Discord Development, Marketing Tech, and App Development Tools Among the Leading Industries for 2023

Startups of The Year 2023 ran from May 2023 to January 2024; more than 30,000 startups were nominated, and more than 470,000 votes were cast. It truly was incredible to see so many startups around the world be celebrated.

To get a deeper insight into the data, we made it open-source. Click to see the votes broken down by city, continent, or domain ending. But another interesting piece of data was seeing which industry was the most active and received the most votes. Let’s take a look at the top 50 industries that were a part of Startups of The Year 2023.

Startups of The Year 2023 - Votes by Industry

Rank by SUM of Votes	industry	SUM of votes	AVERAGE of Ranking
1	Discord Development	93025	1
2	MarketingTech	13474	134
3	Application Development Tools	10012	116
4	HRTech	3922	123
5	Blockchain Infrastructure	2054	141
6	Security-Surveillance Technology	1603	102
7	Logistics Tech	1457	91
8	Healthcare IT	1333	103
9	Cloud Infrastructure	1243	151
10	Cybersecurity	1177	121
11	Payments	984	115
12	Carbon Fiber	846	1
13	Sales Force Automation	783	109
14	Construction Tech	776	103
15	Finance-Accounting Tech	707	78
16	Health Tech	668	1
17	Content Management System (CMS)	666	129
18	Legal Tech	618	118
19	E-Commerce Enablers	602	125
20	Enterprise Collaboration	571	131
21	Business Intelligence	511	143
22	Cryptocurrencies	391	117
23	Enterprise Resource Planning	378	90
24	AI Infrastructure	366	94
25	Authentication	355	1
26	Big Data Analytics	355	41
27	Video Creation Tools	355	156
28	Food Tech	352	98
29	Events Tech	320	97
30	Gaming Tech	301	119
31	Software Development	292	1
32	GRC Software	291	133
33	Customer Success Management	287	141
34	Virtual Reality	282	115
35	Music Tech	267	104
36	Smart Contracts	245	144
37	Customer Service Software	241	124
38	Real Estate IT	231	109
39	Investment Tech	200	166
40	Enterprise Information Management	199	129
41	Manufacturing Tech	193	52
42	Sports Tech	193	107
43	Crop Tech	184	73
44	AdTech	181	125
45	Non Fungible Tokens	180	167
46	Property Management Tech	179	86
47	Religion Tech	175	96
48	Enterprise Storage	166	71
49	Insurance IT	165	128
50	Business Process Management Software	164	121

Some Interesting Facts

• Discord Development received 93,025 votes. That’s more than the 49 other industries combined.
• Although NFTs are long past their heyday, they still managed to make it into the top 50 industries.
• Industries related to business infrastructure such as HR, Cloud Infrastructure, and Payments all made it in the top 20.
• Technology related to religion received 175 votes.

With Startups of The Year 2024 right around the corner, it will be interesting to see whether the same industries will dominate once again or whether new giants will rise up.

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About HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year

Startups of The Year 2024 is HackerNoon’s flagship community-driven event celebrating startups, technology, and the spirit of innovation. Currently in its third iteration, the prestigious Internet award recognizes and celebrates tech startups of all shapes and sizes. This year, over 150,000 entities across 4200+ cities, 6 continents, and 100+ industries will participate in a bid to be crowned the best startup of the year! Millions of votes have been cast over the past few years, and many stories have been written about these daring and rising startups.

The winners will get a free interview on HackerNoon and an Evergreen Tech Company News page.

Visit our FAQ page to learn more. Read more about this year’s design system .

HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year is a branding opportunity unlike any other. Whether your goal is brand awareness or lead generation, HackerNoon has curated startup-friendly packages to solve your marketing challenges.

Meet our sponsors:

Wellfound: . At Wellfound, we're not just a job board—we're the place where top startup talent and the world's most exciting companies connect to build the future.

Notion: Notion is trusted and loved by thousands of startups as their connected workspace—from building product roadmaps to tracking fundraising. Try Notion with unlimited AI, FREE for up to 6 months, to build and scale your company with one powerful tool.

Hubspot: If you’re looking for a smart CRM platform that meets the needs of small businesses, look no further than HubSpot. Seamlessly connect your data, teams and customers in one easy-to-use scalable platform that grows with your business.

Bright Data: Startups that leverage public web data can make faster, data-driven decisions, giving them a competitive edge. With , businesses can grow from a small operation to an enterprise by harnessing insights at every stage.