24 Fastest Growing Companies & Startups (April 2026)

The startup world is changing fast. 

Funding is heavily concentrated in AI. Yet it's increasingly hard for new businesses to find a genuine niche within that field.

On the other hand, last year did see global startup funding grow for the first time in 4 years. It rose 30% YoY, hitting $425 billion.

These are a few of the highest-growth startups riding that wave into 2026. Some on our list are part of the new generation of AI giants, while others have managed to post impressive growth in other industries.

From emerging companies disrupting traditional industries to rising companies scaling at unprecedented rates, this is our list of the hottest companies right now. These up and coming companies and companies on the rise represent the future of business in 2026.

Our data is gathered from Exploding Topics Pro and Semrush.

1. Perplexity AI

5-year search growth: 5,600%

Website visits (monthly): 209.4 million

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2022

Location: San Francisco, California

Funding: ~$1.5 billion

What they do: Perplexity has developed a generative AI-powered conversational search engine that directly answers user queries, similar to an AI chatbot. Users get access to various LLMs, up-to-date information, and exceptional accuracy and contextual awareness.

Supported models include Sonar (powered by Lllama and reined for Perplexity's real-time search functionality), GPT-5.2, Gemini 3.1 Pro, Claude 4.7 Opus, and an uncensored version of DeepSeek R1.

The AI tool currently has 45 million monthly active users and $500 million in ARR. 

The latest reported funding round pegged Perplexity's value at $20 billion.

You can view other trending AI startups in our directory. 

🚀 Live Up and Coming Companies Today

This article is built from exhaustive research. But if you want to see what's currently breaking out, here are the top 5 trending startups and rapidly growing companies making waves in their industries

2. ZeroTier

5-year search growth: 263%

Website visits (monthly): 1.5 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2015

Location: Los Angeles, California

Funding: $15.9M (Series A)

What they do: ZeroTier is a platform used to deploy and maintain secure peer-to-peer networks. The virtual networks are encrypted, and only the owner has access to the encryption keys, adding another layer of security to the network. According to the startup, they currently support more than 3 million daily active devices across 5,000+ business customers in 230 countries and territories.

In June 2024, Zerotier raised $13.5 million in Series A funding to scale operations into new markets while continuing innovative product development. That investment has been rewarded with continued brand growth.

3. Proton VPN

5-year search growth: 963%

Website visits (monthly): 20.4 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2014

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Funding: None

What they do: Proton VPN provides virtual private networks designed to safeguard user privacy and widen access to global content while browsing online.

It is a standout on this list because of its non-profit structure and lack of any venture capital. Run by former CERN scientists, the company reinvests the money from user subscriptions into building more physical servers around the world. It currently has more than 20,000 servers in 145 countries.

4. Saltair

5-year search growth: 1,329%

Website visits (monthly): 432,300

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2021

Location: West Hollywood, California

Funding: None

What they do: Saltair shows that growth is not solely coming from the technology sector. The hair and bodycare startup has rapidly become an industry disruptor. Founded by British model Iskra Lawrence, it is known for its affordable price points and natural ingredients.

While Saltair has no reported funding rounds, it is partnered with The Center, a prolific brand incubator in the beauty space. Phlur and Naturium, two other startups in the portfolio, have each been sold for hundreds of millions of dollars in the past 2-3 years.

Saltair expanded its physical retail footprint last year with a launch across 1,400+ Ulta Beauty stores in the US.

5. NuPhy

5-year search growth: 99X+

Website visits (monthly): 773,500

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2018

Location: Shenzhen, China

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: NuPhy is a mechanical keyboards and computer peripherals brand. Based out of China, they have experienced rapid global growth (including in the US) as the premium keyboard industry has expanded. Once almost exclusively for gamers, there is now a whole new market based around the aesthetics and customizability of mechanical boards. It's already a $2.2 billion industry, growing at a CAGR of more than 11% through 2033.

6. Photoroom

5-year search growth: 1,800%

Website visits (monthly): 28.9 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2019

Location: Paris, France

Funding: $64M (Series B)

What they do: Photoroom is a photo and video editing app that offers a suite of AI editing tools. Users can easily remove image backgrounds, choose from 1,000+ new backgrounds or templates, retouch images, and much more. It now processes 5 billion images per year.

