The 10 Hottest SaaS Startup Companies Of 2023 (So Far)

ProsperOps, Cohesion and BlueCargo are some of the listmakers.

A savings-as-a-service platform. A way to make digital twins of business’ real estate. And software for improving container workflows – physical, non-Kubernetes containers at ports, that is.

As 2023 readies to enter its second half, ProsperOps, Cohesion and BlueCargo are some of the startup companies pushing the boundaries of software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.

They are among the startups to capture CRN’s attention so far this year because of their unique products in the wide world of SaaS, mega-size investment rounds or by offering partner programs early in their company evolution.

2023 SaaS Startup Companies

Other startups appearing on this list include:

*Accord

*Kanarys

*Concentric AI

Here are the entries in CRN’s 10 hottest SaaS startups of 2023 – so far.

For an additional look at the startups that have us talking, check out CRN’s lists for the coolest emerging companies of the 2023 Big Data 100, 10 hot cloud computing startup companies to watch in 2023 and 10 hot networking startup companies to watch in 2023.

Kanarys

CEO: Mandy Price

Businesses looking for a SaaS platform that helps with diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) might find themselves exploring the offerings of Kanarys.

The Dallas-based startup’s platform includes assessments for organizational systems and supplier DEI, according to Kanarys. The product reviews company policies, programs and employees’ perceptions in regard to DEI and provides an action plan with benchmarking.

In February, the startup raised a $5 million Series A round of financing. Seyen Capital led the round. Portfolia Rising America, Rackhouse Venture Capital, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, StartFast Ventures, TechNexus Venture Collaborative and Tech Square Ventures were among the investors.

Customers include Yum! Brands, Silicon Labs, the Chuck E. Cheese Corporation, 7-Eleven and other Fortune 500 companies.

CEO Mandy Price co-founded Kanarys in 2018, according to her LinkedIn account. She previously worked at the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg for about a year, leaving in 2018 with the title of partner. She worked on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate governance.

Price also worked for more than 10 years at the Weil, Gotchal & Manges law firm, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the firm in 2017 with the title of corporate attorney.

ProsperOps

CEO: Chris Cochran

ProsperOps bills itself as “savings-as-a-service,” promising customers savings on average of 40 percent on their cloud spend ing.

In February, autonomous cloud cost optimization platform ProsperOps raised a whopping $72 million round of investment to scale its platforms, engineering and go-to-market efforts, with the goal of expanding beyond AWS.

H.I.G. Growth Partners and other investors led the round, according to a statement.

The Austin, Texas-based startup also has a partner program for cloud management platforms, consultants, resellers, managed services providers (MSPs) and other partner business types.

CEO Chris Cochran co-founded ProsperOps in 2018, according to his LinkedIn account.

Cochran previously led Chargify as CEO for about two years. He also worked at Rackspace for about eight years, leaving the company in 2016 with the title of senior vice president and general manager, according to his LinkedIn account.

Concentric AI

CEO: Karthik Krishnan

In April, Concentric AI unveiled a new channel partner program with a promise of better enablement for partners selling the startup’s SaaS product, which provides AI-based services for autonomous data security posture management (DSPM).

The Saratoga, Calif.-based startup also has optimized large language model support for the DSPM service for greater security and protection, according to Concentric. The startup also offers machine learning-powered data scanning and categorization, data risk identification and centralized remediation among its capabilities.

Earlier this year, CRN named Concentric one of the “coolest cybersecurity startup companies at RSAC 2023.”

CEO Karthik Krishnan founded Concentric in 2018, according to his LinkedIn account. He previously worked at Niara for about four years, through the company’s acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2017.

Krishnan left HPE in 2018 with the title of vice president of product management.

Zilla Security

CEO: Deepak Taneja

Zilla Security, which offers a SaaS platform for access security and compliance, launched a channel partner program in April and recruited Device42’s senior vice president of alliances and partnerships, Garrett Long.

Long joined Boston-based Zilla with the title of vice president of business development, according to a statement.

Zilla promises resellers and MSPs security and compliance services to improve customers’ identity security postures. Partners in the program include Anomalix, GuidePoint Security, Optiv and Legion Star.

The startup also has hundreds of integrations, working with platforms including AWS, Google Cloud Platform and DocuSign.

CEO Deepak Taneja co-founded Zilla in 2019, according to his LinkedIn account.

Taneja previously co-founded identity management company Aveksa in 2004 and was the company’s chief technology officer until its 2013 acquisition by EMC and RSA. He left RSA the next year with the title of vice president and CTO of identity, according to his LinkedIn account.

Cohesion

CEO: Thru Shivakumar

The team at Cohesion has been at work improving upon the SaaS platform for making digital twins of companies’ real estate as more businesses explore returning employees to the office as COVID-19 fades from the headlines.

The Chicago-based startup promises users efficiencies of up to $1.08 per square foot and a marketplace of more than 50 partner integrations, according to Cohesion.

Updates this year to the platform have included one-click booking for flex space reservations, Azure Active Directory (AD) single sign-on, Apple Wallet integration and temperature controls, according to Cohesion.

