Checkr

Checkr is the background check company that basically monopolized the gig economy. If you've ever ordered an Uber, gotten groceries delivered through Instacart, or used DoorDash—yeah, Checkr ran those background checks. They raised $150 million in Series C funding back in 2019 at a $1.3 billion valuation, and they've been scaling hard ever since.

Here's why that matters: traditional background checks take days, sometimes weeks. Checkr's AI-powered platform can process millions of checks annually because they actually built production ML services that learn from every record. They're faster, more accurate, and cheaper than the old-school background check companies that still use fax machines and manual filing cabinets. The entire gig economy basically runs on Checkr's infrastructure—tens of millions of workers have been cleared through their system.

They've expanded beyond just gig work into enterprise hiring now, serving companies who need to scale hiring without the bottlenecks. Background screening is one of those boring industries that no one talks about until they need it—and Checkr made it cool by building actual AI instead of just scanning PDFs. They're proof that even the unsexy industries are getting disrupted.