Disruptive Companies: 2011
50 Smartest Companies
- 1
A123 Systems
Summary
Key innovation:
Nanostructured electrodes result in lithium batteries more durable and safer than those in cell phones and laptops.
Technology:
A123 develops and manufactures lithium-ion batteries that are safer than those in mobile phones and laptops and use less expensive elements. The materials are structured at the nanoscale in a way that enables them to charge and discharge quickly, making them well suited for use in electric vehicles and in electrical-grid storage.
Market:
A123 started off by selling batteries for use in rechargeable power tools, but it has recently made a major push into electric vehicles. Its first contract for the vehicle market was to supply the battery packs for electric buses, and commercial-vehicle makers have been its largest customers to date. Fisker has selected A123 to supply battery packs for its luxury electric cars.
Strategy:
Last fall, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, A123 opened a new manufacturing plant in Michigan; it’s the largest lithion-ion battery plant in the United States. The company is also active in the emerging market for grid storage and has become the world’s largest provider of lithium-ion batteries to electrical-grid operators.
Challenges and Next Steps:
A123 has established a niche in the commercial-vehicles market but has yet to land a contract with a major passenger-car maker, having been beaten out for the Chevy Volt contract by larger competitor LG Chem. It is not yet clear whether lithium-ion batteries will remain the best choice for the electric-vehicle market: other companies are pursuing alternative chemistries such as nickel–metal hydride and liquid lithium-ion.
- 2
Akamai
Summary
Key innovation:
Its algorithms optimize online routes for content delivery.
Technology:
The Web couldn’t keep up with the exponential increase in traffic if not for services from providers like Akamai that route data as intelligently as possible from the provider's servers to the end user's computer. Akamai's algorithms have allowed it to become the world's premier provider of services that help websites deliver content faster and more efficiently.
Market:
Akamai says it delivers between 15 and 30 percent of all Web traffic. Its customers include media companies, social networks, software makers, and the U.S. military. It stands to benefit from the increasing amount of rich, interactive content traveling over the Internet: the more complex a site is, the more it needs the company’s services.
Strategy:
Though the company is best known for content delivery, Akamai is expanding to appeal to businesses that want to deliver Web applications. The company bills its platform as a way for companies to avoid problems and vulnerabilities as more and more Web applications move into the cloud. Its Web application firewall, for example, can stop malicious attacks before they reach the customer's infrastructure.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Last year, video surpassed file sharing as the online activity that accounted for the highest percentage of Internet traffic, and its share is only set to increase as more and more of it is transmitted in high-definition. Last year, Akamai introduced a new network for helping deliver this high-bandwidth content.
- 3
Amazon.com
Summary
Key innovation:
Even as it seeded the e-book market with the Kindle, Amazon has made it easy for people to read e-books on other devices, such as the iPad.
Technology:
Amazon.com led the charge in bringing electronic books into the mainstream with its Kindle e-readers. Thanks to its use of AT&T’s 3G network, customers can download books seconds after placing an order, without having to plug the device into a computer. The technology also keeps track of readers’ progress through books, even if they’re reading on multiple Kindles, phones, or computers.
Market:
Though Amazon hasn’t released exact sales figures, the company says that Kindle is currently the best-selling product line on its site. It also says that in 2010, it sold more electronic books than it did paperbacks.
Strategy:
Amazon.com has helped set consumer expectations regarding prices and distribution methods for e-books. Though Amazon faces intense competition in this market, especially now that Apple has introduced the iPad, the company has gained a head start by integrating the devices aggressively with its powerful retail site.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Amazon has worked to entice consumers to the Kindle by stressing its ability to offer bestsellers at $9.99 each. Publishers seem encouraged to renegotiate their deals with Amazon in light of Apple’s recent entry into the e-book market. Amazon has so far been able to use its retail dominance as powerful leverage in the negotiations, but the company will have to ensure that its tactics don’t result in a backlash from publishers.
