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Insights / Blog

Startup News: 4 up-and-coming AI and AI-enabled software companies

By Jeannine DeFoe
Unicorns & Startup News

The rapid pace of AI innovation isn't limited to the largest firms with $10 billion-plus valuations, such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Scale AI. The recent release of DeepSeek AI's chatbot showed that not all AI breakthroughs are coming from the largest or most well-funded firms. Beyond DeepSeek, there are a number of smaller companies reporting technological breakthroughs with high post-money valuations.

Overall, global funding to AI firms topped $100 billion in 2024, representing nearly a third of funding to all companies, Crunchbase reported.1 Here is a list of four AI firms that could be leading the industry in the future. 

Perplexity, an AI search company

Perplexity is an AI search company that allows users to answer questions with information on the internet, explore topics in depth through its Copilot feature and interact with their own data to find information. Major investors in the San Francisco-based company include IVP, NVIDIA, T. Rowe Price and Stanley Druckenmiller.

In February 2025, the company announced Deep Research, which can perform in-depth research and analysis to deliver a comprehensive report on a subject.2 Users can access a limited number of free searches a day. In January, CNBC reported that Perplexity submitted a bid to ByteDance to create a merged entity with Perplexity, TikTok U.S. and new capital partners to bring more video content to Perplexity.3 And just last week, a partnership was announced between the AI firm and Deutsche Telekom (DT) to produce one of the first “AI phones.” 4

Perplexity’s Forge Price™ of $344.87 as of February 28, 2025, implies a valuation of $9.44 billion, a 4.9% increase to its last funding round of $502.5 million in December 2024. 

SandboxAQ, a provider of AI solutions to B2B companies

SandboxAQ provides AI and quantum technology tools. The Palo Alto, California-based company was spun off from Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., in 2022 as an independent, growth capital-backed company. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is SandboxAQ's Chairman and Investor.

The company’s investors include T. Rowe Price, IQT, US Innovative Technology Fund, S32, Breyer Capital and Marc Benioff.

In February, SandboxAQ announced that it had expanded its relationship with consulting firm Deloitte to offer SandboxAQ's AI Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) products and solutions along with Deloitte's services to organizations. According to SandboxAQ, LQMs are the new frontier in AI, having applications in sectors including biopharma and energy.5

SandboxAQ’s Forge Price™ is $17.21 as of February 20, 2025, which implies a valuation of $5.61 billion, unchanged from its last funding round in October 2024. 

SambaNova Systems, AI-enabled enterprise software

SambaNova Systems provides AI-enabled enterprise software to help businesses solve complex problems and operate with greater efficiency. The Palo Alto, California-based company’s founders include hardware and software design experts from Sun/Oracle and Stanford University. Investors include SoftBank Investment Advisers, BlackRock-managed funds and accounts, Intel Capital, GV and Walden International.6

In February 2025, SambaNova Systems announced that DeepSeek-R1 671B is running on its SambaNova Cloud at 198 tokens per second, achieving faster speeds than any other platform.7

SambaNova Systems’ Forge Price™ is $44.62 as of February 28, 2025, which implies a valuation of $2.4 billion, a 53% discount to its last funding round in April 2021.

Mistral AI, a French AI firm

Mistral AI is a French AI startup working to make AI technology available to all. The company’s Le Chat, released in February 2025, is an AI assistant that reasons, reflects and responds faster than any other chat assistant, according to the company.8 Le Chat has already reached 1 million downloads.9 The company has also formed a partnership with carmaker Stellantis on AI-driven projects including vehicle engineering and manufacturing and creating an in-vehicle AI assistant.10 CEO Arthur Mensch said in a January interview with Bloomberg News that the company is moving toward an eventual IPO.11 

The Paris-based company was founded in 2023 by three founders who studied at École Polytechnique and worked at Google DeepMind and Meta.12

In June 2024, The New York Times reported that Mistral AI was valued at $6.2 billion, based on a $640 million funding round that included investors General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and NVIDIA.13

1 Crunchbase, 1/7/25

2 Perplexity, 2/14/25

3 CNBC, 1/21/25

4 TechCrunch, 3/3/25

5 SandboxAQ, 2/10/25

6 SambaNova Systems, 3/7/25

7 SambaNova Systems, 2/13/25

8 Mistral AI, 2/26/25

9 LinkedIn, 3/7/25

10 Stellantis, 2/7/25

11 TechCrunch, 1/1/25

12 Mistral AI, 3/7/25

13 The New York Times, 6/1/24

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About the Author

Jeannine DeFoe is a former Bloomberg News reporter and an experienced financial writer who focuses on a variety of topics such investing, wealth management and fintech. Read more from Jeannine.

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