Of the 50,000 venture capital-backed startups in the U.S., Forbes predicts that four specializing in healthcare will one day be valued at $1 billion or more.
The news outlet picked the future "unicorns" with TrueBridge Capital Partners from more than 200 nominations.
Here are Forbes' future billion-dollar healthcare startups, according to the Aug. 15 story:
1. Chapter. The startup, which has raised $61 million, searches a huge database of Medicare plans to match seniors with the best option. Its CEO, Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz, is a veteran of data company Palantir, which works with health systems such as Cleveland Clinic.
2. Medallion. The company, which has brought in $85 million to date, automates administrative tasks such as medical licensure verification and enrolling physicians in payer networks. It has such customers as Oak Street Health and VillageMD and funders including GV, the venture capital arm of Google parent company Alphabet.
3. Pendulum Therapeutics. Colleen Cutcliffe, PhD, founded the company after her daughter, who was born premature, developed food sensitivities and metabolic issues possibly tied to all the antibiotics she took early in life. The startup, which has landed $116 million (including $300,000 in seed funding from Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic), has developed a probiotic for treating Type 2 diabetes as well as other gut health products. Dr. Cutliffe was once a project manager for Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Pendulum's chief communications officer is actress Halle Berry, who is also an angel investor.
4. Verifiable. The company, which has brought in $47 million in funding, digitally verifies medical professionals' credentials for hospitals and health systems, saying it has sped up the process by more than 70 percent for some customers. Its clients include more than 400,000 healthcare providers. One of its lead investors is Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.