Since launching in 2019, the startup has grown to 300 million users and more than $50 million in revenue. Photoroom also raised $43 million in Series B funding at a $500 million valuation in 2024. 

7. Preply

5-year search growth: 360%

Website visits (monthly): 25 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2012

Location: Brookline, Massachusetts

Funding: $299M (Series D)

What they do: Preply is a fast-growing one-to-one language tutoring service. Built on a marketplace model like Upwork, it allows students to select tutors from over 180 countries to help them learn anything from Chinese to English.

Preply has 100,000 tutors signed up to teach millions of learners. In January 2026, it raised a $150 million Series D round, at a valuation of $1.2 billion.

8. Hugo Insurance

5-year search growth: 8,100%

Website visits (monthly): 1.5 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2016

Location: West Hollywood, California

Funding: $21M (Series A)

What they do: Hugo is a car insurance startup. It differentiates itself with a "micropayments" system, allowing users to cover as little as a day at a time to ensure customers can get insurance without needing to have the means to make a significant up-front payment.

In 2024, it founded the Hugo Insurance Exchange (HEX), in which all policy-holders become part-owners. Hugo's policies are either offered through HEX or First Acceptance.

Hugo is currently available in around half the US. HEX is less widely available, but entered its fourth state in September 2025.

9. Biodance

5-year search growth: 99X+

Website visits (monthly): 167,600

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2021

Location: Seoul, South Korea

Funding: None

What they do: Biodance is a major player in the K-Beauty landscape. Best known for its face maks, it also sells various serums, toners, and cleansers. Growing without outside capital, it has risen to prominence partly through viral "SkinTok" posts. Top posts have attracted almost 2 million likes on the platform.

10. Allara Health

5-year search growth: 8,500%

Website visits (monthly): 380,600

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2020

Location: New York City, New York

Funding: $38.5M (Series B)

What they do: Allara Health is a dedicated women's health organization that offers specialist guidance and dynamic treatment plans for hormonal, metabolic, and gynecological conditions. It's partnered with major insurers, but also offers a direct subscription model.

Allara raised a $26 million Series B round in January of last year. 

11. Celimax

5-year search growth: 99X+

Website visits (monthly): 12,400

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2019

Location: Seoul, South Korea

Funding: N/A

What they do: Celimax is another of the fast-growing startups riding the K-Beauty wave. Launching in 2019 with the Jiwoogae Heartleaf BHA Peeling Pad, it has expanded into a variety of skincare products. 

It more than tripled its revenue in 2025, exceeding $1 billion for the first time. Celimax has the top-10 best-selling facial serum on Amazon in the US.

12. Airwallex

5-year search growth: 1,150%

Website visits (monthly): 10.2 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2015

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Funding: $1.5B (Series G)

What they do: Airwallex is a global fintech startup offering businesses international payment and banking solutions. It allows companies to open multi-currency business accounts, make international money transfers, accept payments from customers worldwide, and more. 

Airwallex is valued at $8 billion, a figure reached in the recent $330 million Series G round. Annualized revenue has surpassed $1 billion, with annualized transaction volume sitting above $235 billion.

13. Gruns

5-year search growth: 99X+

Website visits (monthly): 1.3 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2023

Location: Beaverton, Oregon

Funding: Acquired by Unilever

What they do: Gruns is a greens supplements startup. Using evidence-backed ingredients, the daily gummies target gut health, immunity, brain health, and energy. There are ranges for adults and children.

Gruns only began selling to consumers back in August 2023. By April 2025, it was in Target and Walmart, and the following month it was raising funding at a $500 million valuation. By August 2025, ARR had hit $300 million. In April 2026, Unilever announced its acquisition of the brand. 

14. Brightwheel

5-year search growth: 252%

Website visits (monthly): 1.7 million

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2014

Location: San Francisco, California

Funding: $158M

What they do: Running a daycare or preschool is not an easy task in the slightest. Between managing attendance, juggling learning plans, and keeping anxious parents at ease, daycare center staff have to do it all. Brightwheel sensed an opportunity and developed its SaaS solution to handle essentially everything involved in running a childcare facility.

