# Stealth startups flagged before they announced a raise

> Stealth startups flagged before their funding was public, crypto first and then all sectors, with how many days early each was flagged and where the flags come from.

- URL: https://recentfunding.com/blog/stealth-startups-flagged-before-they-raised/
- Published: 2026-09-26
- Updated: 2026-10-30
- Data snapshot: 2026-10-09
- Tags: crypto, stealth, api
- Publisher: Recent Funding (https://recentfunding.com/)

As of October 9, 2026, 712 companies on Recent Funding carry a stealth flag, and 266 were flagged before their latest round was announced, with `days_early` ranging from 7 to 225 days. Only 4 of the 1790 crypto companies have a `days_early` figure, so crypto is a short list, not a trend.

## Where the flags come from

Most flag dates, and every `days_early` and follow count, come from a third-party stealth-startup tracker that watches which experienced investors and founders follow new X accounts. Recent Funding's own stealth watch adds flag dates only, and only those are Recent Funding's discoveries. Values are stored as the source reported them ([methodology](https://recentfunding.com/blog/how-recent-funding-sources-and-verifies-funding-data/)).

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `flagged_at` | The earliest date the company was flagged |
| `days_early` | Days between the flag and the raise becoming public |
| `smart_follows` | Tracked investors and founders following the company's X account |
| `new_follows_7d` | New follows from those accounts in the last 7 days |
| `trending_rank` | Position in the trending list, when on it (1 is the top) |

For 97 of the 119 companies with a figure, `days_early` equals the days from `flagged_at` to the latest round on Recent Funding; the rest were measured against a different round or date.

## Crypto startups flagged in stealth

21 crypto companies have a flag date and 4 a `days_early` figure:

| # | Company | Industry | Flagged | Days early | Latest round | Announced |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Orthogonal](https://recentfunding.com/companies/orthogonal/) | ai | 2025-12-23 | 213 | undisclosed | 2026-06-25 |
| 2 | [Cari Network](https://recentfunding.com/companies/cari-network/) | defi | 2026-03-18 | 168 | [$32.5M](https://www.cari.com/news) | 2026-09-02 |
| 3 | [MNX](https://recentfunding.com/companies/mnx/) | infra-devtools | 2026-02-19 | 153 | [$6.4M](https://x.com/mnx_fi/status/2064732809655210457) | 2026-07-22 |
| 4 | [River Markets](https://recentfunding.com/companies/river-markets/) | trading-markets | 2026-04-14 | 117 | undisclosed | 2026-08-09 |

The crypto label is Recent Funding's classification and misses some: Gonka (decentralized compute) and StableStock (stablecoin infrastructure) are marked crypto = no, so search all sectors too.

## All sectors: how early were companies flagged?

| days early | Companies |
| --- | --- |
| 0–29 | 25 |
| 30–59 | 23 |
| 60–89 | 17 |
| 90–119 | 17 |
| 120–149 | 13 |
| 150–179 | 16 |
| 180–209 | 6 |
| 210+ | 2 |

Only companies whose raise became public have `days_early`, so this says nothing about how often a flag leads to a raise. The largest leads:

