50 Successful Companies With Minimal Funding

When you skim the headlines it seems like all successful companies see big money. I bet you barely raise an eyebrow at the fact that Didi Chuxing has secured $20.1 billion. Or how Lyft has raised $4.3 billion for their ride-sharing app. Hell, even Wag, the dog-walking app, has secured $361.5 million.

Upgrade to Crunchbase Pro to perform your own market research.

With numbers like these, it seems like every startup needs big funding to see big revenue. However, we’ve found that’s not always the case. We used Crunchbase Pro to debunk this myth and dug up 50 of the most successful companies that have built themselves on minimal funding.

50 Successful Companies with Minimal Funding

Consumer First

1. YouTube
Total Funding Amount: $11.5M
Revenue: $7.5B

You may have heard of this one. Number one on our list of successful companies, YouTube enables users to upload, view, and share videos. Prior to being acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.7B, YouTube was created in 2005 by three former PayPal employees.

PrivateFly Cofounder, Carol Cork

PrivateFly Cofounder, Carol Cork | Photo Credit: Executive Destinations

2. PrivateFly
Total Funding Amount: £2M
Revenue: $30.4M
PrivateFly is a booking platform for private jet charter bookings. Previously, PrivateFly was listed as one of the UK’s fastest-growing private companies and was founded in 2008.

3. crowdSPRING
Total Funding Amount: $2M
Revenue: $246M
crowdSPRING is an online marketplace that enables buying and selling creative services, including logo design, industrial design, and copywriting needs.

4. TripAdvisor
Total Funding Amount: $3.3M
Revenue: $1.6B
Founded in 2000, the free travel guide and research website was acquired in 2005 by Expedia and went public in 2011.

5. MeUndies
Total Funding Amount: $10.4M
Revenue: $60M
A basics apparel company, MeUndies was named one of Forbes Top 25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands for 2015. As a vertically integrated, direct to consumer company, MeUndies designs, manufactures, markets, and ships directly to their customers.

Successful Companies: MeUndies

Photo Credit: Pikcat (www.pikcat.com/shok1)

6. LiveDeal
Total Funding Amount: $3M
Revenue: $160.2M
LiveDeal lets restaurants publish live offers to nearby consumers. LiveDeal has been publicly traded since its founding in 2003.

7. MixBook
Total Funding Amount: $11M
Revenue: $25M
MixBook is a design tool to help users create customized photo products like books, cards, calendars, and wall canvases. Founded in 2006, MixBook was founded by two UC Berkeley alumni and was profitable by 2009.

8. Khan Academy
Total Funding Amount: $10.2M
Revenue: $25.1M
As a non-profit, Khan Academy’s materials and resources are free of charge including micro lectures and tools for educators. With $10.2 million of funding in grants, Khan Academy has built its company to $25.1 million in revenue.

9. Zeel
Total Funding Amount: $13.2M
Revenue: $23.8M
Zeel provides on-demand massages from vetted therapists. Zeel is the leading on-demand massage company with over 10,000 licensed massage therapists in its network.

10. Tough Mudder
Total Funding Amount: $0
Revenue: $34.1M
Tough Mudder is a 10+ mile obstacle course headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2009, Tough Mudder pre-sold registrations to construct their electrified obstacle courses.

E-Commerce Redefined

11. EVINE Live
Total Funding Amount: $10M
Revenue: $511.9M
EVINE Live is a digital retailer based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Their television network delivers entertainment shopping along with their mobile, online, and social channels.

12. MOO.com
Total Funding Amount: $9.7M
Revenue: $75M
MOO prints business cards as well as other printed products and distinguishes themselves off their unique design. MOO has raised $5M in a Series A, (the rest of their funding is part of a debt financing round) and boasts $75 million in revenue.

Successful Companies: MOO.com

Photo Credit: The Estate Office Shoreditch (www.estateoffice.com)

13. Spreadshirt
Total Funding Amount: $12.7M
Revenue: $108.8M
Founded in 2002, Spreadshirt is a global e-commerce platform for print-on-demand apparel and accessories. Their investors include Kennet Partners and Accel.

Customers Come First

14. Alorica
Total Funding Amount: $2.6M
Revenue: $1.2B
Alorica is a customer management platform with more than 600 million consumer interactions curated annually.

15. Stratics Networks
Total Funding Amount: $3M
Revenue: $44.7M
Stratics Networks is a voice broadcast, hosted outbound IVR, and call center solution. Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Stratics Networks was founded in 2013.

Data, Data Everywhere

16. Tableau
Total Funding Amount: $15M
Revenue: $923.4M
Helping people visualize and analyze their data, Tableau lives in the business intelligence industry. Tableau was founded in 2003 by a then-Ph.D. candidate, one of the founding members of Pixar, as well as Stanford MBA graduate, and went public in 2013.

Successful Companies: Tableau Founders

Photo Credit: GeekWire (www.geekwire.com)

17. Green House Data
Total Funding Amount: $3.8M
Revenue: $60M
Based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Green House Data was founded in 2007 to help businesses with high-availability and raw power for business infrastructure. With nine data center locations across the country, Green House Data prides itself on its support, while powering their company completely with renewable energy.

18. Sphere 3d
Total Funding Amount: $7.5M
Revenue: $79.1M
Sphere 3D Corp delivers data management, and desktop and application virtualization via hybrid Cloud, Cloud, and on-premise implementations. Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada went public in 2013.

As a Service

19. Madwire
Total Funding Amount: $12.5M
Revenue: $79M
Madwire is a is a Software and a Service hybrid (SaSH) and combines a CRM and professional marketing services through one platform. Founded in 2009, Madwire was created to combine provide digital marketing software and professional marketing services for businesses.

20. Trianz
Total Funding Amount: $14M
Revenue: $70M
Trianz is a management and consulting firm strategizing around cloud, analytics, digitalization, and security solutions based in Santa Clara, California.

21. Chainalytics
Total Funding Amount: $10M
Revenue: $30M
Chainalytics is a supply chain consulting, analytics, and market intelligence platform. Chainalytics has locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. They’ve raised $10 million from the Global Environment Fund.

22. Roc Technologies
Total Funding Amount: £10M
Revenue: $33.4M
Roc is a transformation services provider. Working with enterprise customers, the public sector, and with partners, Roc helps with everything from process mapping, project advice, to networks and data centers.

Successful Companies: Roc Technologies Founder

Photo Credit: The Business Magazine (www.businessmag.co.uk)

23. Kogeto
Total Funding Amount: $2.4M
Revenue: $803M
Based in New York, Kogeto creates 360-degree video capture solutions for virtual reality and immersive cinema applications. Kogeto is the only one of our successful companies with minimal funding that is also a virtual reality company.

24. Accedo
Total Funding Amount: $11.3M
Revenue: $32.8M
Hungary-based, Accedo provides interactive apps for smart TVs and connected TV devices for media companies, consumer electronics, and TV operators.

HR and Recruiting Revolution

25. Beeline
Total Funding Revenue: $75K
Revenue: $200M
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Beeline offers workforce intelligence solutions for companies to manage their contractor and project-based labor force.

26. Rethink Group
Total Funding Amount: £2.5M
Revenue: $137.6M
Rethink Group delivers recruitment and talent management services internationally. Founded in 2005, Rethink Group is based in London.

Advertising and Marketing Moneymakers

27. AdStage
Total Funding Amount: $15.3M
Revenue: $500M
AdStage is an advertising technology startup focused on their closed-loop reporting and automation platform for paid media campaigns.

28. Viewpoints
Total Funding Amount: $5M
Revenue: $85M
Viewpoints is a consumer review and product ranking website. In 2014, Viewpoints acquired PowerReviews. The two companies have now merged under the PowerReviews brand.

29. StackCommerce
Total Funding Amount: $800K
Revenue: $51.4M
StackCommer builds native commerce solutions for new revenue streams for publishers while working with brand partners to reach relevant audiences. Securing less than $1 million in funding, the Venice, California-based company has reached $50 million in revenue.

Successful Companies: StackCommerce

30. The Mobile Majority, now known as Gimbal
Total Funding Amount: $10.3M
Revenue: $33.7M
Santa Monica-based, Gimbal is an ad tech startup with a vertically integrated, end-to-end mobile advertising platform. Originally known as The Mobile Majority, after their acquisition of Gimbal for their location and proximity technology in December 2016, The Mobile Majority rebranded as Gimbal.

31. ReviMedia
Total Funding Amount: $12.5M
Revenue: $30.8M
ReviMedia is a lead generation company with lead scoring tools and verification.

Mobile First

32. StartApp
Total Funding Amount: $4.3M
Revenue: $69.4M
New York-based, StartApp is a mobile media and data company that helps partners optimize their mobile strategies. StartApp reaches 1 billion monthly active users worldwide and partners with over 400,000 applications.

33. Digital Management
Total Funding Amount: $8.4M
Revenue: $332.5M
Founded in 2002, Digital Management was founded by Sunny Bajaj in a basement when he was 25 years old. Digital Management provides end-to-end mobile solutions, covering everything from big data insights to brand and marketing.

34. Universe
Total Funding Amount: $2.5M
Revenue: $783M
Based in San Francisco, Universe is a website where users can find events in their area and event organizers can publicize their events. Universe was acquired by Ticketmaster in June of 2015. 

Successful Companies: StartApp

Photo Credit: Crain’s New York Business (www.crainsnewyork.com)

35. Airpush
Total Funding Amount: $400K
Revenue: $100M
Based in Los Angeles, California, Airpush is a mobile ad network that allows advertisers to access its first-party data layer. With some of the most minimal funding of these successful companies, Airpush has raised a mere $400K in seed funding since its founding. 

