Andreessen Horowitz
Menlo Park, CA
An index of the top private innovators shaping the future of tech and pushing the boundaries of human achievement.
Innovator Spotlight: Ripple

Ripple is a blockchain technology firm specializing in cross-border payments and financial infrastructure, leveraging the XRP Ledger to enable instant, low-cost transactions. Its suite includes Ripple Payments for bypassing traditional correspondent banking, Ripple Custody for secure digital asset storage, and the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin for compliant value transfer. Founded to address inefficiencies in global finance, Ripple focuses on integrating crypto with regulated systems to drive efficiency and accessibility.
Ripple disrupts legacy systems like SWIFT by offering blockchain alternatives that promise real-time settlements and asset tokenization, envisioning a future where money flows seamlessly across borders, currencies, and sectors amid rising CBDC adoption. Recent developments, including a $500 million funding round valuing the company at $40 billion and an expanded Singapore license for broader XRP and RLUSD services, underscore its push into traditional finance while prioritizing regulatory compliance. Competitors such as Stellar and Solana challenge in speed and smart contracts, but Ripple’s enterprise focus positions it strongly as the industry evolves toward hybrid blockchain-fiat models, with stablecoins like RLUSD gaining traction on Ethereum for broader interoperability.
Deal Metrics
Median
Recent Deal Size
$0.8 B
Median
Raised to Date
$1.6 B
Median
Time Between Financing Rounds
0.9 years
Average
Recent Deal Size
$1.9 B
Average
Raised to Date
$4.9 B
Average
Time Between Financing Rounds
1.2 years
Top Disrupt 50 Investors
Menlo Park, CA
New York, NY
Palm Beach, FL
Menlo Park, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Santa Clara, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Singapore, Singapore
The Disrupt 50
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OpenAI develops powerful artificial intelligence models that fundamentally change how people and computers interact and create.
On November 28, 2025, OpenAI issued a global security warning to ChatGPT users following a data breach at a third-party analytics provider. Additionally, in late November 2025, OpenAI launched "Shopping Research" for ChatGPT and updated its Usage Policies regarding professional advice.
An undisclosed investor sold a $6.6 billion stake to Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, and JP Morgan Asset Management.
SpaceX is drastically lowering the cost of space travel and access by pioneering reusable rockets and vertically integrated manufacturing.
SpaceX successfully launched the Transporter-15 rideshare mission on November 28, 2025, deploying 140 small satellites. The company was also cleared for a launch pad redesign at Cape Canaveral to accommodate 76 additional launches per year.
Wejchert Capital sold a stake in the company for $10 million to Korea Investment Partners.
Anthropic is an AI research company developing highly capable and safe artificial intelligence systems.
Anthropic and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership to scale the Claude AI model on Azure. The company also acquired developer tool startup Bun and released a report on a cyber espionage campaign leveraging its AI technology.
The company raised $13 billion of Series F venture funding in a deal led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, ICONIQ Capital, and Fidelity Management & Research Company.
Databricks offers a unified data platform built on the open-source Apache Spark framework that allows organizations to combine their data engineering, data science, and machine learning workflows.
Databricks released new product features in November 2025, including real-time collaboration in notebooks and the ability to configure compute sizes for Databricks apps. The company also announced an integration that allows Azure AI Foundry agents to connect and use insights from Azure Databricks Genie spaces.
Databricks is currently engaged in discussions to secure venture funding.
xAI is developing advanced artificial intelligence models aimed at seeking maximum truth and fundamentally understanding the universe, positioning itself as a counterweight to other major AI organizations.
xAI launched Grok 4.1 Fast with a 2M context window and the Agent Tools API for real-time capabilities around November 19, 2025. Additionally, new court filings related to a lawsuit involving xAI, Apple, and OpenAI emerged on November 28, 2025.
The company raised $10 billion in a debt and equity funding combination from Dragon Global, Innova Capital Partners, and Koru Capital.
