Artificial intelligence is booming in San Francisco, and these 20 startups are leading the charge. With $10M–$50M in fresh funding, they’re developing cutting-edge solutions in machine learning, automation, data infrastructure, and generative AI—reshaping industries from finance to healthcare and beyond.
20 AI Trailblazers Fueling the Bay Area’s Next Tech Wave
Armed with strong investor backing and breakthrough technologies, these companies are scaling fast and solving real-world problems with AI at their core.
Let’s take a closer look at the startups building tomorrow’s intelligent systems today.
| Company | Founded | Employees | Last Funding | Last Amount | Total Funding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bland AI | 2023 | 1–10 | $16M | Aug 28, 2024 | $16M |
| Gentrace | 2020 | 1–10 | $8M | Dec 10, 2024 | $14M |
| Mercor | 2023 | 101–250 | $30M | Sep 18, 2024 | $33.6M |
| WaveForms AI | 2024 | 1–10 | $40M | Dec 10, 2024 | $43M |
| Lakera | 2021 | 11–50 | $20M | Jul 24, 2024 | $30M |
| Mindtrip | 2023 | 11–50 | $12M | Sep 17, 2024 | $19M |
| Cartesia | 2023 | 11–50 | $22M | Dec 12, 2024 | $22M |
| Arcee.ai | 2023 | 11–50 | $24M | Jul 18, 2024 | $29.5M |
| Atmo | 2020 | 11–50 | $17.58M | Dec 20, 2024 | $28.78M |
| Crescendo | 2024 | 11–50 | $50M | Oct 2, 2024 | $50M |
| Fieldguide | 2020 | 51–100 | $30M | Mar 26, 2024 | $50M |
| Recall.ai | 2020 | 1–10 | $10M | May 15, 2024 | $12.7M |
| Resolve.ai | 2024 | 11–50 | $35M | Oct 1, 2024 | $35M |
| Braintrust Data | 2023 | 1–10 | $36M | Oct 8, 2024 | $41.1M |
| Distyl AI | 2022 | 11–50 | $20M | Sep 24, 2024 | $27M |
| Factory | 2023 | 11–50 | $15M | Jun 18, 2024 | $20M |
| Unify | 2023 | 11–50 | $12M | Oct 8, 2024 | $29.91M |
| Sapien | 2023 | 11–50 | $10.5M | Oct 30, 2024 | $15.5M |
| Bardeen | 2020 | 11–50 | $3M | Aug 8, 2024 | $21.8M |
| Chai Discovery | 2024 | 1–10 | $30M | Sep 9, 2024 | $30M |
1. Bland AI
- Founded: 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Infrastructure, Machine Learning
- Number of Employees: 1–10
- Last Funding Amount: $16M (Latest Round: Aug 28, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $16M
Bland AI builds infrastructure for AI models with a focus on voice and natural language interfaces. Its platform allows developers to integrate realistic, programmable AI voice agents into their products at scale. Designed for reliability and speed, Bland AI’s technology supports applications ranging from customer support to automation-heavy workflows, enabling seamless machine-human interaction.
2. Gentrace
- Founded: April 1, 2020
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Developer Platform, Developer Tools
- Number of Employees: 1–10
- Last Funding Amount: $8M (Latest Round: Dec 10, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $14M
Gentrace provides a developer platform for evaluating, monitoring, and improving AI applications in production. Its tools offer deep observability into model behavior, output quality, and performance across real-world use cases. By helping teams track, debug, and iterate on AI workflows, Gentrace bridges the gap between experimentation and deployment, enabling faster innovation with greater reliability.
3. Mercor
- Founded: January 1, 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Software
- Number of Employees: 101–250
- Last Funding Amount: $30M (Latest Round: Sep 18, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $33.6M
Mercor leverages AI to connect companies with top global freelance talent, streamlining hiring through a data-driven platform. Its system uses machine learning to assess skills, match candidates, and optimize workflows for remote teams. Designed for scale, Mercor helps enterprises quickly build high-performing teams by automating talent sourcing, evaluation, and onboarding.