36. 3Cinteractive
Total Funding Amount: $8M
Revenue: $27.3M
3CInteractive is a mobile marketing service based in Boca Raton, Florida. 3Cinteractive connects mobile to business results for their customers.

Transportation to your Next Destination

37. Spireon
Total Funding Amount: $7.7
Revenue: $170M
Spireon is a connected vehicle intelligence company to help businesses and consumer manage their mobile assets. For example, their platform covers vehicle data, trip data, as well as driving behavior.

38. Agilis Systems
Total Funding Amount: $5M
Revenue: $29.1M
Agilis Systems provides fleet and workforce management solutions for small to mid-sized service companies and fleets. Furthermore, they deliver a location-based solution with a SaaS platform to improve fleet management, increase worker productivity, and reduce operating cost.

39. CarGurus
Total Funding Amount: $1.8M
Revenue: $313.1M
CarGurus was founded in Langly Steinert, co-founder of TripAdvisor (also on this list), and was created to simplify the process of car shopping and selling. Similar to the trajectory of some of our other successful companies on this list, CarGurus went public in October 2017.

Living in the Cloud

40. Cequens
Total Funding Amount: $1M
Revenue: $37.9M
Cairo-based Cequens is a cloud communications platform offering customer engagement and two-factor authentication services. Offering mobile messaging solutions, Cequens serves mobile telecom operators, aggregators, public authorities, and large public and private companies.

41. Velocity Technology Solutions
Total Funding Amount: $15M
Revenue: $151.9M
Velocity Technology Solutions is a leader in enterprise and business application services, fully- managed and protected within a virtual, private, public or hybrid cloud founded in 2003.

42. Veeva
Total Funding Amount: $7M
Revenue: $723.2M
Veeva is a cloud-based software provider for the global life science industry. With over 625 companies, Veeva’s last investment was from Emergence Capital Partners in 2008. Additionally, Veeva went public in 2013.

Successful Companies: Veeva

Photo Credit: CNBC (www.cnbc.com)

43. DiCentral
Total Funding Amount: $15M
Revenue: $25.2M
Founded in 2000, DiCentral is a Cloud-based B2Bi Managed Services, which allows organizations to connect and exchange business documents within their trading community. Based in Houston, Texas, they are a global provider with 10 offices worldwide.

Banks are So 1950s: FinTech, Money, and Finance

44. PayMate India
Total Funding Amount: $14M
Revenue: $100M
Founded in 2006, PayMate India is a provider of business to business payment solutions. Additionally, PayMate is headquartered in Mumbai and counts its investors as Lightbox Ventures and Mayfield Fund.

45. ayondo
Total Funding Amount: $10.3M
Revenue: $59.8M
ayondo is a retail trading and investment space. On March 26, 2018, ayondo celebrated its first trading day and achieve becoming the first FinTech company to list on Singapore’s Stock Exchange.

46. Kickstarter
Total Funding Amount: $10M
Revenue: $34.6M
Kickstarter is an online crowdfunding platform that enables artists, musicians, filmmakers, and other creators to raise funds for various community projects. The platform was launched in April 2009 and is based in New York, U.S.

Successful Companies: Kickstarter

Photo Credit: WIRED (www.wired.com)

47. Paymentus
Total Funding Amount: $3.6M
Revenue: $180M
Paymentus provides a payment network that allows consumers to pay billing companies in real-time via any funding method.

48. Foliofn
Total Funding Amount: $15M
Revenue: $61.2M
Foliofn is a brokerage and investment company serving U.S. investors, financial advisors, and financial institutions. Founded in 2000, Foliofn counts DFJ and American Century Ventures as its investors.

Healthcare and Telemedicine Today

49. LifeLabs
Total Funding Amount: $2.3M
Revenue: $50M
After following the acquisition of BC Biomedical and CML Healthcare in 2013, LifeLabs nearly doubled in size providing approximately 100 million diagnostic tests annually. As one of the successful companies on our list, LifeLabs is one of the largest medical laboratory networks in Canada to date.

50. GlobalMedia Group
Total Funding Amount: $855.6K
Revenue: $34.5M
Founded in 2002, GlobalMedia Group is a telemedicine company that engages in the R&D, design, engineering, manufacture, and support of their solutions. Moreover, their platform includes telemedicine stations, examination cameras, medical devices, and software for patient care.

Lessons Learned from these Successful Companies

These companies range from all sectors and locations. Whether a household name or not, these successful companies were able to build successful and profitable companies without the giant funding rounds. The lesson learned here? These successful companies are proof that success doesn’t require loads of funding (but sometimes it can help 😉). 

Methodology

For this article, we looked at companies with under $20 million in funding or less and used revenue data.

  • Originally published July 19, 2019, updated April 26, 2023