Now in its 14th year, CNBC's annual Disruptor 50 list looks at the most promising venture-backed companies innovating across industries, experimenting with AI and, increasingly, making it work at scale.
CNBC Disruptor 50

The complete history of the CNBC Disruptor 50

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You may be surprised to learn that Shopify has had the best return of any recent tech IPO. We aren't. Maybe you knew about Snap but had to look up the names Cloudera and Okta when they went public, or even did a double take when Unilever spent a billion dollars to acquire Dollar Shave Club or when Hewlett-Packard bought SimpliVity last year. You could have learned about all of these start-ups on previous years' CNBC Disruptor 50 lists. This year marks the fifth year of the CNBC Disruptor 50, and in that short history a lot has changed for these companies. Seventeen past Disruptors are now public companies; 13 have been acquired; three of the previous Disruptors went the way of many start-ups: bankrupt. Seven companies have made the Disruptor list all five years. Below is the complete history of the CNBC Disruptor 50, with details on every start-up to make the list between 2013 and 2017.

Company 2017 rank 2016 rank 2015 rank 2014 rank 2013 made the list* Material changes
23andMe125--Yes-
3D Robotics----Yes-
Aereo---7YesBankrupt November 21, 2014. It was later purchased by DVR company TiVo for $1 million in March 2015.
Airbnb12541Yes-
AngelList ---26--
Apptio ---30-IPO September 23, 2016
Atlassian----YesIPO December 10, 2015
Audax Health----YesAcquired by United Health Care February 19, 2014
Betterment --3645--
Bill.com ---37--
Birchbox--4350-Acquired by Viking Global Investors May 2, 2018
Blippar30919---
Bloom Energy2363---
Blue Apron42----IPO June 29, 2017
Boku----YesIPO November 20, 2017
Box----YesIPO January 23, 2015
BrightRoll---27-Acquired by Yahoo November 11, 2014
Bromium----Yes-
BuzzFeed----Yes-
Castlight Health----YesIPO March 17, 2014
ChargePoint---12--
CircleUp----Yes-
Cloudera-14---IPO April 28, 2017
CloudFlare-24----
Coinbase --3135--
Cool Planet Energy Systems ---25--
Coursera2610----
CrowdStrike11-----
Cylance940----
DAQRI-15----
Dataminr-43-13--
Deezer-36----
Diamond Foundry-33----
DocuSign 39-1329-IPO April 27, 2018
Dollar Shave Club --37--Acquired by Unilever July 19, 2016
Domo29-----
DraftKings --45---
Drawbridge24-----
Dropbox3642624YesIPO March 23, 2018
EcoMotors---22-Shut down September 2017
Etsy---3YesIPO April 1, 2015
Ezetap163----
Fon---40--
Foursquare46---Yes-
Fullscreen ---21-Acquired by Otter Media/ Chernin Group/ AT&T September 22, 2014
GENBAND--22--Merged with Sonus Networks May 23, 2017
Getaround----Yes-
Ginger.io----Yes-
Ginkgo Bioworks77----
GitHub2248206--
Grab4-----
GreenSky17-----
HackerRank --30---
Hampton Creek Foods--2436--
Hearsay Social --39---
HotelTonight----Yes-
Houzz61111---
Humacyte-37----
IEX21-----
Illumio32-----
Impossible Foods --42---
INRIX----Yes-
InsideSales.com-31----
Instacart-50----
Intarcia Therapeutics --29---
Jaunt2547----
Kabam----YesAcquired by Netmarble January 25, 2017
Kabbage-35----
Kickstarter---49Yes-
Klarna-833---
Kumu Networks---44--
Kymeta---46Yes-
LanzaTech-13----
Lending Club---33YesIPO December 11, 2014
LightSail Energy ----Yes-
LISNR-4512---
LiveU----Yes-
Lyft227----
MakerBot----YesAcquired by Stratasys June 19, 2013
Medium-26----
MicroSeismic----Yes-
Moderna Therapeutics184118--
MongoDB27192742-IPO October 19, 2017
Motif Investing-44234--
Narrative Science --46---
Nebula---31-Bankrupt April 1, 2015
Nest Labs----YesAcquired by Google January 13, 2014
Nexmo ---39-Acquired by Vonage May 5, 2016
Nextdoor --49---
Nutanix --44--IPO September 30, 2016
Okta-38---IPO April 7, 2017
Opower----YesIPO April 4, 2014. Acquired by Oracle May 1, 2016
Optoro--38---
Oscar-171743--
OUYA----YesAcquired by Razer July 28, 2015
Palantir Technologies8475Yes-
Payoneer40-----
Persado48-----
Personal Capital--1817--
Phononic3318----
Picarro----Yes-
Pinterest31463532Yes-
Progyny13-----
Pure Storage--1619-IPO October 6, 2015
Qualtrics28-----
Qubole --48---
Quid50-----
Quirky--1518YesBankrupt September 22, 2015
Redfin---34-IPO July 28, 2017
Rent the Runway--2838Yes-
Rethink Robotics----Yes-
Robinhood43-----
Shape Security ---23--
Shapeways ----Yes-
Shopify ----YesIPO May 21, 2015
SimpliVity-22---Acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise January 17, 2017
Skillz41-----
Skybox Imaging---14-Acquired by Google June 10, 2014
Slack-239---
Snapchat-165048-IPO March 2, 2017. Now known as Snap
SoFi454925---
SpaceX143021Yes-
SparkCognition20-----
Spotify3525479YesDirect stock listing April 3, 2018
Square--40-YesIPO November 19, 2015
Stripe4929-15--
SugarCRM --32---
SurveyMonkey153214---
Synack382021---
Teespring-21----
TransferWise--816--
Trulioo37-----
Tumblr----YesAcquired by Yahoo May 20, 2013
Twilio-394147YesIPO June 23, 2016
Twitter----YesIPO November 7, 2013
Uber191410Yes-
Udacity1012----
Uptake Technologies5-----
Veniam3428----
Warby Parker47-102Yes-
Waze----YesAcquired by Google June 11, 2013
Wealthfront --3420Yes-
WeWork334----
WhatsApp----YesAcquired by Facebook February 19, 2014
Yext ---28-IPO April 13, 2017
ZenPayroll--26--Now known as Gusto
ZocDoc44---Yes-
Zuora---11-IPO April 12, 2018

Read more about the Disruptor 50 in 2017.

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