Top 10 most inspiring startups to watch in 2026

Website: https://ridealso.com/

Location: Palo Alto, United States

Founders: Chris Yu, RJ Scaringe (Chairman)

Problem They Solve: Most people use big, heavy cars for very short trips. Statistics show that about 80% of car rides are less than 15 miles. Using a 4,000-pound car to move one person a short distance causes traffic jams and pollution. Also solves this by building vehicles that are safer and stronger than a regular bike, but much smaller and cleaner than a car. This makes them perfect for daily commutes or delivering packages in crowded cities.

Key Features

• Custom Built Tech – Instead of buying standard parts off the shelf, Also designs their own motors and batteries to make sure their vehicles are powerful and reliable.

• Flexible Design – The vehicles are modular, meaning they have removable batteries and smart storage spots for carrying groceries or delivery boxes.

• Mobile Power Bank – The battery system is smart enough to charge your other devices. You can plug in your laptop or phone directly into the bike to charge up.

• Built to Last – Because the team comes from the car industry, they build these small vehicles to be tough enough to handle rough roads and heavy daily use.

• Safe Riding – The design focuses on keeping your eyes on the road, using simple screens that give you information without distracting you.

With cities looking for ways to reduce traffic and pollution, Also is growing fast. Even though they just launched in 2025, the company is already worth over $1 billion (making it a “unicorn”). With strong backing and experienced leadership, they are ready to change how we travel in urban areas.

2️⃣ Callio Therapeutics: Biotechnology firm advancing multi-payload ADCs for targeted cancer therapy with innovative HER2 solutions.

Callio Therapeutics is developing next-generation cancer treatments using multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Backed by Frazier Life Sciences, the company designs therapies that deliver multiple drugs directly to tumors, aiming to overcome resistance and improve outcomes.

Website: https://calliotx.com/

Location: Seattle, United States

Founders: Piers Ingram, Jerome Boyd-Kirkup

Problem
Traditional ADCs often fail due to drug resistance and tumor complexity. Cancer cells can adapt to single-drug treatments, making them ineffective. Callio’s multi-payload ADCs carry different drugs on a single antibody, targeting several resistance pathways at once. This could help treat cancers that don’t respond to current options.

Key Features

• Multi-Payload Design: Combines two cytotoxic drugs on one antibody to attack tumors from different angles.

• Targeted Delivery: Focuses on HER2-positive cancers, sending drugs directly to tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue.

• Proven Platform: Built on licensed technology from Hummingbird Bioscience, known for rational drug design.

• Resistance Overcome: Uses synergistic payloads to kill cells resistant to single-drug therapies.

• Clinical Progress: Advancing lead and secondary programs toward proof-of-concept.

3️⃣ Tenvie Therapeutics: Precision-designed small molecule therapies enhancing CNS penetration for diverse neurological diseases.

Tenvie Therapeutics develops small molecule drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier to treat neurological diseases. Formed with assets from Denali Therapeutics, the company targets core disease mechanisms in the brain and body.

Website: https://tenvie.com/

Location: South San Francisco, United States

Founders: Tony Estrada, Brian Cuneo

Problem They Solve: The blood-brain barrier blocks most drugs from reaching the brain, limiting treatment options for brain diseases. Even when drugs get through, they often miss the root causes. Tenvie designs molecules that penetrate the brain effectively and others that stay out to treat peripheral diseases without neurological side effects.

Key Features

• Brain Penetration: Core focus on delivering drugs deep into the brain to reach affected neurons.

• Triple Mechanism: Targets inflammation, metabolism issues, and lysosomal dysfunction.

4️⃣ Wonderful: Multilingual AI agents automating enterprise customer support.

Wonderful builds multilingual AI agents that automate complex customer support and enterprise workflows. Unlike basic chatbots, their agents understand cultural context and handle real tasks across voice, chat, and email.

Website: https://wonderful.ai/

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Founders: Bar Winkler, Roey Lalazar

Problem
Global companies struggle to offer local, high-quality support at scale. Hiring native speakers is costly, and traditional bots lack nuance and functionality. Wonderful’s agents deliver native-level communication and integrate with company systems to resolve issues – achieving up to 80% automation without humans.

Key Features

• Cultural Fluency: Agents speak and write naturally in languages like Hebrew, Romanian, and Italian.

• System Integration: Connects to CRM, billing, and calendars to take real actions, not just reply.

• Omni-Channel: Works across voice, chat, and email with full context retention.

5️⃣ Manus AI: Autonomous AI agent executing complex tasks with minimal human input.

Manus is an autonomous AI agent built to perform open-ended tasks, not just answer prompts. Created by Butterfly Effect Technology (makers of Monica.im), it acts like a digital intern—planning, executing, and verifying complex workflows with minimal human input.