Stripe offers an easy and intuitive platform for businesses to manage and process online payments, disrupting traditional banking methods for e-commerce.
Stripe faces pushback regarding its application for a bank charter from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Additionally, updated Stripe User Terms were announced to take effect immediately for new users on November 18, 2025.
The company agreed to a secondary transaction to provide liquidity to current and former employees, and the company will also repurchase shares.
Waymo is building fully autonomous driving technology to fundamentally change personal transportation and logistics.
Waymo expanded its fully autonomous driving services to five new cities, including operations starting in Miami on November 18, 2025. The company also expanded freeway access to passengers in Phoenix in November 2025.
Waymo raised $5.6 billion of Series C venture funding, with Alphabet, Silver Lake, and Perry Creek Capital being among the participants.
Ripple offers a protocol using blockchain technology to modernize and streamline inefficient and costly cross-border payment systems between banks.
Ripple launched its RLUSD stablecoin on major exchanges including Bitstamp and Uphold on November 4, 2025, following regulatory approval. The company also announced a partnership with a consortium of Japanese banks to utilize the XRP Ledger for real-time cross-border settlement.
The company secured $500 million in venture capital from Citadel Securities, Fortress Investment Group, and Galaxy Digital, along with C1 Fund.
Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots designed to assist with everyday tasks in unpredictable environments using advanced artificial intelligence.
Figure announced the introduction of Figure 03 on October 9, 2025. On September 18, 2025, the company launched Project Go-Big, a new learning milestone that allows their robots to navigate real-world spaces from natural language commands.
Figure AI secured $1.5 billion in Series C venture funding, led by Parkway Venture Capital, with participation from Intel Capital and Microsoft.
Ramp uses AI to streamline corporate spending management, helping businesses automate finance tasks and save money and time.
Ramp announced product updates on November 2, 2025, including automated bill batching and AI Agents for policy enforcement. The company also released its Fall 2025 Business Spending Report, analyzing data from over 45,000 businesses.
Ramp secured $300 million of venture funding from Lightspeed Ventures, Coatue Management, and Avenir Growth Capital.
Safe Superintelligence develops extremely powerful artificial intelligence systems by prioritizing safety and long-term research over immediate commercial demands.
Safe Superintelligence (SSI) released its inaugural 'Safety Signal' framework on November 10, 2025, detailing a new methodology for evaluating alignment in superintelligent systems. The company also announced the opening of a new dedicated alignment research facility in Palo Alto to support its core mission.
Safe Superintelligence secured $2 billion in venture funding from Greenoaks Capital Partners, Nvidia, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Anduril Industries builds autonomous defense systems and software to rapidly modernize and deliver capabilities for military applications.
In late November 2025, reports emerged detailing setbacks during tests of Anduril's Altius drone, including crashes at Eglin Air Force Base. Anduril provided a response on November 29, 2025, offering context regarding the testing of its autonomous systems.
The company raised $2.5 billion in Series G venture funding, led by Founders Fund, with participation from Baillie Gifford and V12 Partners.
Anysphere is developing an AI-powered operating system for software development that fundamentally changes how developers interact with code.
Anysphere released a major update to its Cursor IDE on November 15, 2025, introducing 'Cursor Enterprise' with automated bug detection and fix suggestions integrated directly into GitHub workflows. The company also announced it had surpassed $150 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
Anysphere raised $2.3 billion in Series D venture funding led by Coatue Management and Accel, with participation from Nvidia.
Scale AI provides a platform and data labeling services essential for training and validating the massive datasets required by modern artificial intelligence applications.
Scale AI experienced a setback when a competitor won a $708 million U.S. intelligence contract for data labeling. The company has also undergone layoffs, including the dismissal of a team in Dallas, as it shifts strategy to focus on specialized AI training.
The company secured $14.3 billion in venture funding, with major participation from Meta Platforms, Accel, and TMT Investments.
