ATLANTA, GA (September 16, 2020) – Pindrop, the pioneer in fraud detection and authentication, has been named to the Forbes 2020 Cloud 100, the definitive ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world, published by Forbes in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures.
“It’s truly an honor to be ranked among the most innovative and disruptive cloud companies,” said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder and CEO, Pindrop. “We’ve worked hard to develop a solution that helps our customers effectively secure call centers – a channel that fraudsters increasingly target as call volumes spike due to COVID-19. Being recognized as a Forbes Cloud 100 company for the second year in a row validates the hard work of the entire Pindrop team as we lead the way toward a future of secure, trusted and convenient voice interactions.”
As part of the rigorous selection process for the Forbes 2020 Cloud 100, Bessemer Venture Partners received submissions from hundreds of cloud startups. The Cloud 100 Judging Panel, made up of public cloud company CEOs, reviewed the data to select, score, and rank the top 100 private cloud companies from all over the world. The evaluation process involved ranking companies across four factors: market leadership (35%), estimated valuation (30%), operating metrics (20%), and people & culture (15%).
“The private cloud ecosystem continues to mature in light of rapid digital transformations, making the competition to land one of the coveted spots on the Cloud 100 list steeper than ever,” said Byron Deeter, a top cloud investor, and partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Private cloud valuations are getting bigger as the market’s appetite for cloud continues to grow. Over the past five years, the average Cloud 100 valuation has grown by a tremendous 2.5x, from $1 billion in 2016 to $2.7 billion in 2020. In fact, our 2020 Cloud 100 includes over 87 private cloud unicorns! These founders represent the absolute best in cloud computing today, and they will most certainly follow in the footsteps of our esteemed Cloud 100 alumni. More than a third of the companies of the Cloud 100 have exited either via strategic M&A, financial M&A or Initial Public Offering. Congratulations to these cloud leaders!”
“In the face of this unprecedented time, digital is an urgent imperative, and the pace of innovation is accelerating. Companies around the globe, across all industries, must adopt cloud technologies to enable their digital transformation,” said Matt Garratt, Managing Partner, Salesforce Ventures. “The opportunity is massive for the cloud — there are now more than 25 public SaaS companies valued at over $10 billion whereas even five years ago there were only three. Sectors from collaboration and security to retail and healthcare, are being disrupted and becoming more digital. Salesforce Ventures is excited to be partnering with Bessemer Venture Partners and Forbes for the fifth year in a row to recognize those who are not just predicting what’s coming but working to create the future.”
“For five years now, we have ranked the best and brightest emerging companies in the cloud sector,” said Alex Konrad, Forbes editor of The Cloud 100. “With so many businesses growing fast in the cloud, from data infrastructure to marketing, it’s harder than ever to make the Cloud 100 list – but with more elite company if you do. Congratulations to each of the 2020 Cloud 100 honorees and the 20 Rising Stars honorees poised to join their ranks!”
The Forbes 2020 Cloud 100 and 20 Rising Stars lists are published online at www.forbes.com/cloud100 and will appear in the September 2020 issue of Forbes magazine.
The Cloud 100 and the 20 Rising Stars companies are publicly recognized at this year’s first-ever virtual Cloud 100 with memorable discussions from top cloud CEOs at thecloud100.com on September 16th from 9:00am PT -12:00pm PT hosted by Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Forbes. A special thank you to our virtual event sponsors Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bank of America, Cooley, FuelxMcKinsey, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, Qatalyst Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Simon-Kucher & Partners, and WisdomTree.
About Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners is the world’s most experienced early-stage venture capital firm. With a portfolio of more than 200 companies, Bessemer helps visionary entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to create companies that matter, and supports them through every stage of their growth. The firm has backed more than 120 IPOs, including Pinterest, Shopify, Yelp, LinkedIn, Skype, LifeLock, Twilio, SendGrid, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, and MindBody. Bessemer’s 15 partners operate from offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Israel, and India. For more information, please visit www.bvp.com.
About Forbes
The defining voice of entrepreneurial capitalism, Forbes champions success by celebrating those who have made it, and those who aspire to make it. Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 160 million people worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature LIVE and Forbes Virtual events, custom marketing programs and 40 licensed local editions in 70 countries. Forbes Media’s brand extensions include real estate, education and financial services license agreements. For more information, visit the Forbes News Hub or Forbes Connect.
About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Salesforce Ventures, the global investment arm of Salesforce, invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce Ventures is building the world’s largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and extending that technology to customers. Portfolio companies receive funding, strategic advisory, and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 400companies, including DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, Zoom, and others across 22 countries since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.
About Pindrop
Pindrop solutions are leading the way to the future of voice by establishing the standard for identity, security and trust for every voice interaction. Pindrop solutions protect some of the biggest banks, insurers, and retailers in the world using patented technology that extracts an unrivaled amount of intelligence from every call and voice encountered. Pindrop solutions help detect fraudsters and authenticate genuine customers, reducing fraud and operational costs, while improving customer experience and protecting brand reputation. Pindrop, a privately held company, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, was founded in 2011 by Dr. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Dr. Paul Judge and Dr. Mustaque Ahamad and is venture-backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures, Felicis Ventures, CapitalG, GV, IVP and Vitruvian Partners. For more information, please visit www.pindrop.com.
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Contact:
Willa Pearl Hahn