After an initial emergence on Shark Tank, where Brightwheel secured a $600,000 investment in exchange for 6.67% of the business, the startup has continued to establish itself. It now claims to be the #1 childcare software, saving up to 20 hours per month and improving the rate of on-time payments for 90% of preschools. It is valued at over $700 million.

15. Anthropic

5-year search growth: 6,600%

Website visits (monthly): 29.2 million (722.2 million for Claude.ai)

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2021

Location: San Francisco, California

Funding: $67.3B (Series G)

What they do: Anthropic is an AI research and safety startup responsible for developing Claude and various supporting large language models. The company uses constitutional AI in its Claude models, meaning they're trained on a set of predefined principles and rules. Compared to other chatbots, Claude's responses are designed to be safer and more appropriate, and the context windows are larger. 

Anthropic is one of the most well-funded companies in the space today, completing an almost unprecedented $30 billion Series G round in February 2026. That came after the startup went from zero revenue to a $14 billion run-rate in under 3 years.

Today, it is one of the main competitors to OpenAI, with signs that ChatGPT is gradually losing its market dominance. ChatGPT's overall market share has dropped from 86.7% to 64.5% in the past year, and Anthropic is actually leading for enterprise software.

16. Shiprocket

5-year search growth: 130%

Website visits (monthly): 8.9 million

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2017

Location: New Delhi, India

Funding: $349M (Series E)

What they do: Shiprocket is an end-to-end e-commerce logistics platform based in India that enables businesses to streamline their shipping and delivery processes. The platform offers a range of shipping solutions, including domestic and international shipping, multiple courier integrations, and advanced tracking and analytics tools.

Shiprocket has become a leading player in e-commerce logistics due to its affordable pricing, seamless integration with popular e-commerce platforms, and focus on simplifying shipping for small and medium-sized businesses. It has filed papers ahead of a listing on the Indian stock exchange.

17. Saie

5-year search growth: 1,150%

Website visits (monthly): 347,200

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2019

Location: New York, New York

Funding: Undisclosed (Seed)

What they do: Saie is a beauty brand that offers clean, natural, and sustainable makeup products. The company's products are made with high-quality ingredients and are free from harmful chemicals, with a focus on ethical and sustainable sourcing. 

Saie's commitment to transparency and eco-consciousness has earned it a loyal following among consumers looking for natural and ethical beauty products. Estimated full-year revenue for 2025 was $75-$100 million.

Our beauty startups directory contains more fast-growing brands, complete with funding data and search trends.

18. Kalodata

5-year search growth: 99X+

Website visits (monthly): 2.6 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2021

Location: Ningbo, China

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: Kalodata is a TikTok Shop analytics platform. You can view revenue trends from a wide product database, look up top creators, and keep an eye on what competitors are doing.

Over 300 million product data points cover 15 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, and Mexico. The platform has served over 2 million customers. 

If you're interested in TikTok analytics, try the TikTok Insights tool from Exploding Topics. You can see the most-searched and fastest-growing products and trends on the app to help you get ahead in your content or E-commerce strategy.

19. Liquid Death

5-year search growth: 210%

Website visits (monthly): 653,000

Search growth status: Regular 

Year founded: 2017

Location: Santa Monica, California

Funding: Undisclosed ($260M+)

What they do: Liquid Death is a canned water DTC startup known for its unique branding and marketing approach. Since its inception, the company has branched into other product categories, including flavored sparkling water, hydration mixes, and iced tea.

At one stage, the startup hit a $1.4 billion valuation, with over $260 million raised. The hype has settled down a little, but Liquid Death quietly raised undisclosed funding in September 2025, at which point the brand was described as one of the fastest-growing beverages in the US. 

20. Printify

5-year search growth: 450%

Website visits (monthly): 7.3 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Location: San Francisco, California

Funding: $54.3M (Series A)

What they do: Printify is an on-demand printing service that makes adding custom designs to physical products relatively easy. Mugs, socks, coffee cups, shirts, and a catalog of over 800 products are available on demand for whatever designs users draw up.