- 4
American Superconductor
- Headquarters Devens, Massachusetts
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011
- Valuation $1.4 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
Underground superconductor power cables using AMSC’s Amperium™ high temperature superconductor wire can carry up to 10 times as much electricity as conventional copper cables.
Technology:
While the company's superconducting wire, which can be used in cables that carry as much electricity as 10 equivalent copper cables, could fundamentally change the way electricity is transmitted on the grid, American Superconductor has also innovated in the design and operation of wind turbines. Its electrical control systems are in many of the turbines being deployed worldwide, and the company is developing offshore turbines that have the industry’s largest generating capacity—10 megawatts or more—in order to maximize the power per turbine installed.
Market:
The annual market for underground electricity transmission is measured in the billions of dollars. The rapid buildout of wind power capacity in China and elsewhere in the world has also created a huge demand for the company’s wind turbine electrical control systems and its grid interconnection solutions that efficiently manage the flow of that electricity into existing electric grids.
Strategy:
Last year, American Superconductor signed a half-billion dollar agreement with Sinovel, China's largest wind turbine manufacturer, to provide electrical components for thousands of wind turbines. This is an extension of a contract first signed in 2005 that has been the dominant source of revenue for American Superconductor.
Challenges and Next Steps:
While electric utilities are slow to adopt new technologies, a recent order for 3 million meters of Amperium wire by LS Cable shows superconductors are now coming of age as a solution to 21st Century energy challenges. Economic constraints have led to delays to wider-spread adoption of superconductor power cable systems in the U.S.; however superconductor projects are underway in New York and New Mexico.
- 5
Amyris
Summary
Key innovation:
Its genetically engineered yeast turns sugars into a building block of diesel fuel, which is usable in the existing transportation infrastructure.
Technology:
Amyris has engineered yeasts that convert sugars into a hydrocarbon molecule called farnesene, which can be processed into fuels for transport or products for the chemical industry. If hydrogenated, the hydrocarbon can be turned into a diesel fuel that burns cleaner than conventional diesel, reducing emissions of sulfur, nitrogen oxides, and particulates.
Market:
Unlike ethanol made from sugarcane or corn, Amyris's diesel fuel can be distributed through the same pipelines as conventional fuels. It can also be pumped with existing fuel pumps and used in conventional vehicles. In addition to being made into fuels, farnesene can also be made into a number of chemical products, including industrial and automotive oils and lubricants.
Strategy:
The company, which went public in late 2010, is making biofuels from sugarcane because making them from corn is too expensive. In 2009, Amyris opened a demonstration plant in Brazil, which has an extensive infrastructure for biofuel production and is the world's most efficient producer of sugar. In a joint venture with one of the world's largest sugar and ethanol producers, it is converting part of one major Brazilian sugarcane mill into its first commercial production facility. With the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy,Amyris also is testing sweet sorghum, a feedstock that is more widely available in the United States.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Amyris's production facility is scheduled to come on line in 2012. In the meantime, Amyris has contracted with chemical manufacturers in Brazil and the United States to begin producing its first product, a base oil for cosmetics. The company also has signed an agreement with Procter & Gamble to use its oils in a number of its products.
- 6
Apple
- Headquarters Cupertino, California
- Industry Computing & Communications
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2015 , 2017
Summary
Key innovation:
Its limited lineup of mobile devices all run on the same east-to-use software.
Technology:
With the iPod Touch, the iPhone, and now the iPad, Apple has put reliable, relatively inexpensive touch-screen computing technology into the hands of tens of millions of users. The company's patented interface can sense and respond to multiple touches, allowing intuitive, gestural control that largely does away with the need for buttons on a device.
Market:
The iPod dominates the market for personal music players, and although the flurry of smart phones based on Google's Android operating system slowed Apple’s growth somewhat, the company still gained smart-phone market share in 2010. With the iPad, Apple has also staked a dominant position in the burgeoning tablet market: 15 million have been sold since the device was introduced in April of last year.