4. WaveForms AI
- Founded: 2024
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Software
- Number of Employees: 1–10
- Last Funding Amount: $40M (Latest Round: Dec 10, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $43M
WaveForms AI is developing next-generation AI software designed to enhance human-computer interaction through advanced signal processing and generative models. Its technology enables high-fidelity, real-time synthesis of audio and speech, powering applications in voice computing, virtual agents, and digital media. With a focus on precision and responsiveness, WaveForms AI aims to redefine the boundaries of interactive AI experiences.
5. Lakera
- Founded: 2021
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Security
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $20M (Latest Round: Jul 24, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $30M
Lakera builds AI-native cybersecurity solutions to protect organizations against emerging threats in machine learning and generative AI systems. Its platform safeguards models from adversarial attacks, data leakage, and prompt injection, enabling safe deployment across industries. With a proactive approach to AI security, Lakera is setting the standard for trust and resilience in next-gen applications.
6. Mindtrip
- Founded: 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Software, Travel
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $12M (Latest Round: Sep 17, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $19M
Mindtrip combines AI with travel planning to create an intelligent, all-in-one booking and itinerary platform. Users can generate personalized travel experiences through natural language prompts, while the system handles everything from flights and stays to local recommendations. By integrating generative AI with real-time travel data, Mindtrip aims to simplify trip planning and elevate the traveler experience.
7. Cartesia
- Founded: 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Real-Time, Software
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $22M (Latest Round: Dec 12, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $22M
Cartesia develops real-time AI systems for spatial intelligence, enabling machines to understand and interact with the physical world. Its software processes complex sensory data on the fly, powering applications in robotics, AR/VR, and autonomous systems. With a focus on low-latency decision-making and 3D awareness, Cartesia is building the AI layer for spatial computing at scale.
8. Arcee.ai
- Founded: February 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI, Intelligent Systems
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $24M (Latest Round: Jul 18, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $29.5M
Arcee.ai builds generative AI systems designed for real-time decision-making in complex environments. Its platform merges large language models with dynamic reasoning capabilities to power intelligent agents across sectors like logistics, robotics, and enterprise automation. Focused on adaptability and context awareness, Arcee.ai delivers AI that can think, react, and optimize in the moment.
9. Atmo
- Founded: 2020
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Government, Information Technology
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $17.58M (Latest Round: Dec 20, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $28.78M
Atmo delivers AI-powered solutions tailored for government agencies and public sector IT environments. Its platform enhances data management, threat detection, and decision support through advanced analytics and machine learning. By enabling secure and efficient operations, Atmo helps public institutions modernize their infrastructure while improving responsiveness and transparency.
10. Crescendo
- Founded: January 2024
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Customer Service, Outsourcing
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $50M (Latest Round: Oct 2, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $50M
Crescendo uses AI to revolutionize customer service outsourcing by automating high-volume interactions with intelligent agents. Its platform integrates natural language understanding and predictive analytics to enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Focused on scalability and quality, Crescendo empowers businesses to deliver personalized support at unprecedented speed and scale.
11. Fieldguide
- Founded: April 2020
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Document Management
- Number of Employees: 51–100
- Last Funding Amount: $30M (Latest Round: Mar 26, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $50M
Fieldguide offers AI-driven document management solutions that transform how businesses handle, analyze, and secure critical information. Its platform automates document classification, data extraction, and compliance monitoring, enabling organizations to streamline workflows and reduce operational risk. With scalable architecture, Fieldguide supports enterprises in managing vast document ecosystems efficiently and securely.
12. Recall.ai
- Founded: 2020
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Developer APIs, Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
- Number of Employees: 1–10
- Last Funding Amount: $10M (Latest Round: May 15, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $12.7M
Recall.ai provides developer-friendly APIs that enable seamless integration of AI-powered memory and recall capabilities into applications. Its technology helps software remember context, user preferences, and interaction history to create more personalized and efficient experiences. Designed for easy adoption, Recall.ai empowers developers to build smarter, context-aware products across diverse ICT domains.
13. Resolve.ai
- Founded: 2024
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Developer Platform, Software
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $35M (Latest Round: Oct 1, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $35M
Resolve.ai offers a developer platform that accelerates the creation and deployment of AI-native applications. Its tools streamline prompt engineering, model orchestration, and workflow automation, enabling teams to build complex AI systems with minimal overhead. Focused on performance and developer experience, Resolve.ai empowers builders to scale AI solutions from prototype to production.