Motional develops and deploys advanced, fully driverless vehicles to bring autonomous ride-hailing services to market.
On October 30, 2025, Motional published a technical blog covering its approach to scaling behavior prediction networks. The company also announced its Omnitag ML-Powered Multimodal Data Mining Framework earlier in the year to transform vehicle data into usable fuel.
The company received KRW 629.1 billion in venture funding from Hyundai Motors Group.
Epic Games develops a highly popular and widely adopted game engine that fundamentally reshapes interactive entertainment and virtual production across various media.
Epic Games Store withdrew support for the game 'Horses' prior to its launch on December 2, 2025. The company is preparing for its 'Fortnite Winterfest 2025' and released a statement in late November 2025 dismissing the utility of 'Made with AI' labels.
The company raised $1.5 billion of venture funding led by The Walt Disney.
Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search engine that delivers direct, cited, and conversational answers to user queries, fundamentally changing how information is retrieved online.
On November 21, 2025, Perplexity's Comet AI Browser became available on Android devices. Perplexity also launched a free agentic shopping tool in November 2025, intensifying competition with Google and OpenAI during the holiday season.
The company raised $200 million of venture funding from Glade Brook Capital Partners, Alpha Partners, and OurCrowd.
Kraken is a major global platform that allows users to buy, sell, and trade a wide variety of digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
Kraken launched the Krak Card in November 2025, a new crypto-fiat debit card operating on the Mastercard network. This product allows users to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency and traditional fiat transactions.
Kraken secured $800 million in Series C venture funding, with the deal led by Jane Street, Oppenheimer Partners, and Tribe Capital.
Deel provides a platform that simplifies the legal, payment, and compliance complexities of hiring and managing international workers, disrupting traditional global employment models.
Deel announced its Fall 2025 release on October 23, 2025, detailing updates to its HR platform. The new functionality focuses on automating workforce planning and accelerating the payroll close process.
Deel secured $300 million of Series E venture funding led by Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Rippling offers a single, unified platform that automates HR, IT, and finance, allowing businesses to manage everything from payroll to device setup for their global workforce in one system.
On November 12, 2025, Rippling released a report highlighting that the proliferation of software tools is negatively impacting IT, HR, and Finance departments. Banking records on November 20, 2025, also confirmed a competitor paid an individual who allegedly stole trade secrets from Rippling.
The company secured $460 million in Series G venture funding from Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, Elad Gil, and Dubin & Co. The capital will be used for market expansion, product enhancements, and new product development.
Veeam provides essential data protection and ransomware recovery solutions that ensure businesses can quickly restore operations after any disruption.
Veeam launched the Veeam Data Platform v13 on November 19, 2025, featuring expanding hypervisor support and built-in Recon Scanner 3.0. The Veeam Software Appliance is also now generally available to simplify deployment for partners.
A 13.3% stake in the company was sold for $2 billion to TPG, NB Capital Solutions, and Alkeon Capital Management.
Surge AI provides a platform that uses human intelligence to create high-quality, annotated data for training advanced artificial intelligence models like large language models.
Surge AI introduced 'Deepfake Detect,' a new enterprise tool for identifying AI-generated audio and video in real-time, on October 15, 2025. The company also announced a partnership with a major social media platform to provide human-verified safety labels for high-risk content.
The company is in talks to raise venture funding from undisclosed investors.
Applied Intuition provides software and AI stacks to help manufacturers develop, validate, and deploy autonomous driving and advanced driver-assistance systems for vehicles across multiple industries.
On November 17, 2025, Applied Intuition's simulation platform was leveraged by Ford Otosan to advance ADAS development. Additionally, in November 2025, the company's self-driving car software was reported to be applied to military vehicles.
Applied Intuition secured $600 million in Series F venture funding, with Kleiner Perkins, BlackRock, and CE-Ventures as key investors.
Labs Companies develops innovative, app-driven technology to enhance human social experiences and personal well-being.
Labs Companies announced the official launch of 'Nebula Bio,' its latest portfolio company focused on rapid protein discovery, on November 12, 2025. The incubator also opened a new shared laboratory facility in Boston to support its growing roster of early-stage biotech startups.
Labs Companies raised $35 million of Series 2 seed funding in the form of convertible debt, led by JetDebt Finance.
Wiz provides an agentless cloud security platform that gives unified visibility and risk prioritization across a company's entire cloud environment, from code to runtime.
Wiz launched 'Wiz Code' generally on September 10, 2025, a new product designed to secure every stage of the software development lifecycle. The company also announced a new integration with AWS in November 2025 to provide real-time runtime security for edge devices.
The company raised $1 billion of Series E venture funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and Thrive Capital.
Whatnot operates a live-stream shopping platform that lets users buy and sell collectibles and unique items in real-time auctions.
Whatnot expanded its platform categories to include 'Automotive & Parts' on October 20, 2025, enabling live auctions for car enthusiasts. The company also released a new 'Seller Studio' app in November 2025 to help power users manage inventory and analytics more effectively.
Whatnot secured $225.00 million in Series F venture funding from major investors including CapitalG, DST Global, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Kalshi is an event contract exchange platform that allows users to trade on the outcome of future real-world events.
On November 1, 2025, Kalshi announced a new policy allowing trading on the outcomes of political events. This move helps the platform capture a larger share of the predictions market despite regulatory scrutiny.
Kalshi secured $1 billion in venture funding from CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, and Paradigm (Crypto Fund).
Quantinuum uses trapped-ion quantum computing hardware and software to offer solutions for complex problems in chemistry, material science, and finance.
On November 5, 2025, Quantinuum commercially launched its new Helios Quantum Computer. The company was also selected by DARPA on November 6, 2025, as a contractor to advance to Stage B of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative.
Quantinuum secured $838.85 million in Series B venture funding from NVentures, Cambridge Quantum Computing, and Honeywell.
Colossal Biosciences uses genetic engineering and reproductive technology to bring back extinct species and protect critically endangered ones.
Colossal Biosciences reached a milestone in its dodo de-extinction project by successfully culturing primordial germ cells from the rock pigeon. The company also reported progress on the development of a gene-edited 'woolly mouse.'
Colossal Biosciences secured $320 million in Series C venture funding, led by Thomas Tull, Mark Walter, and North Equity.
Cognition develops artificial intelligence tools designed to independently plan and execute complex software engineering tasks.
Cognition released Claude Sonnet 4.5 in Devin on September 29, 2025, alongside the new Devin Agent Preview. The new version is reportedly 2x faster and 12% better on the company's Junior Developer Evals.
Cognition raised $400 million in Series C venture funding from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital.
Sierra provides AI technology that enables businesses to create more human-like and effective customer experiences.
Sierra hit the $100M Annual Recurring Revenue milestone on November 21, 2025. Additionally, Sierra launched Agent OS 2.0 on November 5, 2025, which introduced eight new products designed to enhance AI-powered customer experience.
The company secured $350 million of venture funding in a round led by Greenoaks Capital Partners and Singtel Innov8, with participation from undisclosed investors.
Mercor operates an AI talent platform that utilizes human workers to train its machines by generating data, fundamentally changing how workforce tasks contribute to AI development.
Mercor recently ended a significant AI training initiative, which impacted global contractors. The company is currently focusing on expanding its contractor base and enhancing its AI-human matching capabilities to automate logistics.
Mercor secured $350 million in Series C venture funding, with notable investors including Felicis, General Catalyst, and Benchmark Capital Holdings.
Crusoe builds vertically integrated AI infrastructure by converting wasted natural gas into energy for high-performance computing clusters.
In October 2025, Crusoe announced a partnership with a major cloud provider to expand its AI infrastructure services globally. The company also announced a partnership with Starcloud on October 22, 2025, to run workloads in outer space.