Strategy:
The iPad represented a huge gamble: other tablet computers, including Apple’s own ill-fated Newton, had met with little commercial success. Many analysts also predicted failure for the iPad, which lacks Adobe Flash support (making a significant amount of Web content unavailable) and doesn’t include a camera. But strong sales and a rush of competing products from Apple's competitors have vindicated the move.
Challenges and Next Steps:
In 2011, Apple can expect a flood of Android tablet offerings to compete with the iPad. But recent reports suggest that the company will also be coming out with a new version of the iPad, complete with front-facing camera to enable videoconferencing.
- 7
Applied Materials
- Headquarters Santa Clara, California
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011 , 2012
- Valuation $17 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
its machines can make chips that have both vertical and horizontal connections, to pack in more computing power.
Technology:
As semiconductor manufacturers begin to reach the limits of how many transistors can be crammed onto a chip horizontally, they have begun adding them vertically, stacking connected chips on top of each other. But it has proven difficult to fill the tiny gaps between transistors to keep them electrically isolated from one another. Applied Materials has developed a new chemical vapor deposition tool that allows them to fill these gaps with insulating material at a scale below 20 nanometers. Display manufacturers are using Applied Materials' equipment to deposit thin films on glass or flexible substrates to create more complex and responsive touch panels.
Market:
The coming wave of tablet computers—analysts predict some 55 million will be sold in 2011—has created a huge demand for Applied Materials' equipment. Combining its semiconductor and display businesses, Applied Materials claims that 60 percent of the components of a typical tablet computer are made using its equipment. The company expects that the touch screen market alone represents a $200 million opportunity for the company this year.
Strategy:
The next generation of smart phones and tablets will require chips that are more powerful, compact, and energy-efficient, as well as brighter, more energy-efficient touch screens. Chipmakers are already testing the next generation of solid-state memory chips using Applied Materials' new deposition technology, and logic chips will not be far behind. Its equipment for manufacturing flat panel displays for televisions and computers is now being used to build more complex and responsive touch screens.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company is also developing equipment for manufacturing organic light-emitting diodes, which can be used to create brighter displays for portable devices without draining the battery, and which may eventually be used to light homes and buildings more efficiently.
- 8
ARM Holdings
- Headquarters Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Industry Computing & Communications
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011 , 2012 , 2013
- Valuation $20 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
Developed energy-efficient customizable chips for mobile devices.
Technology:
ARM develops designs for microchips and licenses them to manufacturers. The chips offer high performance but consume very little power, which makes them suitable for use in portable electronic devices like smart phones, e-readers, and tablet computers.
Market:
ARM has licensed its designs to hundreds of companies that have shipped billions of microchips. The widespread adoption of smart phones has created a huge demand for microchips that are powerful enough to support Web browsing, gaming, and streaming high-definition video but won't drain the battery too quickly.
Strategy:
ARM has established itself as an independent research and development division for major semiconductor manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Nvidia. Not only has the company designed the majority of chips used in today's smart phones, but its chip architecture can also be found in laptop computers, televisions, digital cameras, smart meters, and embedded digital devices and microcontrollers.
Challenges and Next Steps:
With their more energy-efficient chips, ARM and its partners have been able to dominate the smart-phone market, while Intel and AMD chips are still found in most laptops and desktop PCs. But that will soon begin to change. Intel's new low-power Atom processor was specifically designed for use in smart phones and tablet computers, while ARM scored a key victory in the personal-computing market when Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows will be able to support ARM's architecture in addition to the x86 architecture found in chips built by Intel and AMD.
- 9
Complete Genomics
- Headquarters Mountain View, California
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011 , 2012
- Valuation $140 million
Summary
Key innovation:
Sells sequencing as a service, analyzing DNA samples that customers send in.
Technology:
Complete Genomics makes machines that can sequence whole human genomes quickly and cheaply, thanks in part to a new way of packing DNA onto specially fabricated arrays with unprecedented density. The company has also developed a highly accurate system for reading the sequence that doesn't require high concentrations of expensive reagents.