14. Braintrust Data
- Founded: 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Integration, Data Management
- Number of Employees: 1–10
- Last Funding Amount: $36M (Latest Round: Oct 8, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $41.1M
Braintrust Data delivers AI-powered data integration tools that unify, cleanse, and enrich enterprise data across systems. Its platform automates the hardest parts of data engineering—connecting disparate sources, ensuring consistency, and maintaining pipelines—so teams can focus on insights, not infrastructure. Built for agility and scale, Braintrust helps organizations turn fragmented data into a strategic asset.
15. Distyl AI
- Founded: 2022
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI, Information Technology
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $20M (Latest Round: Sep 24, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $27M
Distyl AI builds generative AI solutions that help enterprises automate content generation, decision support, and internal workflows. Its platform enables teams to train and deploy custom language models tailored to their data and use cases. With a focus on security, compliance, and enterprise-grade performance, Distyl AI brings the power of generative AI to critical business operations.
16. Factory
- Founded: April 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Developer Tools, Software Engineering
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $15M (Latest Round: Jun 18, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $20M
Factory provides AI-powered developer tools that streamline software engineering workflows, from code generation to testing and debugging. Its platform integrates seamlessly with popular IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, enabling faster development cycles and higher code quality. With a focus on automation and developer productivity, Factory is reshaping how teams build and maintain software at scale.
17. Unify
- Founded: January 1, 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Software
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $12M (Latest Round: Oct 8, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $29.91M
Unify develops AI-driven software designed to centralize and automate business operations across teams and tools. Its platform connects fragmented workflows, enabling organizations to manage communication, data, and processes from a single interface. With intelligent automation at its core, Unify helps businesses boost productivity, reduce context switching, and maintain operational clarity.
18. Sapien
- Founded: September 15, 2023
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Management, Information Technology
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $10.5M (Latest Round: Oct 30, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $15.5M
Sapien builds AI-powered data infrastructure to help organizations manage, analyze, and leverage large-scale datasets more effectively. Its platform automates data cleaning, transformation, and governance, enabling teams to unlock insights faster while ensuring compliance. Focused on scalability and performance, Sapien empowers businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions across the enterprise.
19. Bardeen
- Founded: 2020
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Process Automation (BPA), Data Integration
- Number of Employees: 11–50
- Last Funding Amount: $3M (Latest Round: Aug 8, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $21.8M
Bardeen offers an AI-powered automation platform that connects apps and workflows to eliminate repetitive tasks. With a no-code interface and deep integration capabilities, users can automate actions across tools like Google Sheets, Slack, and CRMs. Designed for knowledge workers and teams, Bardeen boosts productivity by turning manual processes into intelligent, trigger-based automations.
20. Chai Discovery
- Founded: 2024
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Health Care, Life Science
- Number of Employees: 1–10
- Last Funding Amount: $30M (Latest Round: Sep 9, 2024)
- Total Funding Amount: $30M
Chai Discovery applies AI to accelerate drug discovery and development in the life sciences sector. Its platform uses machine learning to analyze biological data, identify novel compounds, and predict therapeutic outcomes. By streamlining early-stage research and reducing time to clinical validation, Chai Discovery aims to transform how breakthroughs in medicine are made.
Conclusion
These 20 San Francisco–based AI startups, each backed by $10M–$50M in fresh funding, are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with intelligent technology. From automating complex workflows to advancing personalized healthcare and financial insights, their AI-powered solutions are rapidly gaining traction. With strong investor support and cutting-edge teams, they’re shaping the next wave of AI innovation on a global scale.
FAQs
Q1. How are they using their funding?
A. Funding is being deployed to grow engineering and product teams, accelerate go-to-market efforts, enhance infrastructure, and support international expansion.
Q2. Who’s backing these startups?
A. Leading venture capital firms, AI-focused funds, corporate investors, and prominent angel investors in the tech ecosystem.
Q3. What makes San Francisco a hub for AI startups?
A. Access to top-tier technical talent, proximity to investors, a culture of innovation, and early adopter markets make San Francisco ideal for AI-driven companies.