Being at the top of your field is no easy feat. Michael Jordan did it. Steve Jobs did it. The guy that invented the Double Stuf Oreo did it. These names will live on in the halls of greatness for years to come. But startups that are able to reach the mountain top of their respective fields are just as impressive when it comes to their effect on the world.
While “mountain top” might be viewed as a subjective term, we all know that growth is one of the most important factors in running a successful company. Whether it be through revenue production or media attention, a company that grows fast is built to last.
So, when it comes to the most popular unicorn startups in aerospace, social media or ecommerce, what does the Internet think? According to Alexa, these 15 unicorn startups have seen the highest growth in unique site visitors in 2016, making them the most popular in each of their industries.
226% growth – SpaceX (Aerospace): a space transport startup that designs, manufactures & launches advanced rockets, spacecraft & satellites. Photo: Flickr / Steven Straiton
- 113% growth – Adaptive Biotech (Health Care): a leader in combining high-throughput sequencing and expert bioinformatics to profile T-cell and B-cell receptors.
- 113% growth – Magic Leap (Hardware): a proprietary wearable technology that will enable humans to interact with digital devices in a completely visually cinematic way.
- 104% growth – Deem (Big Data): a cloud and mobile commerce company, delivering Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) to a large and diverse ecosystem of customers.
- 102% growth – Blippar (Internet Software & Services): an image-recognition platform and visual browser for mobile targeted specifically at customer-brand interaction.
- 102% growth – Mercari (E-Commerce/Marketplace): a community-powered shopping app from Japan, for anyone to buy and sell anything, from anywhere, in seconds.
- 99% growth – Gusto (Fintech): a comprehensive payroll service enabling businesses to set up and run payroll from any web enabled device.
- 83% growth – Palo Alto Networks (Cybersecurity): a company that produces hardware firewall products that take an app-centric method for traffic classification and enable app visibility.
- 81% growth – Snapchat (Social Media): a photo messaging app that allows users to take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to recipients.
75% growth – Jasper Technologies (Mobile Software & Services): a company that powers the Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives for 3,500 enterprises across 100+ service provider networks. Photo: Flickr / Omran Jamal
- 63% growth – InMobi (Advertising Technology): a mobile-first platform allowing brands, developers and publishers to engage consumers through mobile advertising.
- 36% growth – Auction.com (Real Estate): an online real estate marketplace.
- 24% growth – Lyft (On-Demand Apps): a peer-to-peer transportation platform that connects passengers who need rides with drivers willing to provide rides using their own personal vehicles.
- 24% growth – Sunrun (Energy): a United States-based provider of residential solar electricity and solar power services for homeowners.
- 16% growth – Lynda.com (Education Technology): an online learning company providing video tutorials to learn software, creative and business skills.