Market:
The declining cost per genome of today's sequencing technology means that the number of human genomes that have been sequenced will rise from a handful to 30,000 by the end of this year. Complete Genomics just signed a contract to deliver over 600 genome sequences for the Institute for Systems Biology in a study on neurogenerative diseases.
Strategy:
With a new genome sequencing center that it opened last spring, Complete Genomics now gives research organizations the option of completely outsourcing their sequencing needs rather than having to invest in a machine and in the computational resources to handle the data. The company is continuing to drive down its costs from $5,000 per genome today to what it hopes will be the first $1,000 genome in the next few years.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Although it is still in its early stages, complete genome sequencing has yet to make good on its promise to revolutionize medicine. If the pharmaceutical companies that Complete Genomics is targeting with its service fail to achieve tangible results based on genomic research, the market for its service may not be as big as once predicted.
- 10
Geron
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation $593.9 million
Summary
Key innovation:
Has begun clinical trials for a spinal-cord therapy derived from these cells.
Technology:
Last fall, Geron initiated the first clinical trial of a therapy based on embryonic stem cells to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company reprogrammed stem cells from embryos discarded from fertility clinics into progenitor nerve cells designed to restore function in patients with severe spinal cord injuries.
Market:
Embryonic stem cell therapies offer tremendous promise for treating an array of common degenerative diseases and injuries.
Strategy:
In addition to its nerve-cell-based therapy, the company is also developing therapies based on heart cells, liver cells, insulin-producing cells, and cartilage-forming cells derived from its embryonic stem cell lines. Although its focus is on developing therapies, the company is also marketing its heart and liver cells for use by the pharmaceutical industry in drug development, screening, and toxicity studies.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Other companies are pursuing induced pluripotent stem cells, which could become a less-controversial replacement for stem cells derived from human embryos, but it remains to be seen if iPS cells behave exactly as embryonic stem cells.
- Industry
- 12
HTC
- Headquarters Taoyuan, Taiwan
- Industry Connectivity
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011 , 2017
- Valuation $27.3 billion
Summary
Key innovation: Designed well-crafted devices in partnerships with Google and wireless carriers.
Technology:
HTC was the first company to build phones based on Google’s Android mobile operating system, and its current generation of Android smart phones is able to compete with Apple’s iPhone on features and price. In 2010, the company introduced the EVO, the world’s first phone to take advantage of 4G network technology for lightning-fast Web browsing and new applications like live video chat.
Market:
The number of phones running Android exploded from six million in 2009 to 53 million in 2010. HTC claimed a third of that market, down from two thirds the previous year.
Strategy:
HTC’s close ties with Google allowed it to dominate the market for Android smart phones early on, but the company has recently lost market share to competitors like Samsung and Motorola. It is now trying to build on the success of its first 4G offering with plans to build next-generation phones for all the major carriers and 4G technologies: Sprint’s WiMax network, T-Mobile and AT&T’s HSPA+ networks, and the recently announced Verizon LTE network.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company recently unveiled its first tablet computer, an Android-based device; it’s one of the few that allow users to take handwritten notes with a stylus.
- 13
iRobot
Summary
Key innovation:
Its small, agile robots can detect and dispose of explosive devices for the military.
Technology:
The company makes robots that can move in complex environments, such as a messy living room or a battlefield, by means of a proprietary system that helps the machine respond efficiently to changing circumstances.
Market:
More than five million units of iRobot’s automated vacuum cleaner, the Roomba, have been sold since it was introduced in 2002. The company also sells robots to governments and industrial clients worldwide.
Strategy:
The Roomba was followed by a host of other home cleaning robots designed for single functions: one cleans pools, another cleans gutters, and another sweeps shop floors. A robot that washes floors was introduced in 2005; a smaller version is being introduced this year. The company has also had success developing small, agile robots that can perform military reconnaissance and detect and dispose of explosive devices in hostile areas. Its latest version, the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, developed in partnership with Boeing, is light enough to be carried in a pack; its video-game-style controller makes it easy to use.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Although revenues from its government and industrial robots grew in 2010, iRobot still needs to find a product that will match the success of the original Roomba. In addition to the new floor-washing robot, the company is unveiling a new version of the Roomba that has longer battery life and a touchpad programming interface.
