7. Square

Square

Estimated Value: $3.2 billion
Last Year's Rank / Valuation: #14 / $1.6 billion
Business: Accept credit card payments anywhere with your iPhone, iPad or Android phone
Location: San Francisco, California

More Info: About Square
CEO: Jack Dorsey

Investors:  In 2009, Khosla Ventures invested $10 million in Square. In January, Square raised $27.5 million from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Jeremy Stoppelman. In June, Square raised a massive $100 million round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Tiger Global Management. Later in 2011, Square raised $3M from Richard Branson. In August, Square raised $25M from Starbucks and CrunchFund.

Analysis: While there are a lot of mobile payment solutions, Square is really attacking the cash register space and it's on-boarding small businesses quickly.
Last month Square authorized $200 million in new shares at a valuation of $3.2 billion. And the deal with Starbucks could double its business quickly.
Now, Square is processing U.S. credit and debit transactions for Starbucks which is huge: Starbucks' annual sales in fiscal 2011 were almost $12 billion, about two-thirds of that in the United States.

6. Dropbox

6. Dropbox

Estimated Value: $3.5 billion
Last Year's Rank/Valuation: #6 / $4 billion
Business: Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily.
Location: San Francisco, California
More Info: About Dropbox
CEO: Drew Houston
Investors: Dropbox closed a massive $250M round led by Index Ventures with participation from Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greylock Partners, and others in October 2011. It received seed money from Y Combinator and, in fall 2008, Sequoia Capital led a $7.2M Series A with Accel Partners.
Analysis: Dropbox has about 50 million users and it generated an estimated $240 million last year. It was reportedly profitable at the time of the valuation even though most of its users don't pay for the service. For those who do pay, the fees start at $10 for 50 gigabytes.
While he didn't reveal Dropbox's current valuation, Y Combinator's Paul Graham mentioned recently that Airbnb and Dropbox are worth about $7.5 billion combined.
Still, at a $4 billion valuation, Dropbox is worth as much as companies that generate a billion in revenue, and competitors are coming after the storage space quickly, from Apple to Box. Times aren't as good as they were last year, so we estimate Dropbox's valuation at a more modest $3.5 billion.

5. Palantir Technologies

Palantir Technologies

Estimated Value: $3.5 Billion
Last Year's Rank / Valuation: #11 / $2.5 billion
Business:  Analytics software / platform
Location: Palo Alto, California
More Info: About Palantir Tech
CEO: Alexander Karp
Investors: The Founders Fund, Youniversity Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, Ulu Ventures, Jeremy Stoppelman, Ben Ling
Analysis: Palantir Tech is a data analytics platform focusing mainly on the government and financial sectors.
We estimate Palantir will generate between $350 and $400 million this year from its subscription product, up from $100 million in 2011.
We estimate a 10X multiple on revenue at a valuation of 3.5 billion.

 

4. 360Buy

360Buy

Estimated Valuation: $5 billion

Last Year's Rank / Valuation: #4 / $10 billion
Business: E-commerce

Location: Beijing, China

More Info: About 360Buy 
CEO: Liu Qiangdong

Investors: Digital Sky Technologies and Wal-Mart

Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, Allen & Company, and Khosla Ventures.

Analysis: Described as the Amazon of China, the company was reportedly thinking about a 2012 IPO.  It raised $1.5 billion and was valued at $6.4 billion at the beginning of 2011, led by Digital Sky Technologies. It generated $1.7 billion in sales in 2010 and $3.3 billion in 2011.
But its margins are thin and it's reportedly burning through cash. Instead of an IPO, the company is looking to raise a Series D round. Given the tough market and its thin margins, we give 360Buy a 1.5X revenue multiple for a valuation of $5 billion. Caixin reported a similar valuation for the company in May.

 

3. Twitter

Twitter

Estimated Value: $5.25 billion
Last Year's Rank / Valuation: #5 / $8 billion
Business: Messaging, microblogging and social networking service
Location: San Francisco, CA
More Info: About Twitter
CEO: Dick Costolo
Investors: Last summer, Twitter raised $800 million in two rounds: one from existing Twitter shareholders and one led by DST, both at an estimated $400 million valuation. Other investors include Charles River Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Dick Costolo, Naval Ravikant, Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, Bezos Expeditions, Spark Capital, Digital Garage, Kevin Rose, Tim Ferriss, Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley (nice IPO leverage).
Analysis: Twitter has been growing very quickly both in terms of users and revenue. Its revenue for 2011 was $139.5 million and it's expected to generate about $350 million this year. Twitter has said it expects its revenue to jump to $1 billion in 2014.
While its valuation has been as high as $10 billion, we're living in a post-Facebook world. We give it a 15X multiple on revenue for a $5.25 billion valuation.

 

2. Bloomberg

Bloomberg

Estimated Value: $35 billion
Last Year's Rank / Valuation: N/A
Business: Business and financial market media outlet
Location:  New York, New York

More Info: About Bloomberg
CEO: Daniel Doctoroff
Investors: Unavailable
Analysis: In 2008, the company was worth an estimated $25 billion. Bloomberg's 2011 revenue was $7.6 billion, up 10.5% from 2010.
Although Bloomberg is comprised of many different businesses, at its core it is a media company. We give it a healthy 5X multiple on 2011 revenue for a valuation for $35 billion.

1. Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group

 

Estimated Value: $40 billion
Last Year's Rank / Valuation: N/A
Business: Alibaba is a B2B marketplace for international and domestic China trade.
Location: Hangzhou, China
More Info: About Alibaba
CEO: Jack Ma
Investors: Softbank Corp, Granite Global Ventures, Venture TDF Technology Group, Silver Lake Partners, DST Global, and others
Analysis: Yahoo recently sold half its stake in Alibaba, valuing the Chinese e-commerce giant at $40 billion. It's the largest private non-LBO financing ever for a technology company globally. In the past 12 months, Alibaba has handled $12 billion in transactions.