CEO Thru Shivakumar co-founded Cohesion in 2018, according to her LinkedIn account. She previously worked at the GCM Grosvenor investment firm for about three years, leaving with the title of senior vice president.

Shivakumar also worked at World Business Chicago for about two years. She left the economic development organization in 2015 with the title of infrastructure, real estate and finance leader, according to her LinkedIn account.

Cast AI

CEO: Yuri Frayman

In March, two months after CRN deemed Cast AI one of the “hot cloud computing startup companies to watch in 2023,” the team proved us right with a $20 million investment round.

Creandum led the round, $5 million of which came from existing Cast AI investors, according to a company statement. The company – which provides a SaaS platform for cloud-native application cost monitoring, autoscaling, spot instances automation, container security and other actions – more than tripled its revenue quarter over quarter.

Miami-based Cast promises to cut cloud bills in half for AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure users.

It also has a partner program with deal registration, commissions, marketing and sales support and dedicated account managers, according to Cast.

CEO Yuri Frayman founded Cast in 2020, according to his LinkedIn account. He previously co-founded Cujo AI in 2015 and worked at the company for about five years.

Frayman founded security company Zenedge in 2014 and sold it to Oracle in 2018, according to his LinkedIn account.

Cast was previously among CRN’s “10 coolest cloud computing startup companies of 2022” and “10 hot DevOps companies to watch in 2022.”

Accord

CEO: Ross Rich

Accord offers a platform for sales teams to standardize account plans, business cases and other ways to increase the odds of closing deals.

The San Francisco-based startup has bi-directional customer relationship management (CRM) software integration to help map sales processes to plays and templates, according to Accord. It integrates with Slack, Gmail, Hubspot and other vendors.

Available platbooks for sales teams include proofs of concept, product-led sales, enterprise pilots and partnership building.

CEO Ross Rich co-founded Accord in 2020, according to his LinkedIn account.

He previously worked at Stripe for about five years, leaving the company with the title of partnerships lead for global platforms.

Rich also worked at Columbia Records for about a year. He worked in marketing for artists ranging from Calvin Harris and Snoop Dogg to Bring Me The Horizon and Tyler, the Creator, according to his LinkedIn account.

BlueCargo

CEO: Alexandra Griffon

In February, BlueCargo landed an $11 million round of funding to bring its SaaS platform for logistics and container workflows (that’s physical containers, not Kubernetes) to more of North America.

The Covina, Calif.-based startup also aims to use its new funding toward its platform’s technology and hiring, according to a BlueCargo statement. About 1,200 drayage trucking companies use the platform.

BlueCargo promises a way to connect drayage trucking companies, logistics providers and shippers for on-time cargo dropoff. The goal is avoiding late fees. For shippers, the platform tracks container levels and provides a per diem dispute tool. For truckers, it secures first available appointments among other features.

CEO Alexandra Griffon co-founded BlueCargo in 2018, according to her LinkedIn account. Before that, she worked at Guerlain, Lazard and SCOR for less than a year each in different analyst roles.

Pluto Bioinformatics

CEO: Rani Powers

Pluto Bioinformatics positions its SaaS platform as “the future of science” and a “digital lab space” for academics and enterprise research and development (R&D) labs.

Researchers using Pluto gain the ability to run computational biology analyses, organize biological data, query them, monitor projects and assign experiments, among other tasks, according to the Denver-based startup.

Users can also compare results to published works, get preliminary data to avoid costly experiments and securely share results with collaborators and vendors.

In May, Pluto raised a $3.7 million seed round of funding to invest in the platform. Silverton Partners led the round, according to a statement.

CEO Rani Powers founded Pluto in 2021, according to her LinkedIn account. She launched the startup from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Powers was a Wyss senior staff scientist before the launch.

Powers’ resume includes about a year as the senior manager of innovation at HumanCode before the genetics platform was bought by Helix in 2018, according to her LinkedIn account. She continued on with Helix for about a year, leaving with the title of senior product manager.

Portside

CEO: Alek Vernitsky

Business aviation companies looking for a SaaS platform might come across upstart Portside.

The San Francisco-based company’s platform combines scheduling systems with expense management, a staffing marketplace, procurement portal and other features.

Portside’s target customers are private and corporate flight departments, charter companies, small and commercial airline operators, industrial fleet operators, government agencies and the military, according to Portside.

In February, the upstart raised a $50 million Series B round of funding. Insight Partners led the round. I2BF Global Ventures and other existing investors participated, according to Portside.

The money will go toward improving the platform and adding more customers. The upstart has more than 700 operators and 10,000 business aircraft on its platform.

CEO Alek Vernitsky co-founded Portside in 2017, according to his LinkedIn account.

Vernitsky previously worked at ThredUp for about a year, leaving the clothing marketplace with the title of senior vice president and head of product.

In 2011, he co-founded and led hotel booking platform GetGoing as its CEO until it was acquired by BCD Travel in 2016. Vernitsky left BCD the following year with the title of senior vice president for product strategy, according to his LinkedIn account.