| # | Company | Crypto | Industry | Flagged | Days early | Latest round | Announced |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [QFEX](https://recentfunding.com/companies/qfex/) | no | trading-markets | 2025-12-27 | 225 | [$9.5M](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/annanay-kapila_today-im-excited-to-announce-that-qfex-has-activity-7435272872597598209-PjrI) | 2026-08-09 |
| 2 | [Orthogonal](https://recentfunding.com/companies/orthogonal/) | yes | ai | 2025-12-23 | 213 | undisclosed | 2026-06-25 |
| 3 | [Gonka](https://recentfunding.com/companies/gonka/) | no | gaming | 2025-12-27 | 206 | undisclosed | — |
| 4 | [Outcome](https://recentfunding.com/companies/outcome/) | no | fintech | 2026-02-03 | 199 | undisclosed | 2026-08-21 |
| 5 | [ZeroDrift](https://recentfunding.com/companies/zerodrift/) | no | security-privacy | 2026-02-11 | 199 | [$10M](https://zerodrift.com/) | 2026-08-29 |
| 6 | [Starcloud](https://recentfunding.com/companies/starcloud/) | no | infra-devtools | 2026-02-18 | 184 | [$250M](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/21/starcloud-raises-200-million-for-orbital-data-centers-as-launch-options-dry-up/) | 2026-08-21 |
| 7 | [MatX](https://recentfunding.com/companies/matx/) | no | trading-markets | 2026-02-25 | 183 | [$500M](https://matx.com/research/series_b) | 2026-02-24 |
| 8 | [Sapiom](https://recentfunding.com/companies/sapiom/) | no | ai-agents | 2026-02-06 | 180 | [$35M](https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20260805915898/sapiom-raises-35-million-series-a-to-power-the-next-trillion-ai-agents) | 2026-08-05 |
| 9 | [Preview](https://recentfunding.com/companies/preview/) | no | consumer-social | 2026-02-19 | 175 | undisclosed | 2026-08-13 |
| 10 | [Glint](https://recentfunding.com/companies/glint/) | no | data-analytics | 2026-01-28 | 172 | [$580K](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1867613/000186761321000001/primary_doc.xml) | 2026-07-19 |
| 11 | [Armadin](https://recentfunding.com/companies/armadin/) | no |   | 2026-04-15 | 169 | [$255M](https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/armadin-raises-255-5m-series-b/) | 2026-10-02 |
| 12 | [Brickken](https://recentfunding.com/companies/brickken/) | no |   | 2026-03-16 | 169 | undisclosed | — |
| 13 | [Cari Network](https://recentfunding.com/companies/cari-network/) | yes | defi | 2026-03-18 | 168 | [$32.5M](https://www.cari.com/news) | 2026-09-02 |
| 14 | [Crebit](https://recentfunding.com/companies/crebit/) | no | fintech | 2026-03-17 | 168 | [$4M](https://www.caplight.com/company/crebitpay) | 2026-09-01 |
| 15 | [sazabi](https://recentfunding.com/companies/sazabi/) | no | gaming | 2026-02-06 | 166 | [$8M](https://x.com/sazabi/status/2070174027554197795) | 2026-07-22 |
| 16 | [Ornn](https://recentfunding.com/companies/ornn/) | no | gaming | 2026-02-04 | 162 | [$33M](https://ornn.com/) | 2026-07-16 |
| 17 | [Smack Technologies](https://recentfunding.com/companies/smack-technologies/) | no | other | 2026-03-09 | 162 | [$61M](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smack-raises-61-million-series-b-to-bring-intelligent-autonomy-to-the-tactical-edge-302853326.html) | 2026-08-18 |
| 18 | [Natural](https://recentfunding.com/companies/natural/) | no | payments-stablecoins | 2026-02-11 | 159 | [$30M](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiswFBVV95cUxNOE1mTVRsWUFJVGJqd0RtUENFWGtxVnZkT2NZVXR0TXFGT1BNVEFWa2pSTWdhWExGTVc4eS01WGc3T0JXeURRVVR6QzlTUzl5N2JQWmNIVzVwWllyUXRIWkk5cndadHBtaHNPZkU1c2xjaVZIN2xza2M2aWx5cHBVZnNfVGI4cHZVUzRSTkNYLWpuVXVvbzRUNFpmNFpfeEczQUwtdHBEMElWM2ZjS3NiTTNsYw?oc=5) | 2026-07-30 |
| 19 | [pumpcade](https://recentfunding.com/companies/pumpcade/) | no | gaming | 2026-02-16 | 156 | [$5M](https://www.axios.com/pro/all-deals/2026/04/14/pro-rata-premium-first-look) | 2026-07-22 |
| 20 | [Humanoid](https://recentfunding.com/companies/humanoid/) | no | robotics-hardware | 2026-02-16 | 155 | [$152M](https://thehumanoid.ai/humanoid-raises-152-million-at-1-35-billion-post-money-valuation-becoming-europes-first-pure-play-humanoid-robotics-unicorn/) | 2026-07-21 |
| 21 | [Gimlet Labs](https://recentfunding.com/companies/gimlet-labs/) | no | ai | 2026-04-04 | 153 | [$300M](https://gimletlabs.ai/blog/announcing-series-b) | 2026-09-04 |
| 22 | [MNX](https://recentfunding.com/companies/mnx/) | yes | infra-devtools | 2026-02-19 | 153 | [$6.4M](https://x.com/mnx_fi/status/2064732809655210457) | 2026-07-22 |
| 23 | [Weave Robotics](https://recentfunding.com/companies/weave-robotics/) | no | robotics-hardware | 2026-02-17 | 153 | undisclosed | 2026-07-20 |
| 24 | [smallest.ai](https://recentfunding.com/companies/smallest-ai/) | no | ai | 2026-03-03 | 150 | [$13M](https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/smallestai-lands-13m-series-a-for-voice-ai/) | 2026-07-31 |
| 25 | [kash](https://recentfunding.com/companies/kash/) | no | payments-stablecoins | 2026-02-25 | 149 | undisclosed | 2026-07-24 |

Not every flagged company is a stealth startup: the list includes established companies such as Gumroad and Upbit Global. The live list of companies still in stealth is on [stealth startups](https://recentfunding.com/stealth-startups/).

## Smart follows

890 companies have a smart-follow count, from 2 to 244 tracked accounts; 20 are crypto companies. A high count shows that many tracked accounts follow a company, not why; following is not investing.

| smart follows | Companies |
| --- | --- |
| 0–4 | 42 |
| 5–9 | 368 |
| 10–24 | 321 |
| 25–49 | 121 |
| 50–99 | 34 |
| 100+ | 4 |

## Pull this from the API

`sort=days_early` puts companies without a value last; stop reading when the field turns `null` ([API docs](https://recentfunding.com/docs/#crypto-signals)):

```sh
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RF_KEY" "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/companies?crypto=true&sort=days_early&limit=20"
```

[What is a stealth startup](https://recentfunding.com/blog/what-is-a-stealth-startup/) explains stealth mode, and [the crypto startup API](https://recentfunding.com/blog/crypto-startup-api-stealth-signals-teams-and-raises/) covers the other crypto endpoints.

## Related on Recent Funding

- [Founders of recently funded startups](https://recentfunding.com/founders/)
- [Categories ranked by capital raised](https://recentfunding.com/categories/)
- [Stablecoin startups](https://recentfunding.com/categories/stablecoins/)
- [Get a free API key](https://recentfunding.com/dashboard/?from=blog-related)
- [Team size at crypto startups: how it's counted](https://recentfunding.com/blog/team-size-and-developer-activity-at-crypto-startups/)
- [AI investors: the VC firms and accelerators backing the most AI startups](https://recentfunding.com/blog/ai-investors/)
- [Game startups: the gaming startups that raised most recently](https://recentfunding.com/blog/game-startups/)
- [Recent Funding API docs](https://recentfunding.com/docs/): every endpoint behind this post; a [free API key](https://recentfunding.com/dashboard/?from=blog-related) takes just an email