Website: https://manus.im/

Location: Singapore (HQ); China (Founding)

Founders: Xiao Hong, Yichao “Peak” Ji, Zhang Tao

Problem They Solve: LLMs like ChatGPT are passive and need constant guidance. They can’t complete multi-step tasks independently, making them slow and inefficient for real work. Manus removes this bottleneck by handling entire tasks – from planning to execution—in the cloud, without supervision.

Key Features

• Works on Its Own – You don’t need to sit and watch it. You can give Manus a job, close your laptop, and come back later to find the work done.

• Uses a “Virtual Computer” – Manus can browse the internet, use apps, and save files just like a human does, which allows it to solve real-world problems.

6️⃣ Verdiva Bio: Oral therapies for obesity and cardiometabolic disorders.

Verdiva Bio is developing long-acting oral drugs for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. Backed by strong funding and a licensed portfolio from Sciwind Biosciences, the company aims to match the effectiveness of injectable weight-loss drugs with easier, pill-based dosing.

Website: https://verdivabio.com/

Location: Guildford, United Kingdom

Founders: Khurem Farooq, Tapan Maniar, Jane Hughes

Problem They Solve: Top weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound require weekly injections, while oral options often come with strict daily routines. These barriers reduce patient adherence. Verdiva is closing this gap by creating once-weekly oral therapies that are both potent and convenient.

7️⃣ Peec AI: Enabling companies to analyse and improve their visibility in AI search results.

Peec AI helps brands track and improve their visibility in AI-generated answers. As users move from search engines to tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, Peec provides analytics for this new kind of SEO – Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

Website: https://peec.ai/

Location: Berlin, Germany

Founders: Marius Meiners, Tobias Siwonia, Daniel Drabo

Problem They Solve: Consumers now ask AI models, not Google, for product advice. But brands can’t see how they appear in these answers, what sources shape them, or how they compare to competitors. Peec fills this gap by treating AI models as the new search engines, giving marketers the data to compete.

Key Features

• Rank Tracking for AI – It tells you if your brand is being mentioned when people ask relevant questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI apps.

• Find the Source – It shows you where the AI learned about your brand – whether it read a review on a blog, a news article, or a Reddit comment – so you know where to focus your marketing.

8️⃣ Jack & Jill AI: AI-driven talent acquisition and career coaching, scaling candidate outreach with a performance-based 10% fee structure.

Jack & Jill AI replaces job boards and agencies with two AI agents that automate the hiring process – Jack for candidates, Jill for employers – delivering high-quality recruitment at scale.

Website: https://jackandjill.ai/

Location: London, United Kingdom

Founders: Matthew Wilson, Saaras Mehan

Problem They Solve: Candidates face endless job scrolling and ghosting. Employers get flooded with low-quality applications. Agencies help but are costly and can’t scale. Jack & Jill solves this by using AI to run deep voice interviews with candidates and manage searches for employers around the clock.

Key Features

• Jack (For You) – Jack is an AI helper that talks to you for about 20 minutes to learn your skills and goals. He acts like your personal agent, finding jobs that actually fit you.

• Jill (For Companies) – Jill is the AI helper for businesses. She learns what the company needs and then asks Jack to find the perfect person from his list of candidates.

• Fair Price – If a company hires someone through Jack & Jill, they pay a fee of 10% of the salary, which is much cheaper than the 20-30% charged by normal recruiting agencies.

9️⃣ ZyG: Ecommerce‑publishing platform that turns high‑potential products into scalable brands using data and tech-driven support.

ZyG is a data-driven “ecommerce publishing” platform founded by the visionaries behind ironSource. The company identifies high-potential products in categories like pet food and cosmetics and uses advanced AI and data science to transform them into scalable, global brands.

Website: https://www.zyg.com/

Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

Founders: Tomer Bar-Zeev (Chairman), Omer Kaplan

Problem
Many strong consumer products fail due to limited marketing, data, or scale. ZyG fixes this by acquiring or partnering with promising brands and using AI, capital, and tech to grow them fast—similar to how game publishers scale indie hits

🔟 Collate: Platform that use AI to create and streamline paperwork for diagnostic, medical device, and drug development companies.

Collate automates regulatory documentation for life sciences companies. Built by experienced founders from nVision and Lever, the platform streamlines the complex paperwork needed to get medical devices and drugs approved.

Website: https://collate.com/
Location: San Francisco, United States
Founders: Surbhi Sarna (CEO), Nate Smith (CTO)

Problem
Getting FDA approval requires thousands of pages of technical documentation, created manually at high cost and risk of delay. Collate uses AI to generate, organize, and verify this paperwork—cutting time, cost, and errors.

Key Features

• Automated Submissions: Drafts filings like 510(k)s from clinical and engineering data.

• Traceability Matrix: Links every claim to supporting evidence to meet audit standards.

• Life Sciences Focus: Designed for biotech, with support for standards like ISO 13485.

Conclusion. Startups to watch in 2026

While AI, personalization and sustainable tech dominate headlines, success depends on pragmatic implementation that solves actual business problems. The winners will be those who cut through the hype to build solutions that work.

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