- 14
Life Technologies
- Headquarters Carlsbad, California
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011 , 2012
- Valuation $9.0 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
Its benchtop sequencer can sequence a human genome in one day, at a cost of just $1,000 per genome. Its desktop gene-sequencing machines costs $50,000, about a 10th as much as other machines.
Technology:
Last year, Life acquired Ion Torrent, a startup that has developed a desktop device that reads the sequence of DNA using semiconductor technology. At the heart of Ion Torrent's technology is a chip that holds an array of 1.5 million sensors. To sequence a strand of DNA, the machine synthesizes a complementary strand, sequentially attempting to add each of the four bases that make up DNA one by one to the well. When the correct base is incorporated into the growing sequence, it triggers a chemical reaction that releases a positively charged hydrogen atom, which is detected by the sensor. A computer stitches together the sequence by integrating these signals with knowledge of when each base was flowed through the chip.
Market:
In December, Life launched the Personal Genome Machine, its first product based on the Ion Torrent technology. The device sells for $50,000, about one-tenth the cost of sequencers from companies like Illumina and Pacific Biosciences. This price should put it within reach of researchers who now have to send samples out to be analyzed by outside labs.
Strategy:
The benchtop device, which even has a dock where researchers can download data to their iPod, is designed for medium-sized sequencing projects like microbial genomes rather than full human genome sequencing.
Challenges and Next Steps:
While the sequencing machines are cheap, the cost of sequencing per base pair is higher than for other instruments because the chips cost $250 and can be used only once. The company believes the price will drop as it produces a higher volume of chips.
- 15
Netflix
- Headquarters Los Gatos, California
- Industry Internet & Digital Media
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011 , 2015
- Valuation $11.2 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
Built demand for a streaming video service by including it free with DVD-by-mail subscriptions.
Technology:
Netflix has successfully capitalized on the increasing speeds of consumer broadband to begin streaming movies over the Internet to subscribers’ homes rather than delivering them in the mail. The company is also working on perfecting the algorithms that suggest movies to subscribers based on which movies they watch and how they rate them. A successful competition in 2009 challenged researchers around the world to figure out ways to improve the algorithms, with the winning team receiving $1 million from the company.
Market:
Netflix added 7.7 million new subscriptions in 2010, most of which were for its newly introduced streaming plan, which includes no DVD delivery. The service as a whole now has over 20 million total subscribers.
Strategy:
Netflix is constantly adding to the number of devices through which subscribers can stream content. In addition to stand-alone boxes like Roku, which stream content from Netflix and other websites to users’ TVs, the service also works through gaming devices like the Nintendo Wii, Internet TV systems like Google TV and Apple TV, and even on the iPhone and iPad (the company will launch an app for Android devices this year).
Challenges and Next Steps:
Netflix has to constantly manage its relationships with the broadcast networks and movie studios who supply it with content and who may feel threatened by the company’s new streaming model. Amazon.com, which already offers a video-on-demand rental service, appears poised to introduce a streaming service similar to Netflix’s.
- 16
Nissan
Summary
Key innovation:
Nissan's new electric car, the Leaf, has a reasonably modest sticker price of $32,000.
Technology:
Late last year, Nissan began production on the Leaf, the first all-electric offering from a major automaker. The company partnered with NEC in 2007 to develop the lithium-ion batteries that power the car's electric motor. It can go 73 miles before it requires recharging.
Market:
CEO Carlos Ghosn has predicted that electric vehicles will represent 10 percent of the world’s automobile market by 2020. The company has already taken more than 20,000 orders for the Leaf, and the first models are now being delivered to buyers.
