised questions about the future. But for the very best startups, a time of uncertainty and pullback can be the right moment to set up shop, develop new technologies, gain customers and take market share.

For this year’s Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, we’re looking for companies with strong business models and operations, as well as strong growth. Now in its ninth year, this Forbes list, produced in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, showcases 25 innovative startups that we believe have the best shot of becoming unicorns and profiles the entrepreneurs behind their success.

Past lists have included DoorDash (2015), Opendoor (2016), Plaid (2017), Lemonade (2018), Duolingo (2019), Rippling (2020), Incredible Health (2021) and R-Zero (2022). You can see last year’s list here and the 2021 list here.

Nominations are now open, and we’ll be accepting submissions through April 14, 2023. The list is slated to launch online in August and to appear in the August/September issue of the magazine.

Companies must be based in the U.S. to qualify; we do not have an international version of this list. They also must be privately held and venture-backed with valuations below $1 billion. Finally, no repeats. If you’ve been on this list before, you can’t be on it again.

Venture funding has been marked for years by a troubling lack of diversity. Given that backdrop, we hope this list will be as diverse as possible. If you’re a female founder, a Black or brown founder, an immigrant, a veteran or someone who lives and works far from Silicon Valley, we especially hope you’ll apply.

TrueBridge will run a quantitative analysis of all companies based on financial information in the nominations. Forbes reporters will be in touch with startups that make the first cut to interview founders and talk further.

We look forward to hearing from you.