These 20 startups are on track to be among the best private cloud companies—and unsurprisingly, most of them are betting on AI.
By Kirk Ogunrinde, Contributor
Every year the Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Stars list highlights the top 20 cloud startups on track to be some of the best private cloud companies in the future. As with last year, our new cohort is peppered with companies using AI across an array of applications ranging from healthcare administration to cybersecurity intelligence.
London-based sales development platform 11x uses AI to create virtual sales workers that can do everything from finding business leads from your email inbox to setting up appointments with potential clients. Trained on data from experienced human sales agents, 11x’s digital salespeople work “24/7 around the clock” and get “increasingly smarter” the more they’re used, Founder and CEO Hasan Sukkar told Forbes.
In defense, TurbineOne is using AI to expedite and enhance military intelligence. Its adversary detection tool ingests data from field maps, satellite imagery and military analysts and makes it easy to understand and access in challenging military environments — even without a network connection. “Our product solves the problem that I could not solve years ago – how to get the right information to the right people, at the right time,” Ian Kalin, founder and CEO of TurbineOne and a former Naval officer told Forbes. He said the company is currently working on “critical programs that are at the core of U.S. national security” with the military.
In manufacturing, Ethon AI is using artificial intelligence to improve productivity. Using a company’s production logs, it creates a digital replica of its production line and analyzes it for inefficiencies. Then it brings in human experts to streamline them. “It allows the main experts in the factories to bring in their own knowledge about physical systems – that’s where AI and people can interact and bring magic results,” said CEO and Founder Julian Senoner.
Another rising star, Clarity, builds AI tools to detect deepfakes within companies’ internal databases as well as any real-time media like video or phone calls. With a team full of cybersecurity and AI experts, co-founder and CEO Michael Matias provides clients like CNN and the Israeli government with software that validates the authenticity of all those internal audio and video clips. With more advanced deepfake technology coming out everyday, Clarity is constantly evolving its tools so it can stay on top of these new methods while maintaining the highest accuracy, Matias told Forbes. “We integrate into the workflow of the organization – the Zoom conversations, the phone calls, the digital media that moves internally,” he said.
Multiple companies on the rising star list this year are finding ways to improve healthcare administration with AI. For example, Toronto-based Wisedocs wants to help organize the many backlogged documents in the healthcare industry by sorting and classifying medical records for insurance providers. “We’ve processed records from like the 1950s – it’s crazy,” said COO and cofounder Jenna Earnshaw. Meanwhile, Anterior AI aims to expedite the authorization of health insurance claims and credit card payments, while Tennr is automating the grueling manual work of exchanging patient records, which have historically been faxed between healthcare providers .
These companies have all raised up to $25 million in total funding and were assessed based on various criteria such as financials, growth, marketing, leadership and culture. The list is produced in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures.
Read the full list of Rising Stars below. For the rest of the Cloud 100 package, see here.
