2021 Best Tech Startups in Washington, D.C.

August 25, 2020August 20, 2021 thetechtribune

The Tech Tribune staff has compiled the very best tech startups in Washington, D.C. In doing our research, we considered several factors including but not limited to:

Revenue potential
Leadership team
Brand/product traction
Competitive landscape

Additionally, all companies must be independent (unacquired), privately owned, at most 10 years old, and have received at least one round of funding in order to qualify.

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1. Optoro

Founded: 2010

Also honored in:

“Optoro is using innovative technology to solve a large, and growing, global problem. Every year, over 15% of inventory is returned or deemed excess, costing retailers $500 billion nationwide. Optoro’s software platform helps retailers optimize the management of returned and excess inventory in a more efficient and cost-effective way, maximizing recovery value, enabling consumers to get great deals, and reducing environmental waste. Working with some of the largest retailers in the US, Optoro’s software platform has enabled its clients to maximize recovery costs by 50 – 200%.

Founded in 2010, Optoro has been named one of the fastest growing companies in the US. Optoro has also received many awards and accolades, including CNBC’s Disruptor 50, EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year and the World Economic Forum’s Circular Economy Award, Most recently, Optoro was named a “Top Workplace” in DC by The Washington Post.”

2. Mapbox

Founded: 2010

Also honored in:

“Mapbox is the only mapping platform built just for designers and developers.

Give your apps the power of location with APIs for maps, geocoding, turn-by-turn navigation, route optimization, interactive data visualization, custom map styles, and more. Bring lightning-fast maps and location experiences to every user with Mapbox SDKs for iOS, Android, Javascript, Qt, and Unity.”

3. Virtru

Founded: 2011

Also honored in:

“At Virtru, we have an ambitious mission: to unlock the power of data by helping create a world where it is always under your control. Everywhere.

Our flexible, easy to use, and trusted privacy technologies govern access to data throughout its full lifecycle – from creation through sharing, storage, analysis, and action. Virtru’s portfolio of products include:

Data privacy solutions that transparently integrate into commonly used applications, such as email and file sharing, providing automatic security and total control. Plus, a set of privacy engineering tools for Developers that can be easily and seamlessly integrated into any application, connected device, and infrastructure.”

4. Arcadia

Founded: 2014

Also honored in: 2020 Best Tech Startups in Washington, D.C.

“Arcadia is building the utility of the future. As the first nationwide digital utility, our technology gives everyone easy access to clean energy, savings programs and transaction-fee free payment options. Arcadia members have access to a mobile-optimized online dashboard where they can manage their account, track their account activity, and view their energy usage all in one place. Arcadia’s digital transformation of the traditional energy utility gives individuals greater control over what energy they support, how much it costs, and how they pay.

Founded in 2014, the company’s platform now integrates with more than 100 utilities in all 50 states and is used by more than 350,000 people. Arcadia Power members have generated over 1 billion of clean energy and averted over 320k tons of CO2 emissions to-date. For more information, visit www.arcadia.com.”

5. Rally Health

Founded: 2010

Also honored in: 2020 Best Tech Startups in Washington, D.C.

“Rally® believes in putting health care in the hands of individuals with a seamless experience, providing personalized, data-driven information and recommendations that can help improve outcomes and decrease costs for everyone. Rally’s Health Solutions help members set personalized daily goals, gives recommendations, and incentivizes progress with rewards. Rally’s Care Solutions make health benefits easy to understand and care easy to find on the computer or the Rally app. More than 20 million consumers currently have access to the Rally platform through payers such as UnitedHealthcare, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and thousands of employer groups. Across offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and Las Vegas, Rallyers have dedicated themselves to transforming the health care industry for the better—Together. For more information, or to learn about job opportunities, please visit www.RallyHealth.com.”

6. Fundrise

Founded: 2010

Also honored in:

“Fundrise was born from the belief that everyone deserves a simpler, smarter, more reliable way to invest. We’re the first investment platform to create a simple, low-cost way for anyone to unlock real estate’s historically consistent, exceptional returns. By combining innovative technology with world-class active, opportunistic real estate private equity management, Fundrise delivers access to a level of investment performance that only the wealthiest investors have enjoyed — until now.

Fundrise has been honored on Washington Post’s 2018 Top Workplaces, Inc.’s 5000 fastest-growing companies in the US in 2018, and Forbes FinTech 50 in 2016, 2017 and 2018.”

7. FiscalNote

Founded: 2013

Also honored in:

“FiscalNote is a technology and media company that provides information services and software that connects the world to their governments. As the premier hub of domestic and global government information, FiscalNote’s comprehensive suite of software solutions offers customers and readers policy data, news, analysis and award-winning journalism.

FiscalNote’s media division, CQ Roll Call, serve as an integral part of FiscalNote’s mission to connect people around the world to their government.

Our mission is to build the world’s most powerful platform for analyzing government risk and opportunity. For organizations facing government impact, FiscalNote is the platform for professionals to plan and execute their organization’s government risk strategy. Our fierce curiosity and insatiable urge for the next challenge pours into our company culture.”

8. Upside.com

Founded: 2015

Also honored in:

“Upside Business Travel is revolutionizing travel management for small to mid-sized companies, with no fees, no contracts and no commitments. Upside’s end-to-end platform combines high-tech tools and high-touch support to move businesses forward.”

9. Kit Check

Founded: 2011

Also honored in:

“Kit Check is the leading provider of automated medication tracking and diversion detection solutions for hospital pharmacies in the U.S., bringing visibility, simplicity, and predictability to the complex world of medication supply management. Our groundbreaking medication intelligence platforms provide item level visibility, workflow simplicity and actionable analytics, empowering stakeholders to deliver the right medicine to the right patient at the right time, every time. To date, our more than 500 U.S. and Canadian hospital partners have tracked more than 100 million medications using Kit Check’s namesake RFID product. Bluesight™ for Controlled Substances software is currently in use in more than 100 hospitals including full health system implementations, with nearly 9 million cases tracked, and was ranked #1 in the Drug Diversion Monitoring category in the 2019 Best in KLAS report.”

10. Aquicore

Founded: 2012

“Aquicore is a leading commercial real estate software company with an all-in-one real estate operations and performance optimization platform. Built from the ground up as a portfolio-wide solution, Aquicore’s cloud-based platform tracks, analyzes and predicts key building performance factors in real time to unlock portfolio-grade actionable insights, streamlining overall business operations and increasing property value and operating incomes. With self-installable IoT sensors, Aquicore offers the only asset operations solution on the market that can be implemented in a matter of days – not months. The Aquicore platform is currently deployed at more than 700 office buildings nationwide, including the John Hancock Tower, Salesforce Tower, National Press Building, Promenade and NASCAR Plaza. Aquicore’s clients include Cushman & Wakefield, Cousins, Normandy, ASB Real Estate Investments, Lincoln Property Company, MRP Realty, Under Armour, Facebook, and The World Bank. For more information, visit http://www.aquicore.com and follow Aquicore on Twitter @Aquicore.”