America's 15 most promising companies

New Delhi: Forbes magazine has come out with their list of 100 most promising companies in America for 2014. Forbes based their selection on growth (both in sales and hiring), quality of management team and investors, margins, market size and key partnerships.The most striking part is that among the 100 companies on the list, eight are co-founded or headed by young entrepreneurs of Indian origin.Forbes said "rocketship growth" is not the only factor that describes the 100 companies in its third annual 'America's Most Promising Companies' list."To watch a management team crack open a ripe new market and hang on for dear life as top line explodes is still good fun," it said.Read on to find out the complete list: 15. ThrillistA digital media company that offers city guides for metropolitan hubs like New York City, Miami and San Francisco. The company recommends restaurants, products and events via free, daily emails. The company also consists of members-only shopping club JackThreads.com; and newly launched fashion, music and culture destination The Crosby Press. The company has raised $15 million from Oak Investment Partners, Lerer Ventures and Pilot Group since founding.14. CardCash.comCardCash.com is a leading online gift card exchange allowing consumers to buy and sell discounted gift cards. CardCash allows budget-savvy consumers to purchase gift cards to their favorite restaurants, department stores and more all at discounts up to 35% off. For instance, a $100 iTunes gift card, which the company buys for $70, sells for $95 on the website. The company raised $6 million from Guggenheim Partners in November 2013.13. iSendiSend provides worldwide mobile top up, bill pay and gift cards. It helps immigrants and expats send electronic payments across international borders. Founder and CEO LaBella previously started QuickPay, a business that allowed customers to pay bills with cash, in 1996. The company has raised $5 million in venture capital from Village Ventures and Gray Ghost Ventures.12. TapadTapad, is an ad technology firm renowned for its cross-device advertising solutions, including desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. Founder and CEO Are Traasdahl previously founded Thumbplay, a pre-iPhone mobile-app store that grew to $100 million in sales in three years. The company has raised $6.5 million from FirstMark Capital, Avalon Ventures and FirstHand Technologies in March 2013.11. OnDeckOnDeck (previously known as On Deck Capital) is a financial platform that provides loan financing to small and medium sized businesses in the United States. The company uses algorithms to assess applicants based on cash flow, online sentiment and credit history. Since 2007, OnDeck has lent more than $700 million. It has raised $17 million in venture funding from Google Ventures, billionaire Peter Thiel and others in May 2013.10. HireVueIt is an online platform that screens, recruits and interviewing potential hires. Clients include Nike and JPMorgan. The company raised $25 million from Sequoia Capital and others in October 2013.9. YodleYodle is an American company that helps local businesses in online advertising, lead generation and search engine optimization. Yodle has developed an integrated approach to signing up and serving local businesses that are transitioning their marketing budgets online, and today works with over 40,000 companies across North America. The company has raised a total of $40 million in venture funding from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Jafco Ventures.8. AnchorFreeMountain View, Calif., AnchorFree aims to change the world by letting you access the Web anonymously--anywhere, anytime. It's great for privacy. Since the network is hosted from servers in Europe, Japan and the United States, people in restricted societies use it to bypass Internet censors.7. uTestuTest, Inc. is a venture-funded software and mobile app testing company based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It checks for bugs in client's software using a pool of 100,000 part-time testers across the globe. Google, Amazon and Netflix use the service. In January the company raised $43 million in funding from Goldman Sachs. uTest plans to change its name to Applause in 2014.6. SmashburgerDenver-based Smashburger is an innovative “fast-casual” restaurant concept that offers fresh hamburgers, smoothies and salads. It offers superior product, service and atmosphere associated with sit down casual dining along with the speed and convenience of quick service restaurants. The company is putting the burger back at the center of the consumer dining experience through its hand-crafted menu items ranging from smashed-to-order burgers, hand-spun Haagen-Dazs shakes, chicken sandwiches, salads, and sides made with fresh, premium ingredients and served in less than six minutes. Half of the company's 250 restaurants are run by franchisees. The company recently opened locations in Costa Rica, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. 5. Lending ClubThe company runs a "peer-to-peer" lending website for personal loans. The company was founded in 2007 with an idea to provide efficient alternative to the traditional banking system by offering lower rates to borrowers and better returns to investors. The company operates an online credit marketplace where investors provide loans to creditworthy borrowers in exchange for the interest income. Lending Club leverages technology to provide a simple, cost-efficient experience generating value that it passes on to customers. As of December 2013, more than $3 billion in loans have been issued to borrowers and nearly $300 million in interest payments have been returned to investors. The company raised $172 million in 2013, from investors including Google Ventures, DST and Coatue Management.4. Evolent HealthSan Francisco-based Evolent Health sells software and consulting services to help healthcare providers, like hospital systems, double as insurers. Evolent's team believes that doctors shouldn't get paid for prescribing drugs or charging for expensive tests. Instead, they should be incentivized to help their patients stay healthy. CEO Williams previously served as CEO and Chairman of The Advisory Board, a $2 billion healthcare consulting company. The company last year raised $100 million in Series B funding from The Advisory Board, TPG and UPMC Health Plan.3. SujaSuja Juice Co., a cold-pressured juice company and founder of Suja Juice, Suja Elements and Suja Essentials, ranks third among Forbes Magazine's 2014 list of America's Top 100 Most Promising Companies. Suja was also the only consumer packaged goods company within the top 25. The privately held and less than two-year-old certified organic and non-GMO verified cold-pressured juice brand was recognized by Forbes for its substantial growth and success. The company has raised $30 million in funding from Boulder Brands, Alliance Consumer Growth and others.2. AirpushLos Angeles-based Airpush is making its presence felt in the growing field of mobile ad networking. The two year old company's inventory now reaches more than 10 billion ad impressions per month. The fully bootstrapped company was founded in 2011 and has since grown its network to include 100,000 apps using its SDK and more than 5,000 advertisers using its platform. The company has delivered mobile ads for clients like Coca Cola, Amazon and Volkswagen across 120,000 smartphone apps. According to its founder and CEO Asher Delug, AirPush's earliest hit ad unit was an opt-in, push notification-based ad in the notification bar of Android devices, which the company calls an industry first at the time. This made the company the only avenue for apps like wallpapers, themes, launchers, and the like to monetize via ads.1. FuhuThe list is topped by Fuhu, a California-based company that sells the Nabi, an Android-based tablet for kids. It has revenues of $175 million and raised $55 million from backers like computer-maker Acer and animation studio DreamWork. The device includes parental controls and educational games that line up with national curriculum requirements from kindergarten through sixth grade.

America's 15 most promising companies

New Delhi: Forbes magazine has come out with their list of 100 most promising companies in America for 2014. Forbes based their selection on growth (both in sales and hiring), quality of management team and

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