A merger with printing unicorn Printful was announced at the start of 2025. The new joint venture is called Fyul, although both sites still also operate under their own names.

21. Melio

5-year search growth: 83%

Website visits (monthly): 334,400

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2018

Location: New York, New York

Funding: Acquired for $2.5B

What they do: One of the banes of a small business's existence is keeping the books, especially paying and invoicing vendors and contractors. Melio seamlessly syncs with QuickBooks and lets business owners create workflows that streamline the payment process.

The startup's rapid growth was spotted by Xero, who completed a $2.5 billion acquisition in October 2025.

22. Mompush

5-year search growth: 99X+

Website visits (monthly): 87,600

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2019

Location: Ningbo, China (US subsidiary)

Funding: N/A

What they do: Mompush is a made-in-China strollers and high chairs brand. A US subsidiary of Ningbo Weibei Children Products, it's part of the ever-expanding baby care market.

User reviews are consistently strong, prompting major word-of-mouth growth. Its top stroller generates over $100K per month on Amazon.

23. Elegoo

5-year search growth: 642%

Website visits (monthly): 2.3 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2015

Location: Shenzhen, China

Funding: Undisclosed 

What they do: Chinese manufacturing startup Elegoo makes affordable, consumer-level robots, 3D printers, and other machinery. They are pitched at STEM students learning their craft, or consumers with relatively basic requirements.

Having initially raised a little over $3 million from equity crowdfunding, Elegoo received investment from DJI in November 2025. At the time, annual revenue was approximately $230 million, with an average annual growth rate of 40%+ over the last 3 years. 

24. Givebutter

5-year search growth: 2,400%

Website visits (monthly): 2.2 million

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2016

Location: Washington, District of Columbia

Funding: $57M (Series A)

What they do: Givebutter is a fundraising software startup that provides a number of fundraising tools (donation forms, CRM, email management, etc.) for non-profits. Notably, it has an extensive "free forever" tier, with revenue coming from an enhanced Plus tier.  

In April 2024, the company raised $50 million in Series A funding to scale its nonprofit fundraising and CRM tools. As of 2026, it has powered more than $300 million in donations.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fast-Growing Companies

What are the fastest growing companies in the world right now?

The fastest growing companies in the world include AI companies like Perplexity AI and Anthropic, fintech companies like Melio, and consumer brands like Gruns. These companies on the rise span multiple industries and geographies.

What Makes These the Fastest Growing Companies of 2026?

The fastest growing companies of 2026 share several traits: innovative business models, strong product-market fit, and the ability to scale efficiently. These growing companies and high growth companies represent the future of their respective industries.

Many of these trending companies are also considered growth stage companies, having moved beyond initial seed funding and now focused on rapid expansion. The list includes both fastest growing businesses and new companies that have achieved remarkable traction in short periods.

What Do These Rising Companies Have in Common?

The companies on the rise in this list share several characteristics: strong product-market fit, innovative business models, and the ability to adapt quickly. Whether they're emerging companies in new categories or established players accelerating growth, each has demonstrated remarkable momentum

How do you identify emerging companies?

Emerging companies typically show rapid revenue growth, increasing market share, and strong user adoption. The rising companies on this list have demonstrated increasing search growth and significant funding rounds.

What makes a company a "rapidly growing company"?

Rapidly growing companies typically show exponential growth in key metrics like revenue, users, or market share. The hottest companies right now often combine innovative products with strong market timing.

Key Takeaways

These rising companies and emerging companies are showing the world that growth is very much possible in 2026. The fastest growing companies in the world on this list prove that companies on the rise can emerge from any sector or geography. 

Notably, these rapidly growing companies come from a wide range of founders, backgrounds, locations, and industries. From the hottest companies right now in AI to consumer products, this diversity shows that opportunity exists across all markets.

The Exploding Topics database is the best way to keep on top of fast-growing startups, products, and trends across all industries. Sign up today for a free trial. 

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