Strategy:
Nissan’s strategy is different from other companies’: it’s offering an all-electric vehicle, rather than a plug-in hybrid that still employs a small gasoline motor to extend its range. Though the large battery pack is relatively expensive, the company hopes to save money by producing them in large volume at its battery plants.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The main drawback of an all-electric vehicle is range: for long trips Leaf drivers will need dependable access to charging stations, which are currently rare in most places. The company is working with companies such as the Silicon Valley startup Better Place to speed the development of a charging infrastructure.
- 17
Novartis
- Headquarters Basel, Switzerland
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011 , 2013
- Valuation $129.6 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
Introduced the first medication for patients with benign brain tumors associated with a particular genetic disorder; now the drug is approved for treatment of kidney cancer and is in testing for other types.
Technology:
Last fall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novartis's drug Afinitor as the first pharmaceutical treatment for patients with benign tumors associated with a rare genetic disorder. The company has also demonstrated success in a small clinical trial of an experimental drug designed to treat Fragile X Syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause mental retardation and autism.
Market:
Afinitor was approved for patients with subependymal giant cell astrocytoma (SEGA), a benign brain tumor associated with tuberous sclerosis (TS), who require therapeutic intervention but are not candidates for curative surgical resection. TS is a genetic disorder affecting approximately 25,000 to 40,000 people in the US and SEGAs occur in up to 20% of patients with TS.
Strategy:
Rather than focusing almost entirely on drugs that will have large markets, scientists at Novartis's Institute for Biomedical Research are examining the molecular pathways of rare diseases in the hopes that these can, in turn, shed light on common ones. For example, the company developed a treatment for an auto-inflammatory disorder that occurs in 1 out of 1 million people worldwide, but the drug targets a pathway that is also responsible for attacks of gout, a form of arthritis that affects tens of millions of people worldwide.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Although the company is satisfied for now in allowing its biomedical research and development team work on disorders that have relatively few sufferers, eventually the company needs to leverage this research to create drugs that treat more common genetic disorders like hypertension or diabetes.
- 18
Pacific Biosciences
Summary
Key innovation:
Its sequencing machine can read single strands of DNA in real time.
Technology:
The company has a way to continuously record the sequence of individual DNA molecules replicating in real time. This allows its machines to read longer strands of DNA molecules, which makes it easier to quickly assemble the pieces into a complete genome.
Market:
Fast, cheap sequencing has broad applications—from sequencing cancer genomes and infectious diseases to use in clinical diagnostics and even crop breeding. The company is selling its devices to research institutes and pharmaceutical and agricultural companies.
Strategy:
In 2010, the company shipped its first sequencing machines to a limited number of research institutions in order to get feedback on its design before the product gets a full commercial launch this year. The company also initiated a research project that takes advantage of the speed of its machines to monitor the spread of microbes and diseases in the environment.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Pacific Biosciences is developing its single-molecule technology for applications beyond DNA sequencing, including methylation sequencing, a chemical modification to DNA and RNA sequencing, and real-time observation of protein translation. RNA sequencing, for example, could be used to quickly identify viruses.
- 19
Roche
- Headquarters Basel, Switzerland
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011 , 2012
- Valuation $150 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
Developed a lung-cancer drug and a diagnostic test for the mutation that makes some cancers susceptible to the drug. A new drug blogs the effects of a mutation thought to be present in as many as 8 percent of all cancers.
Technology:
act more broadly, and Roche has a number of such drugs in development. Last summer, it published promising results from a new drug that blocks the effect of a mutation thought to be present in 40 to 60 percent of malignant melanomas, and up to 8 percent of all cancers. In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave approval to a drug developed by Genentech, which was acquired by Roche in 2009, that blocks a specific protein associated with a certain type of stomach cancer.
Market:
Cancer drugs represent the majority of revenue for Roche and Genentech's drug Avastin, now widely prescribed to help slow the growth of tumors by cutting off their supply of blood, did over $6 billion in sales in 2010.
Strategy:
Through acquisitions and partnerships, Roche has become one of the leaders in the push to use genetic information to develop drugs to treat a wide range of diseases. Through Genentech, the company has licensed a drug-delivery system developed by startup Seattle Genetics that uses antibodies to deliver cancer-killing drugs to targeted cells, potentially reducing the toxic side effects of chemotherapy medications.
