LinkedIn last month released its annual "LinkedIn Top Startups" list, which includes several companies within the health care or wellness industries.   

The 10 'most influential' health care companies, according to TIME

Selecting the top startups

The "LinkedIn Top Startups" list consists of 50 companies that have continually attracted investment, employees, and attention throughout 2021. 

For the rankings, LinkedIn analyzed data from four different factors: employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement with the company and its employees, and how well the startups pulled talent from LinkedIn's flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list.

To be considered for the list, companies had to have at least 50 employees, be privately held and headquartered in the United States, and could not be more than seven years old.

The list

This year, LinkedIn recognized 12 companies within the health care and wellness industries. The companies are listed below in order of ranking:

14. Daily Harvest, a subscription-based meal delivery service that provides a range of plant-based options, including smoothies, flatbreads, desserts, and snacks. The company aims to facilitate healthy eating by emphasizing nutritious foods that require minimal prep. 

16. Verkada, a Silicon Valley startup that services over 7,800 organizations, including health care providers. The company develops building security systems that combine hardware—such as video cameras and motion sensors—with cloud-based software and artificial intelligence technology.

18. Therabody, a tech wellness company, focused on wellness education, best known for its "Theragun," a massage-therapy device that helps reduce muscle tension and accelerates recovery.

22. Medable, a global platform that aims to minimize the need for in-person clinical visits by delivering effective therapies to patients quickly. According to LinkedIn, the company accelerates the development of vaccines and treatments—including for Covid-19—by enabling digital clinical trials. 

26. Ritual, a consumer health brand that offers multivitamins and nutritional supplements while focusing on transparency. Customers can trace their purchases through the Ritual website and explore ingredient forms, doses, and supplier information. 

27. Ro, an affordability-focused health care company that provides virtual primary care services by connecting telehealth, diagnostics, and pharmacy delivery. With Ro, patients don't need to have insurance or go to a doctor's office; they can access care directly—and the company discloses all pricing upfront. 

29. Scale AI, a platform aimed at helping machine learning teams accelerate their artificial intelligence efforts by speeding up their data processing. Among other collaborations, the company has worked with MIT to improve health diagnoses, LinkedIn News reports.

31. Hinge Health, a digital health clinic that works with Fortune 500 companies—along with more than 300 other health plans and employers—and combines virtual physical therapy, wearable sensors, and ongoing coaching for prevention and treatment to help treat patients with back and joint pain. 

33. Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, co-founded by Elon Musk, that is attempting to help people with paralysis communicate through text and voice messaging by developing a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device.

37. Lyra Health, an online mental health counseling platform that provides therapy and mental health services to help treat anxiety, depression, and stress. The platform achieves results through its accessible, virtual approach to counseling—with 71% of members showing reliable clinical improvement.

43. Papa & Barkley, a cannabis company that manufactures CBD or cannabinoid-activated wellness and lifestyle products. The company sells its products to California-based medical cannabis dispensaries.

46. Innovaccer, a company that compiles the world's health care data in its cloud platform, which allows organizations to easily obtain and analyze key data at scale to help make better decisions for patients while improving care quality, costs, and outcomes. (LinkedIn News, 9/22)