Only 7 Public B2B Companies Grow Over 30%, Signaling ARM Advantage

The Gist

• Just 7 public B2B companies are growing over 30% annually.
• Median SaaS growth peaked at 30% in 2021, now the 90th percentile.
• Companies in the 20-30% growth band earn 3.1x revenue multiples vs. 5.5x for 30%+ growers.

• Only seven public B2B software companies are growing faster than 30%, highlighting a significant slowdown compared to previous years.
• Companies with usage-based pricing models (e.g., Palantir, Datadog, Cloudflare, Snowflake) are outperforming those relying on seat-based pricing, as AI-driven usage increases revenue automatically.
• Figma demonstrates a hybrid approach by layering AI credits on top of seat-based pricing, driving both seat expansion and consumption revenue.
• AI-native companies (e.g., Anthropic, Higgsfield) are growing at unprecedented rates (e.g., 7x in a year), far outpacing traditional B2B public companies.
• The B2B market has bifurcated into two distinct groups: slow-growing public companies and hyper-growth AI-native startups, with almost no overlap in growth rates.
• Small improvements in growth (e.g., 18% to 22%) can double enterprise value due to the stark valuation gap between growth tiers.

• Shift to usage-based pricing or hybrid models (like Figma's AI credits) to align with AI-driven demand and automate revenue growth.
• Prioritize gross margin trade-offs for long-term growth, as seen in Figma and Databricks, rather than competing for incremental growth in crowded mid-tier bands.
• Explore partnerships or infrastructure roles (like Stripe) to 'tax the AI boom' without direct competition.
• Benchmark growth against the bifurcated market reality: sub-20% growth is now the norm for public companies, while AI-native firms redefine hyper-growth.

• 7 (Number of public B2B companies growing >30% in their most recent quarter.)
• 5.5x (Median revenue multiple for companies growing 20-30%, compared to 1.9x for sub-10% growers.)
• 48% (Figma's revenue growth in Q2 2026, driven by AI credit add-ons and seat expansion.)
• 80% (Databricks' YoY growth at $6.9B revenue, outperforming most public companies.)
• 250% (Harvey's approximate growth rate, highlighting the gap between AI-native and public companies.)