Crusoe raised $1.38 billion of Series E venture funding led by Valor Equity Partners and Mubadala Capital, with participation from Nvidia.
Thinking Machines Lab is building advanced artificial intelligence systems by integrating research and product development to ensure empirical and safety-focused deployment.
Thinking Machines Lab published a breakthrough research paper on 'Empirical Safety in Recursive Self-Improving Systems' on November 14, 2025. The lab also released its first open-source evaluation toolkit for measuring long-horizon planning capabilities in AI agents.
The company raised $2 billion of seed funding in a deal led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Nvidia and ServiceNow Ventures.
Neuralink is developing implantable brain-machine interfaces designed to connect humans with computers and eventually facilitate direct neural communication.
Neuralink announced the commencement of its 'PRIME-2' international clinical trial on November 15, 2025, expanding its brain-computer interface testing to patients in Canada. The company also released a software update for the N1 Implant improving cursor control latency for existing trial participants.
Raised $650 million of Series E venture funding from Group 42 Holding, SaxeCap, and 1802 Ventures.
Harvey AI provides specialized artificial intelligence models to law firms for legal research and workflow customization, streamlining legal work and reducing the need for human research.
In November 2025, RSGI released a report commissioned by Harvey on the adoption and value of Harvey's AI technology. Harvey is also focusing on how its AI-powered workspaces can deepen collaboration between in-house legal teams and outside counsel.
The company raised $160 million of venture funding in a deal led by EQT, Andreessen Horowitz, and OpenAI Startup Fund.
Vercel is a cloud platform that simplifies and accelerates web development by providing infrastructure and tools for modern, high-performance websites and applications.
Vercel announced the general availability of its 'v0 Enterprise' platform on November 10, 2025, enabling large teams to generate full-stack applications securely. The company also launched a new 'AI Gateway' feature to streamline model switching and cost management for developers.
The company raised $300.00 million of Series F venture funding in a deal led by Enterprise Holding (Singapore), Accel, and GIC Private.
Gusto simplifies and modernizes payroll, benefits, and HR for small and medium-sized businesses through an integrated, user-friendly platform.
An economic report published by Gusto on November 19, 2025, detailed the transition of America's small-business economy. Gusto also provided guidance for small business owners on HR and tax compliance deadlines for November 2025.
The company is currently raising venture funding, led by Teachers' Venture Growth.
Polymarket is a blockchain-based prediction market that allows users to bet on the outcome of real-world events, creating a real-time, useful measure of public belief on future outcomes.
Polymarket received a cease and desist order from the NYSE in mid-November 2025 regarding its event contracts. In related news, Polymarket's trading volume surged in early November 2025 due to activity predicting the outcome of the US Presidential election.
Polymarket secured $2 billion in venture financing and debt, with major contributions from Intercontinental Exchange, Dubin & Co., and Electric Feel Ventures.
Altos Labs is focused on developing technologies for cell rejuvenation to reverse diseases and disabilities associated with aging and injury.
Altos Labs announced the start of Phase 1 clinical trials for its novel cellular rejuvenation therapy on November 12, 2025. The company also published findings in Nature detailing a new method for partial reprogramming that avoids loss of cellular identity.
Altos Labs secured approximately $1.50 billion in development capital from General Catalyst and Mubadala Capital.
Cerebras Systems builds specialized computer hardware designed to accelerate complex artificial intelligence deep learning applications.
Cerebras Systems launched 'Cerebras for Nations' on November 11, 2025, a global initiative to scale Sovereign AI. On September 10, 2025, the company announced a partnership with Carahsoft to join the DoD's Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace.
The company raised $1.1 billion of Series G venture funding led by Fidelity, Tiger Global Management, and Atreides Management.
Reflection AI develops generative artificial intelligence models to create chatbots that automate customer service and marketing interactions by mimicking human communication styles.
