Key Takeaways
- • Bessemer Venture Partners, Forbes, and Salesforce Ventures released the sixth annual Cloud 100 list, ranking the top 100 private cloud companies with a combined valuation of $518 billion as of March 2021.
- • Twenty-nine new companies were added to this year's list, with newcomers collectively valued at more than $100 billion, reflecting accelerated digital transformation during the pandemic.
- • High-profile newcomers include fraud prevention platform Forter (#48), virtual events platform Hopin (#21), and SMS marketing software Attentive (#12), with ecommerce-focused companies Attentive and Klaviyo entering the top 20 driven by 13%+ growth in online retail.
- • The list's expansion demonstrates intensifying competition to qualify, with this year's cohort described as "the strongest to date" based on evaluation of hundreds of private cloud companies.
- • Top 10 incumbents include Stripe, Databricks, Canva, HashiCorp, Toast, Plaid, Figma, ServiceTitan, Checkout.com, and Freshworks, reflecting dominance in payments, data infrastructure, design, and enterprise software categories.
Summary
Bessemer Venture Partners, in partnership with Forbes and Salesforce Ventures, unveiled the 2021 Cloud 100 list on March 8, 2021, marking the sixth annual ranking of the world's top 100 private cloud computing companies. The full cohort is valued at a cumulative $518 billion, reflecting continued investor conviction in the private cloud sector despite pandemic-related economic headwinds.
The 2021 list saw significant expansion with 29 newly admitted companies, representing more than $100 billion in combined valuation. This newcomer cohort underscores the broader shift toward cloud infrastructure and digital services accelerated by pandemic-driven business model transformations. Among the most prominent new entrants are Hopin, a virtual events platform ranked #21; Forter, a fraud prevention software company at #48; and Attentive, an SMS marketing platform positioned at #12. The inclusion of Attentive and Klaviyo in the top 20 reflects tailwinds in ecommerce, where online retail has grown more than 13 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels, driving demand for digital customer engagement and retention tools.
The complete list of 29 newcomers spans diverse cloud verticals, including data infrastructure (Scale AI #32), productivity software (Calendly #33), payments and fintech (MessageBird #35, Razorpay #57, Rapyd #75, Flutterwave #84), vertical SaaS (Cedar #53, Entrata #86, Mambu #77), data security (Chainalysis #64, Socure #91, OwnBackup #90), and analytics platforms (6Sense #97, Grafana Labs #80). The breadth of categories highlights the maturation and fragmentation of the cloud software ecosystem across enterprise and vertical-specific use cases.
The top 10 list remains anchored by established leaders: Stripe, Databricks, Canva, HashiCorp, Toast, Plaid, Figma, ServiceTitan, Checkout.com, and Freshworks. According to the publishers, the selection process evaluated hundreds of companies and intensified year-over-year, with 2021 entrants representing the "strongest" cohort to date. This competitive elevation reflects both the deepening capital available for late-stage private cloud companies and the rising bar for fundamentals—including revenue scale, market position, and unit economics—required to achieve unicorn or decacorn valuations.
The 2021 list saw significant expansion with 29 newly admitted companies, representing more than $100 billion in combined valuation. This newcomer cohort underscores the broader shift toward cloud infrastructure and digital services accelerated by pandemic-driven business model transformations. Among the most prominent new entrants are Hopin, a virtual events platform ranked #21; Forter, a fraud prevention software company at #48; and Attentive, an SMS marketing platform positioned at #12. The inclusion of Attentive and Klaviyo in the top 20 reflects tailwinds in ecommerce, where online retail has grown more than 13 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels, driving demand for digital customer engagement and retention tools.
The complete list of 29 newcomers spans diverse cloud verticals, including data infrastructure (Scale AI #32), productivity software (Calendly #33), payments and fintech (MessageBird #35, Razorpay #57, Rapyd #75, Flutterwave #84), vertical SaaS (Cedar #53, Entrata #86, Mambu #77), data security (Chainalysis #64, Socure #91, OwnBackup #90), and analytics platforms (6Sense #97, Grafana Labs #80). The breadth of categories highlights the maturation and fragmentation of the cloud software ecosystem across enterprise and vertical-specific use cases.
The top 10 list remains anchored by established leaders: Stripe, Databricks, Canva, HashiCorp, Toast, Plaid, Figma, ServiceTitan, Checkout.com, and Freshworks. According to the publishers, the selection process evaluated hundreds of companies and intensified year-over-year, with 2021 entrants representing the "strongest" cohort to date. This competitive elevation reflects both the deepening capital available for late-stage private cloud companies and the rising bar for fundamentals—including revenue scale, market position, and unit economics—required to achieve unicorn or decacorn valuations.
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