Our annual Stellar Startups special report spotlights some of the most exciting channel-focused startup companies with ground-breaking technologies that are creating new opportunities for solution providers.
Major IT vendors are rapidly incorporating AI into their existing products and using it to develop new ones. But, as is often the case with tectonic shifts in the IT world, much of the bleeding-edge innovation is coming from a new generation of
startups that’s creating a wave of AI software and tools and building AI-powered products that span cybersecurity, data analytics, business applications and other product categories.
A Bloomberg Intelligence State of Venture Capital report released in October found that 54 percent of the $750 billion in venture capital investment so far in 2026 had flowed to AI startups. Another report, from AI Funding Tracker, found that AI startups raised $495.6 billion globally through the first three quarters of this year.
Here we present the CRN 2026 Stellar Startups list. This year’s roundup includes 94 startups founded in 2020 or later, with annual revenue of $1 billion or less, and are working with channel partners in North America. A complete list of the 2026 Stellar startups can be found here.
While AI heavyweights OpenAI and Anthropic are generating big headlines these days, none of the companies on the CRN 2026 Stellar Startups list can be considered household names. But within their specific segments of the IT industry, many of these startups are setting the pace of innovation and upsetting the established order.
ClickHouse, for example, is making waves in the data platform and analytics space with its cloud-based database for real-time analytics, AI, data warehousing and other data-intensive workloads. In January ClickHouse raised $400 million in a Series D funding round and in May announced that it had topped 4,000 customers and reached the $250 million annual recurring revenue threshold.
That same month ClickHouse launched its inaugural partner program. “ClickHouse has experienced massive growth over the last four years,” said Abhinav Mehla, the company’s channel chief, in an interview at the time with CRN. “The amount of interest we’re getting from partners is overwhelming, which is great.”
Another company on this year’s Stellar Startups list, Fleet Device Management, also launched its first partner program this year. Fleet develops a mobile device management (MDM) platform that enables organizations to manage, secure and optimize mobile and desktop IT assets that run on a wide range of operating systems. The Fleet system enables automated device configuration and deployment and provides centralized security, patching and compliance capabilities—including AI governance.
A number of the startups on this year’s list, including Bumblebee, Hatz AI, HelpGhost, HitWit, Lemhi, NetZen AI and Rewst, are bringing advanced management and support capabilities to MSPs and IT service providers.
“MSPs are trying to figure out how they should adopt AI internally, what their offer is for clients, how they answer the AI question, and how they stay top of mind around AI for their customers. We help them with all of the above. And most of our new partners come from word of mouth and referrals,” Hatz AI co-founder and CEO Jimmy Hatzell told CRN in an interview in April.
In just two years, Hatz AI moved from early stage startup to growing like an enterprise company, tripling both in partners and in revenue in just 12 months, Hatzell said at the time.
Slide, a fast-growing data backup and disaster recovery technology startup, is also getting noticed by MSPs.
As has been true in recent years, a disproportionate number (nearly 60 percent) of the companies on the 2026 Stellar Startup list are in the cybersecurity space. Many are developing products that incorporate AI to more effectively battle the bad guys—who are themselves increasingly using AI—as well as developing security technology to protect AI applications and agents
Startup 7AI, for example, is rebuilding the SOC (Security Operations Center) around agentic AI and launched its first formal channel program in July.
“What’s happening right now is there is a massive transformation in the cybersecurity market. Basically, the bad guys, hackers, are leveraging AI in order to attack us. This is something that we anticipated basically two and a half years ago when we started the company, to see this uptick. But right now, it’s become clear that the bad guys are using AI in order to attack us. So the whole purpose about building 7AI was to counter that kind of motion and fight fire with fire—so literally create AI that can defend big organizations,” 7AI co-founder and CEO Lior Div said during a Q&A session at The Channel Company’s 2026 XChange Best of Breed Conference last month.
Inforcer, meanwhile, is getting noticed for its next-generation threat detection and response platform to help MSPs thwart Microsoft 365 threats. Also making waves in the cybersecurity arena are Cavelo with its unified cyber risk visibility and security posture management platform, Cynomi and its virtual CISO software, JetStream Security with its AI security platform, and Reach Security with its exposure management technology.
The complete 2026 Stellar Startups list can be found here. In addition, throughout this week, CRN is running a series of slide shows profiling some of the companies on this year’s Stellar Startups list in key technology categories including:
*Artificial Intelligence
AI remains the hottest segment of the IT industry right now with artificial intelligence driving many—if not most—of the innovations being developed by both established IT vendors and emerging companies. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2026, here’s a look at 14 AI technology startups solution providers should be aware of.
*Cloud
Managing and securing today’s complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments can be a major IT challenge. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2026, here are four cloud technology startups that the channel should know.
*Business Applications
Operational applications are how businesses and organizations generate value from IT. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2026, here are six business application startups that solution providers should get to know.
*Security
Cyberattacks are unrelenting and rapidly evolving—the bad guys always seem to be one step ahead—and businesses are demanding the latest defensive weapons to fight back. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2026, here are 59 security startups developing leading-edge cybersecurity technology.
*Storage
Data volumes are exploding even as data assets become more valuable. Businesses and organizations are increasingly challenged to manage and safeguard all that valuable data. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2026, here are six startups in data storage technology (including data backup and resiliency) that solution providers should be aware of.
Kyle Alspach and CJ Fairfield contributed to this story.
