Audience Intelligence Startup Tunnl Earns Placement on 2026 Inc. 5000 List

Arlington, Virginia-based audience intelligence platform Tunnl has earned a spot on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private enterprises in the United States, as first reported by Tech Startups. The company was featured alongside 125 other artificial intelligence and data infrastructure businesses on the annual national ranking.

The Inc. 5000 evaluates privately held American businesses based on revenue percentage growth across a three-year period. Inclusion on the list reflects sustained top-line expansion during a competitive market period for private tech firms, highlighting heightened enterprise adoption of specialized artificial intelligence tooling.

Founded in 2021, Tunnl develops an artificial intelligence platform designed to integrate survey research, audience segment generation, advertising activation, and campaign impact analysis into a single closed-loop ecosystem. The business aims to replace disjointed analytics workflows used by corporate marketing teams and public affairs groups.

Demand for integrated audience platforms has risen as brands attempt to reduce information loss across disjointed stages of marketing campaigns. Over the past 12 months, Tunnl expanded its enterprise client portfolio by securing accounts with Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare, financial services, and consumer technology sectors.

The company recorded significant operational scaling in early 2026. During the first quarter of 2026, Tunnl managed four times as many custom research initiatives as it completed during the corresponding period in 2025. Furthermore, the overall volume of custom surveys launched in the first quarter of 2026 equaled the total number of projects the platform executed throughout all of 2025.

Tunnl was co-founded by political strategy and data analytics veterans Sara Fagen and Brent Seaborn. Fagen, who serves as chief executive officer, possesses over two decades of experience spanning political campaign management and enterprise software ventures as a four-time company founder.

"Being named to the Inc. 5000 reflects the growing demand we’re seeing for a new way to understand and act on human opinion," Fagen said in a statement. "Human opinion evolves over time, so organizations need to be able to not just capture that evolution, but act on it. That’s why we built Tunnl with survey data as the foundation, using AI-powered layers to make those insights actionable and scalable. Our growth is a reflection of that need, and of the true campaign operating system we’ve created for marketers, advocacy leaders, and agency executives."

Tunnl currently serves pharmaceutical manufacturers, trade organizations, media agencies, and Fortune 500 brands navigating high-stakes public relations and advocacy initiatives. The broader 2026 Inc. 5000 showcase highlights top-performing private companies across artificial intelligence, enterprise software, healthcare, consumer products, and food services.