Top Social Startups in 2024

Strava is Swedish for “strive,” which epitomizes our attitude and ambition: We’re a passionate and committed team, unified by our mission to build the most engaged community of athletes in the world. Every day, we’re searching for new ways to inspire athletes and make the sports they love even more fun. But it’s not only about achieving – we’re an inclusive team, dedicated to elevating each other and the members of our community. That balanced approach has helped us revolutionize our industry, and we’re just getting started. Millions of athletes are on Strava, millions more will come. When you’re ready for a challenge and a team that will support you along the way, join us.

42 million Americans receive government benefits for programs like food stamps on an EBT card. They spend a combined $66 billion every year through EBT cards, making it one of the most important payment methods in the United States. But the EBT card isn't very user-friendly - in order to check your balance, you have to call a phone hotline or save your old grocery receipt. As a result, poverty-fighting programs like food stamps aren't nearly as effective as they could be. We build Fresh EBT, a free smartphone app that allows EBT cardholders to see their balance and transaction history, in seconds, for free. Fresh EBT provides much more than EBT card services: we aim to build a platform for financial health by helping our users save money on groceries, set a budget, and find jobs. Fresh EBT has over a million monthly active users across the country and is one of the top finance apps on Android and iOS.

Snackpass is building the social layer for local commerce, starting with restaurants. We believe that in 5 years, restaurants will be entirely cashier-less. Snackpass mobile order and kiosk are the next generation of the in-store customer experience, replacing traditional registers. We enable mobile ordering, group buying, and social rewards for users. On our platform, restaurants grow their brand by converting offline purchasers into digital followers, while saving on labor costs. image While we’ve seen the rise of online delivery apps, delivery makes up less than 10% of the restaurant market. The rest — takeout and dine-in — is a $600B market that remains offline, anonymous, and on the verge of disruption. There is an opportunity to make these offline transactions digital, self-service, and connected, and we’re leading this movement. Snackpass is one the largest social commerce platforms in the US, one of the fastest growing marketplaces, and a top 100 YC company. And we've built this with a team of under 40 people. The environment at Snackpass is high impact, fast paced, and empowering for everyone. We are growing fast and looking for hungry and humble builders to join us in any of our hubs (NYC, SF, LA) or remotely.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges—from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our local communities. Across our focus areas — Science, Education, Community and alongside our Justice & Opportunity partners — we pair technology with grantmaking, impact investing, and collaboration to help accelerate the pace of progress towards an equitable future. We engage directly in the communities we serve because no one understands how to address our society’s challenges better than those who live them everyday. These partners help us identify problems and opportunities, learn fast and iterate toward our audacious goals for the next century. We strive to be humble, empathetic and scrappy life-long learners who work collaboratively to develop community-centered solutions.

We are energized by complex, multistakeholder spaces where the solutions are not obvious and the potential for impact is high. Our work spans a broad cross-section of topics across four focus areas: education and the future of work, scientific breakthroughs, future of health, and infrastructure. We are agile, “no surprises” consultants who work hand-in-hand with government, foundation, and private-sector clients. To help organizations “make it real,” we convene multidisciplinary stakeholders, facilitate alignment among partners, map ecosystems, create frameworks for thoughtful and considered decision-making, build scenarios around opportunity areas, select pathways, design strategic programs — and ultimately, operationalize and launch new initiatives. When the bets are big and the stakes are high, our clients come to us for rapid alignment, smart strategies, and agile execution. We deliberately design pilots and incentive programs for both short-term and long-term ambitions. When Osso VR won the EdSim Challenge, it was a newly established company. Since then, the company has deployed its solution in more than 20 global hospital residency programs and now employs over 100 people. Last year, the winner of the Opioid Detection Challenge was awarded a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) contract to conduct the first phase of a pilot program; its advanced threat algorithms detect narcotics and opioids that are shipped and concealed in mail and other packages. And the results of MagQuest will inform the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s acquisition strategy for a World Magnetic Model data collection capability, with an expected procurement that can provide operational capacity by 2027. We also design pilot programs to validate and refine concepts: CTE CyberNet, initially a three-location pilot, is now set to expand into additional locations.

Before i got my actual name 'Journey' the actual journey of how my name evolved and how i developed an identity is an interesting story.   I was going to be named Uplift, Mutually, United, Together and what not. But when my actual mission was being ideated upon, Journey was something which resonated the most. Because i'm all about that; About connecting people who are on this life's journey together, trying out new things, exploring themselves. While i was growing up, many people questioned how was i different than others. And my answer was always the same - that i was about the process. The goal is the outcome of the process, and while my fellow friends (Facebook and Instagram) were about sharing your achievements, showcase your life at best - i was about showcasing your life as it goes through, with the people who could understand. I was more real. I was about the journey, and my mission was to bring people in this journey together, give them an environment which motivates them to pursue their interests and move forward. I am on a mission to bring this connected but still disconnected world closer. Because i believe that when people collaborate & connect, it gives birth to new ideas and innovation. I aim to create journeys for us humans to advance forward faster, while bringing out the best in all.

Our platform empowers buyers at the campaign level with the most expressive bid capabilities in market, full-funnel attribution, and detailed reporting that illustrates the consumer journey from initial impression to conversion. By maintaining a pure buy-side focus, The Trade Desk delivers on branding and performance for clients worldwide - our clients run the gamut from ad networks offering new services in RTB, data owners looking to leverage their information, agency trading desks, to the most sophisticated buyers in RTB. How did we, and do we, continue to gather our clients? By offering a full breadth of resources and support, shipping new product features each week, and, among other core innovations, building bidding tools that target a consumer one minute after they visit a website. We’re proud to be setting the stage for the future of online advertising.

The engine’s defining principle is to support startups that seek to create material positive impact on society. by prioritizing breakthrough ideas over early profit, we strive to catalyze new fields and push the boundaries of innovation. launched by mit, we bridge the gap between discovery and commercialization by empowering disruptive technologies with the long-term capital, knowledge, network connections, and the specialized equipment and labs they need to thrive.