Meet the 20 fastest-growing mobile startups

Venture capitalists and angel investors are always looking for startups that can show evidence of traction. For investors focused on mobile, one strong sign is the number of app downloads on Google Play and/or the App Store.

That said, a spike in downloads for the first week after launch doesn’t say much — to impress investors, startups need to demonstrate they can retain users, and consistently gain new ones.

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A company called Mattermark is doing the heavy analysis work. Headed up by serial entrepreneur Danielle Morrill, the company puts data about private companies in the hands of entrepreneurs and investors.

Last week, Mattermark released its list of 10 rising hardware startups; this week is all about mobile.

As per usual, Mattermark’s score factors out startups with brief spikes followed by steep declines. Its research has found that this can usually be attributed to paid customer acquisition and an “invite your friends” feature that spams everyone in your contact list.

Some old favorites made the cut, like Spotify and Pinterest, but you may be surprised by the new additions to the list. One of the biggest shifts: Once critiqued by entrepreneurs for being ugly and poorly-designed, business apps are now used by employees at home and at work. We were also pleasantly surprised to see a few educational apps make the list, and a few that have raised little or no institutional funding.

Here are the rising mobile startups, showing substantial growth week-over-week:

Imgur

Image sharing
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 87% Last Week: ▲ 198%
Funding: no known funding, won best bootstrapped startup at 2012 Crunchies Awards

Twitch

Video broadcasting and chat community for gamers
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 33%  Last Week: ▲ 95%
Funding: September 2012, $15M Series B – Bessemer, Allsop Louie, Draper Associates

Rdio

Ad-free music subscription service
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 49% Last Week: ▲ 78%
Funding: February 2011, $17.5M Series A – Mangrove Capital, Atomico, Janus Friis

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Spotify

Streaming music on demand
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 16% Last Week: ▲ 2%
Funding: November 2012, $100M – Goldman Sachs

Snapchat

Real-time picture chatting app 
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 9% Last Week: ▲ 19%
Funding: June 2013, $60M Series B – IVP, General Catalyst, Benchmark, Lightspeed, SV Angel

Pinterest

Photo sharing and collection app
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 21% Last Week: ▲ 30%
Funding: February 2013, $200M Series D – Valiant, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer, FirstMark

Kik

Mobile messaging
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 20%  Last Week: ▲ 3%
Funding: April 2013, $19.5M Series B – Foundation Capital, RRE, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures

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Social Point

Mobile games publisher
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 11% Last Week: ▲ 9%
Funding: February 2013,  €2.9M ($3.8M) Venture Round – Greylock Partners

Poshmark

Mobile fashion marketplace
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 16% Last Week: ▲ 13%
Funding: December 2012,  $12M Series B – Menlo Ventures

Maaii

Free app-to-app calls and texts
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 165%  Last Week: ▲ 472%
Funding: no known funding

ClassDojo

Classroom management tool for teachers
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 27% Last Week: ▲ 37%
Funding: August 2012, $1.6M Seed Round – Paul Graham (personal investment), Ron Conway, Kapor Capital, Start Fund, General Catalyst, Morado Venture Partners, Lerer Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund, Learn Capital Venture Partners, SoftTechVC

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TeachersPayTeachers

Educational resource marketplace
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 12% Last Week: ▲ 14%
Funding: Bought back from Scholastic Inc. by founder Paul Edelman in 2009

Flipboard

Digital social magazine curated by your friends
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 15% Last Week: ▲ 13%
Funding: April 2011, $50M Series B – Insight Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures

Wattpad

World’s largest community of readers and writers
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: — Last Week: ▲ 533%
Funding: June 2010, $17.3M Series B – Khosla, Union Square Ventures, Golden Venture Partners

Edmodo

Social learning platform for teachers, students, and parents
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 19% Last Week: ▲ 44%
Funding: July 2012, $25M Series C – New Enterprise Associates, Greylock, Benchmark, Union Square Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, Learn Capital Venture Partners

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Vector Unit

Game publisher (Riptide GP2)
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: — Last Week: ▲ 252%
Funding: No known funding

Machine Zone

Game publisher (Game of War: Fire Age)
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: — Last Week: ▲ 473%
Funding: January 2012, $8M Series B – Menlo Ventures

Scan

Create mobile websites for people and businesses
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 13% Last Week: ▲ 7%
Funding: February 2012, $1.7M Seed – Menlo Ventures, Google Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Start Fund, Transmedia Capital, Ludlow Ventures, Naval Ravikant, Jim Pallotta, Troy Carter, Ariel Poler, Joe Greenstein, Social + Capital Partnership

YinzCam

In-stadium mobile video/replay for sports events
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 19% Last Week: ▲ 12%
Funding: No known funding, Carnegie Mellon spin-off

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BillGuard

Personal finance tracking and security
Average Weekly Growth Rate – Mobile Downloads: ▲ 545%  Last Week: ▲ 208%
Funding: October 2011, $10M Series B – Innovation Endeavors, Bessemer, IA Ventures, Saul Klein, Joe Lonsdale, Amir Orad, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures