Fastest Growing Gen AI Startups to Watch in the U.S. 2024 

The generative AI market is experiencing explosive growth, with the global market size expected to reach $66.62 billion by the end of 2024, up from $44.89 billion in 2023 – a staggering 48.4% year-over-year increase. This rapid expansion is driven by widespread adoption across industries, with 92% of Fortune 500 firms already implementing generative AI solutions. 

As the market continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, several U.S.-based startups are emerging as frontrunners in the generative AI race. Here are some of the fastest-growing generative AI startups to watch in 2024:

Anthropic

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, including CEO Dario Amodei, Anthropic is a major player in generative AI. The San Francisco startup focuses on developing safe and reliable AI systems, with its Claude family of language models competing against industry giants. Anthropic has attracted significant investments, including up to $4 billion from Amazon and $2 billion from Google. Under Amodei’s leadership, the company emphasizes AI safety and transparency, using innovative approaches like “AI Safety via Debate” and “Factored Cognition.” Amodei, with a PhD in physics from Princeton, brings valuable expertise to guide Anthropic’s mission of aligning powerful AI systems with human values.

Perplexity

Co-founded in 2022 by CEO Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is a rapidly growing AI-powered search engine and question-answering platform. The company has gained traction with over 10 million monthly active users and $165 million in funding, valued at over $1 billion. Srinivas, holding a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and a former AI researcher at OpenAI, leads the mission to revolutionize online information retrieval. Perplexity’s AI provides direct, sourced answers to queries, setting it apart from traditional search engines.

Hugging Face

Founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Hugging Face is a pioneering AI company known for its open-source machine learning platform. As CEO, Delangue has led the development of the widely-used Transformers library, which simplifies the deployment of state-of-the-art NLP models. Under his leadership, Hugging Face has secured significant funding, including a $235 million Series D round in 2023, valuing the company at $4.5 billion. Delangue’s vision focuses on democratizing AI and fostering a collaborative community, making Hugging Face a central hub for AI researchers and developers worldwide.

AssemblyAI

Founded in 2017 by Dylan Fox, AssemblyAI is a rapidly growing AI company specializing in speech recognition and natural language processing technologies. As CEO, Fox has led the development of cutting-edge APIs that offer advanced speech-to-text transcription, speaker diarization, and content moderation capabilities. Under his leadership, AssemblyAI has secured significant funding, including a $30 million Series B round in 2022, and has attracted major clients across various industries. Fox’s vision for AssemblyAI focuses on making powerful AI tools accessible to developers and businesses, enabling them to easily integrate state-of-the-art speech AI into their applications and workflows. The company’s innovative approach and high-quality APIs have positioned it as a leader in the speech AI market.

Abridge

Founded in 2018 by CEO Dr. Shivdev Rao, along with Florian Metze and Sandeep Konam, Abridge transforms clinical conversations into structured medical documentation. The Pittsburgh-based company uses advanced generative AI to convert patient-clinician interactions into real-time clinical notes, reducing clerical burdens on healthcare providers. Under Dr. Rao’s leadership, Abridge has raised $212.5 million in funding to enhance its AI capabilities. Dr. Rao, a practicing cardiologist, brings extensive healthcare and technology experience, driving Abridge’s mission to improve clinical efficiency and patient care. 

Harvey

Founded in 2022 by Gabriel (Gabe) Pereyra and Winston Weinberg, Harvey focuses on AI solutions for the legal sector. Leveraging OpenAI’s GPT technology, the company provides AI-powered tools for law firms and legal departments. Under CEO Pereyra’s leadership, Harvey has secured $80 million in Series B funding, valuing the company at $715 million. Pereyra, a former DeepMind research scientist and Meta AI engineer, aims to revolutionize legal workflows, with major firms like Allen & Overy and PwC adopting Harvey’s solutions.

Observe.AI

Founded in 2017 by Swapnil Jain, Observe.AI enhances contact center performance with its AI-driven conversation intelligence platform. The company analyzes 100% of customer calls, providing real-time insights and coaching for agents. With over 150 customers, including Root Insurance and Tripadvisor, and $213 million in funding, Observe.AI is a key player in transforming customer service operations. Jain, with product experience from Twitter and Google, leads the company’s growth.

Read AI

Founded in 2021 by David Shim, Read AI enhances productivity with AI-generated summaries, transcripts, and highlights for meetings, emails, and messages. Based in Seattle, the company has secured $21 million in Series A funding. Shim, who previously founded Placed and served as CEO of Foursquare, aims to improve workplace productivity with seamless integration across platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

Prosimo

Founded in 2019 by Ramesh Prabagaran as CEO, Prosimo revolutionizes multi-cloud infrastructure with its Application Experience Infrastructure (AXI) platform. Under Prabagaran’s leadership, the company leverages public cloud infrastructure to simplify and secure multi-cloud application delivery. With recognition such as the 2021 Networking Trailblazers Award, Prosimo is shaping the future of cloud networking and security.

Atomic AI

Founded in 2021 by Raphael Townshend, Atomic AI is at the forefront of RNA drug discovery. The company’s platform uses deep learning to discover and design RNA-targeted small molecules and RNA-based medicines. With $35 million in Series A funding, Townshend’s background in AI and structural biology drives Atomic AI’s mission to unlock new treatments for previously undruggable diseases.

Hebbia

Founded in 2020 by George Sivulka, Hebbia is an AI-powered search engine that transforms knowledge work with semantic search across document collections. Under Sivulka’s leadership, Hebbia has secured $30 million in Series A funding. The company’s AI enhances productivity in fields like finance and law by efficiently extracting insights from complex data.

EvolutionaryScale

Founded in 2023 by Alex Rives as CEO, EvolutionaryScale develops AI for biology, including the ESM3 protein language model. With $142 million in seed funding, Rives’ experience from leading Meta’s AI protein team drives the company’s mission to revolutionize drug discovery and environmental science.

AKASA

Founded in 2019 by Malinka Walaliyadde as CEO, AKASA streamlines revenue cycle management for healthcare providers with AI. The company’s GenAI-powered platform reduces financial complexity and improves operational efficiency in healthcare. Walaliyadde, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, leads AKASA’s mission to transform healthcare operations with AI and machine learning technologies.

Suno

Founded in 2022 by Mikey Shulman as CEO, Suno revolutionizes music creation with AI-generated songs from text prompts. Despite legal challenges, the company has secured significant investment and partnerships with major tech companies. Shulman, with a PhD in physics from Harvard and experience at MIT Sloan School of Management, leads Suno’s mission to democratize music creation while addressing copyright concerns.