Verkada

Full-time headcount: 405 | Headquarters: San Mateo, CA | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Cloud Computing, Sales Management, Physical Security | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Human Resources | What you should know: Verkada, which sells enterprise security systems, more than doubled its headcount this year. Just before the pandemic took hold, it raised $80 million, catapulting its valuation to $1.6 billion. Verkada is attempting to expand beyond security to become, as CEO Filip Kaliszan said, “an operating system for modern buildings.” In response to COVID-19, the company rushed out new features that let customers detect when crowds are forming, for example, and determine areas of a building that are highly trafficked and may need more cleaning.