Rippling, Seekr and Ultrasound AI Land Fast Company Tech Honors

Rippling crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue and raised $450 million at a $16.8 billion valuation — and it did so while still innovating like a startup, earning a spot on Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech awards for 2026.

Fast Company named three established companies to this year's list: Rippling, Seekr and Ultrasound AI. The honorees share a common thread — using AI to streamline back-office work, support mission-critical requirements, and improve obstetric care.

As Fast Company notes, companies emerging from the early startup stage face pressure to focus on execution. But they must also keep an eye on opportunities to improve, expand, and serve evolving marketplace needs. This year's winners did exactly that.

What is Rippling building?

Rippling won its honor, in Fast Company's phrasing, "for teaching AI 'that's how we do things here.'"

The company operates a platform that streamlines and automates administrative tasks across HR, IT and finance. Its agentic AI capability draws strength from access to native data structures, context and controls defined within a customer's company.

That access produces outputs reflecting the actual state of a business, letting humans in these roles focus on more strategic tasks. Rippling largely serves mid-market customers.

The financials back the approach: the company recently crossed $1 billion in ARR and raised $450 million at a $16.8 billion valuation.

How does Seekr push AI into mission-critical work?

Seekr earned recognition for bringing AI to mission-critical tasks. According to Fast Company, many organizations pilot AI across a range of jobs, but the vagaries around its operation have kept it out of mission-critical applications.

Seekr's SeekrFlow platform aims to change that. It provides an end-to-end system for creating, deploying and managing large language models using an organization's own data.

The platform targets:

• Enterprises
• Government agencies
• Defense organizations
• Regulated industries

It tackles challenges around data quality and oversight through high-quality AI datasets and domain-specific models and agents.

Earlier this year, Seekr partnered with General Dynamics Information Technology to build agentic AI solutions for federal agencies. The platform is available now on AWS GovCloud.

Why does Ultrasound AI matter for obstetric care?

Ultrasound AI won for delivering more accurate pregnancy due dates.

For hospital staff, an expectant mother's due date drives a range of obstetric care decisions — how to time an induction or cesarean, and when to prepare for a potential high-risk birth. Fast Company reports that predictions made via traditional means can be off by more than two weeks.

The company's Delivery Date AI (DDAI) replaces manual formula measurements with an analysis derived from a standard ultrasound image in less than a minute, producing a more accurate delivery date prediction.

In February, Ultrasound AI received FDA De Novo clearance for DDAI, paving the way for broader adoption across hospitals.

What comes next for the honorees?

All three companies and the people behind their technologies number among the winners of Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech awards for 2026. The recognition signals where the publication sees applied AI heading: away from experiments and toward revenue scale, government-grade reliability and regulated clinical use.