A Call for Nominations
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., December 7, 2023— CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, today announced it is accepting nominations for its twelfth annual Disruptor 50, a definitive list of the most ambitious, innovative private companies using breakthrough technology to meet increasing economic and consumer challenges.
The deadline to submit the official application form is Friday, February 16 at 11:59pm ET. Complete details on how to apply can be found here: d50nominations.cnbc.com.
To be eligible to submit, companies must be privately held, independently owned, and founded after January 1, 2009. Nominations may be submitted by any company founder or executive, investor in the company, or any of their communications representatives.
Nominees will be put through a comprehensive and rigorous process of researching and scoring, across a wide range of quantitative and qualitative criteria, including scalability, revenue and user growth, use of breakthrough technology and workforce diversity.
Companies included on the 2023 Disruptor 50 list continue to face a challenging environment as higher interest rates tighten the supply of venture capital and keep the IPO market virtually shut for the second straight year. Additionally, the number of "down rounds," or instances when companies raise funds at a lower valuation compared to a previous round of funding, are at a ten-year high, with more than a quarter of fundraising rounds completed this year happening at a flat or reduced valuation, according to PitchBook and NVCA data. Last year's list of companies had a combined valuation of more than $362 billion.
But the tighter funding environment doesn't seem to be stopping entrepreneurs from starting new companies. This is especially true of companies involved in the booming AI hype cycle sparked by 2023's top Disruptor 50 company, OpenAI, just over a year ago.
Honorees will be notified in April and the list will be announced in May across CNBC's TV and Digital platforms.
To stay a part of the conversation, follow @CNBCDisruptors on Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to CNBC's weekly Disruptor 50 newsletter at cnbc.com/disruptorsnewsletter/.
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