Reflection AI unveiled its proprietary 'Mirror-1' model on November 8, 2025, which demonstrates state-of-the-art capability in mimicking specific human personality traits for customer service. The company also launched a beta program for enterprise partners to test its automated interaction tools.
Reflection AI raised $2 billion in venture funding from Nvidia, Disruptive, and Citi Ventures.
Flock Safety creates a vast network of automated license plate readers and other surveillance tools that allow law enforcement and communities to track vehicles and detect events like gunshots for crime prevention.
The City of Flagstaff began a review of its contract with Flock Safety in late October 2025 due to privacy concerns. Reports in November 2025 highlighted the expanding network of Flock cameras and revealed the company outsources AI training to offshore gig workers.
Flock Safety received $275 million in Series H and H-1 venture funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Sands Capital and Stripes.
Glean provides a unified search and knowledge discovery platform for enterprise teams, making internal company information easily accessible through AI.
In late 2025, Glean achieved the AWS Agentic AI Specialization and introduced its third-generation AI Assistant. In November 2025, Glean was also named as a Leader in the Gartner Innovation Guide for Generative AI Knowledge Management Apps.
The company raised $150 million of Series F venture funding from Wellington Management, Capital One Ventures, and Citi Ventures.
PsiQuantum is focused on building and deploying the first practical, utility-scale quantum computers using photonics and leveraging existing semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure.
PsiQuantum and Lockheed Martin signed a memorandum of understanding on November 3, 2025, to accelerate quantum applications for defense. Additionally, the company broke ground on its Chicago site on September 30, 2025.
PsiQuantum raised $1 billion of Series E venture funding led by Baillie Gifford, Temasek Holdings, and BlackRock.
Groq designs and produces a custom processor built solely to deliver extremely high performance for artificial intelligence inference.
Groq announced its expansion into the Asia-Pacific region in November 2025 by establishing a data center in Sydney. This expansion aims to deliver high-performance AI inference capabilities globally.
The company raised $750 million in venture funding led by Disruptive, Cisco Investments, and Samsung Catalyst Fund.
ClickHouse created an open-source columnar database that fundamentally transforms how organizations perform real-time analytical processing on massive datasets.
Grafana Labs announced a major expansion of its Grafana Cloud platform in mid-November 2025, adding advanced logging and tracing capabilities. Additionally, the company released a new version of its open-source Grafana tool in late October 2025.
The company raised $327.90 million of Series D venture funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, NY Technology Capital Partners, and GIC Private.
Armis provides comprehensive visibility and security for all connected devices and critical infrastructure, fundamentally changing how organizations manage cyber risk.
ClickHouse strengthened its collaboration with Microsoft on November 18, 2025, through the Microsoft OneLake Integration. The company also announced a partnership with Japan Cloud on November 6, 2025, to establish ClickHouse K.K.
The company completed a Series C venture funding round, raising $444.07 million, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Nebius Group, and Stifel Financial.
Grafana Labs provides an open-source observability platform that fundamentally changes how organizations monitor, visualize, and analyze their IT systems.
Armis recently expanded its reach with the launch of Armis Federal to support U.S. government entities. The company also continues to enhance its Cyber Exposure Management Platform, Armis Centrix.
The company secured $435 million in venture funding, led by The Goldman Sachs Group, CapitalG, and Georgian.
Plaid creates the essential digital infrastructure that allows consumers to connect their financial accounts to thousands of financial applications and services.
Plaid launched 'Plaid Layer' on November 14, 2025, a new identity verification network that allows consumers to reuse verified credentials across different financial apps. The company also announced a partnership with Xero to triple high-quality bank feed connections for small businesses.
The company raised $575 million of venture funding, led by Franklin Resources, Fidelity, and CE-Ventures.
Data that informs the Disrupt 50 index is collected as of the last day of the previous month.
Metric definitions:
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Data Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence and PitchBook Data, Inc. Data was also retrieved from various sources using Google's Gemini.
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