JustBacked · October 2026 · Edition 1

Breakout Series A Companies to Join

The 25 most promising Series A startups that raised in the last 180 days and are hiring now, ranked on hiring momentum, round strength, investors and traction. How we rank.

The top 25 Series A companies

1
Oratomic
Series A · $300M · South Pasadena · General Catalyst, Index Ventures
11 new roles / 30d19 roles88
2
Lightfield
Series A · $47M · San Francisco · 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz
9 new roles / 30d22 roles84
3
River AI
Series A · $1.1B · Palo Alto · General Catalyst, NVIDIA
4 new roles / 30d19 roles84
4
Conduct
Series A · $59.4M · London · Creandum, ICONIQ
12 new roles / 30d22 roles83
5
TAR
Series A · $120M · Austin · Spark Capital
15 new roles / 30d46 roles83
6
ANDE.AI LTD
Series A · $52M · New York · Lightspeed, Redpoint
9 new roles / 30d9 roles82
7
Prime Intellect
Series A · $130M · Dover · Founders Fund, ICONIQ
11 new roles / 30d34 roles80
8
Volta
Series A · $300M · Palo Alto · Altimeter, Andreessen Horowitz
10 new roles / 30d44 roles79
9
Mecka AI
Series A · $60M · Markham · Menlo Ventures, SV Angel
45 new roles / 30d54 roles77
10
Covenant
Series A · $250M · Houston · 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz
3 new roles / 30d29 roles76
11
AegisAI
Series A · $36M · New York · Accel, Battery Ventures
8 new roles / 30d28 roles76
12
Nuance Labs
Series A · $50M · Seattle · Accel, Lightspeed
2 new roles / 30d9 roles76
13
Focused Energy
Series A · $240M · Darmstadt
29 new roles / 30d41 roles76
14
Rune Energy
Series A · $40M · San Francisco · Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures
6 new roles / 30d10 roles75
15
Gravis Robotics
Series A · $200M · Zürich · Pear VC
4 new roles / 30d9 roles75
16
Antioch
Series A · $32M · New York · BoxGroup, Greylock
3 new roles / 30d8 roles75
17
Watney Robotics
Series A · $80M · San Francisco · Conviction
5 new roles / 30d25 roles74
18
Observable Space
Series A · $90M · Santa Monica · Lux Capital
11 new roles / 30d26 roles74
19
Light
Series A · $46M · Austin · BoxGroup, Spark Capital
10 new roles / 30d11 roles73
20
Star Catcher
Series A · $65M · Jacksonville
22 new roles / 30d34 roles73
21
Velaura AI
Series A · $110M · Santa Clara · Mayfield
5 new roles / 30d35 roles73
22
Humanoid
Series A · $152M · London
39 new roles / 30d109 roles72
23
Emerald AI
Series A · $150M · Washington · General Catalyst, NVIDIA
1 new roles / 30d8 roles72
24
Gray Swan
Series A · $40M · Pittsburgh · Madrona, Obvious Ventures
7 new roles / 30d17 roles72
25
Upscale AI
Series A · $190M · Santa Clara · Mayfield, NVIDIA
3 new roles / 30d22 roles71

How we rank

Each month we score every startup that closed a venture round (pre-seed through Series C) in the previous 180 days, has at least 3 open roles, has raised under $2B in total and has fewer than 1,000 people. The score runs from 0 to 100 and mixes five signals:

Hiring momentum (30%). New roles posted in the last 30 days, relative to team size and in absolute terms, from the company's own hiring system. Companies closing more roles than they open are marked down.
Round strength (25%). How the round compares with other rounds at the same stage. A $15M seed is a strong signal; a $15M Series B is not.
Investors (20%). Whether a top-tier firm (Sequoia, a16z, Accel, Benchmark, Founders Fund, Khosla, Index, General Catalyst, Y Combinator and about 50 others) backed the company, otherwise how many investors did.
Traction (15%). Crunchbase rank, which reflects web traffic, news coverage and activity.
Freshness (10%). How recently the round closed. New money means new headcount plans.

The list is published on the 1st of each month and doesn't change afterwards; open-role counts are live. It's a signal of momentum, not an endorsement or a guarantee. Nobody pays to be on it.

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