11 Booming Startups to Watch This Summer 2014

Armed with the latest injection of funds from powerhouse investors, a plethora of startups are shaking things up and looking to growing their teams this summer. Some notable trends we found emerging in the tech scene were in messaging apps and food tech.

The following myriad of startup companies are growing rapidly and their products or services are disrupting their respective industries.

Keep your eye on these 11 startups this summer:

11. Lovely

Named one of the top startups changing the world in 7x7 and featured regularly in Lifehacker, this company hits close to home if you’re in San Francisco—they’re looking to improve the experience of finding a home. The site offers photo-based apartment search results and recurring payments for rent.

10. InstaCart

With revenue having grown 15x in the last 9 months, Instacart just raised $44 million, bringing the total to $54.8 million. If you want to help people who hate grocery shopping get veggies delivered to their front door within an hour, Instacart has plans to have a presence in 10 cities by the end of 2014.

They’re looking for members in engineering, operations, human resources, in addition to shoppers.

9. DocuSign

DocuSign is the only open, independent company that allows 40 million users to securely sign and manage documents with e-Signatures. They recently shacked up with Microsoft to bring their services to more than one billion Microsoft Office users worldwide. The Seattle- and San Francisco-based company has plans for international expansion.

8. Ibotta

Last July, Ibotta was on Business Insider’s list of the most popular mobile apps in the U.S., next to Candy Crush and Facebook. Today, it claims it’s the 16th most-used app in the U.S. and has helped 3 million users cash out on $7 million in cash rewards.

The mobile coupon-ing company is based in the mixed-use historic district of LoDo neighborhood in Denver (known for its nightlife) and has plans to scale its business and engineering teams.

7. TaskRabbit

Following Uber’s lead in making sure customers and drivers—in this case, taskers—know exactly what they’re getting out of a transaction, TaskRabbit just raised $38 million to devote to a new marketplace for employment. The company lets clients post work they need done and helps them find “TaskRabbits” willing to do the job.

TaskRabbit is currently available in 18 cities, in addition to having a London location. The company had 1.25 million new users in 2013 and expects to double that figure this year. Perks: they’re dog-friendly, offer daily lunches, whiskey tastings, massages and quarterly off-site adventures.

6. Stripe

A bit under the radar but certainly making big splashes as an alternative to PayPal is Stripe. The company wants to make it easier for people and businesses to make transactions in the Internet age.

"While it has become easier to build and launch an online business on almost every front, payments processing has remained dominated by clunky legacy players. ... So we built Stripe," John Collison, co-founder and CEO told CNBC.

Some perks of working at Stripe include: free meals for all three meals of the day, open vacation policy, free gym membership, free laundry service, relocation support, paid maternity and paternity leave.

5. Houzz

The part Pinterest, part marketplace site is helping 20 million monthly users decorate their homes. You’d be working with 400,000 design professionals covering 60 categories, including architects, interior designers, contractors, builders and more.

Houzz saw rapid growth in 2013, recently raised $150 million, is located internationally, including Palo Alto, Irvine, London, Berlin and Sydney. Aside from the usual benefits, they love celebrating birthdays and team accomplishments.

4. GoPro

Slated to go public this week, GoPro is still the best brand in the action camera market. The company has seen historical growth and remarkable profitability. They're based in San Mateo.

3. Airbnb

Another controversial website/app, Airbnb allows people to rent out lodging anywhere in the world. The company has raised a total of $826 million and is currently valued at $10 billion.

They have positions open in engineering, customer service, design, global operations, hospitality, IT, legal, marketing/communications, photography and product in San Francisco and international offices including Dublin, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Barcelona, London, Toronto, Paris and Sao Paulo.

2. Uber

The controversial ride-share company just secured $1.2 billion with a possible valuation of $18.2 billion. The company is revolutionizing the way we get private transportation by connecting taxi drivers and customers in a seamless and enjoyable way.

The company’s name is rolling off of tongues all over the biggest metropolitan cities in the nation and recently leaked its internal revenue and ride request number, according to Gawker.

Perks include plenty of Uber credits to get around, and a team with ears wide open—read this story about how the CEO brought in someone he met at a bar who said she hated the design to give the app a makeover.

1. Whatsapp

Following the $19 billion acquisition by Facebook, Whatsapp has grand expansion plans. The mobile messaging service is on its way to hosting a billion monthly active users around the world.

The Mountain View-based company is on the lookout for engineers and customer support folks, among other positions as part of its expansion plans in India and other countries. They’re an engineering-driven company that’s offering the usual benefits, including flexible hours. Did we mention over 700 million photos and 100 million videos are being shared on the app every day?

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Rosa Trieu is a freelance multimedia journalist. She covers a range of topics related to Asian businesses in California as a Forbes contributor. Prior to that, she was blogging, designing and managing social media for news startup Truthdig. When she’s not writing, Rosa enjoys going on adventures with her camera and running with her dog, Biscuit. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+.