Company
The InformationWeek Startup 50: Business Technology Companies To Watch
By Andrew Conry-Murray
They compete across a range of technologies, but the biggest concentration falls in virtualization, the cloud, and SaaS.
$601.8 million. That's how much venture capital has been invested in the InformationWeek Startup 50, a group of up-and-coming technology vendors chosen through a three-step process of nomination, online voting, and editorial vetting.
The companies that made our list were assessed on the following criteria: innovation in technology or business model; value, delivered in lower costs, increased sales, higher productivity, or improved customer loyalty; and enterprise readiness, meaning a product that scales and is ready for deployment. What follows is the full Startup 50 list, along with profiles of five companies from the list that represent the innovative ways these startups solve critical IT problems, cut costs, and improve operations.
To be considered, the newbies could be no more than 5 years old. Our finalists address a range of business technology challenges, but the biggest concentration of entrepreneurial energy falls into three areas: virtualization, cloud computing, and software as a service.
The inevitable shakeout that will come to those red-hot markets points to two things. One, that startups can offer competitive advantage in the form of emerging technologies. And two, tech's leading edge entails risk, as some startups won't make it. This list narrows the field to help IT pros better assess that trade-off.