Challenges and Next Steps:
In December, the FDA decided to remove its approval of Avastin for treatment of breast cancer due to studies showing that the benefits of the drug do not outweigh the risks. Although Avastin is still indicated to treat colon, kidney, brain, and lung cancers, the decision represented a major blow to the company's most popular drug.
- 20
Toyota
- Headquarters Toyota City, Japan
- Industry Transportation
- Status public
- Years on the List 2011 , 2013 , 2016
- Valuation $133.4 billion
Summary
Key innovation:
A market leader with its Prius model, it is developing battery technologies that are helping to make these cars less expensive and more energy-efficient.
Technology:
Toyota engineers have spent a decade perfecting a hybrid drive system that uses an electric motor, a gasoline motor, and a regenerative braking system to power reliable and affordable passenger vehicles with high gas mileage. Next year, the company will add a larger battery pack and a charging system to its hybrid platform as it introduces a plug-in version of the Prius.
Market:
Ever since introducing the Prius, the first mass-market hybrid electric car, in 1997, the company has dominated the market, surpassing two million in cumulative sales last year. With its plug-in Prius, it hopes to capture a large share of a new market that analyst J.D. Power has estimated at half a million in annual sales by 2015.
Strategy:
While companies like General Motors and Nissan are building plug-in hybrid vehicles with all-electric ranges of 50 miles or more, Toyota is betting that the smaller, less expensive battery pack it is using in its plug-in Prius will be more appealing to consumers. The company partnered with Panasonic to develop the lithium-ion batteries that will power the new version of the car.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Toyota is introducing plug-in hybrid models slowly, but it can convert any of its current hybrid models into plug-ins quickly if demand is higher than expected. Last year, it introduced an all-electric concept version of its RAV4 SUV, but Toyota expects the market for these vehicles to be small.
- 21
Bind Biosciences
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status private
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $42 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its delivery system uses engineered nanoparticles to deliver drugs to specific cells.
Technology:
Bind has developed nanoparticles that deliver cancer drugs more precisely to malignant cells and help the drugs circulate longer in the body. Biodegradable polymers surrounding the drug allow it to diffuse slowly into the bloodstream, while a coating of polyethylene glycol—a molecule with waterlike properties—helps the particle evade detection by the immune system. A sprinkling of ligands designed to bind to the target cells make sure the particle’s payload reaches its destination.
Market:
The technology could theoretically be applied to any existing drugs or experimental compounds that would benefit from longer circulation times or better targeting. It might also revive experimental drugs that have been shelved because of problematic side effects; the improved delivery system could make them effective at lower doses.
Strategy:
Bind plans to develop its own therapeutics and to partner with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop their molecules for drug approval. Earlier this year, the startup began clinical trials of its first product, a nanoparticle that delivers the chemotherapy medication docetaxel, which is currently indicated for the treatment of breast, prostate, and lung cancers. In animal models, the nanoparticles delivered 20 times more of the medication to the tumor than the traditional method of delivery, making the drug both more effective and more tolerable.
Challenges and Next Steps:
In addition to cancer drugs, Bind is developing targeted delivery versions of drugs for cardiovascular disease and inflammatory diseases, as well as a platform for delivering RNA-based products.
- Industry
- 22
BrightSource Energy
- Headquarters Oakland, California
- Industry Energy
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011 , 2013 , 2014
- Valuation Valuation not available, over $330 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
A boiler is heated directly with sunlight that bounces off mirrors.
Technology:
BrightSource is cutting the cost of solar thermal power by using sunlight directed from thousands of sun-tracking mirrors to heat a boiler placed atop a tower at the center of the installation. While other concentrating solar systems heat tubes of oil that then circulate to the boiler, BrightSource's tower design allows the mirrors to concentrate light directly onto the boiler, where it heats the water to 538 °C, creating superheated steam that is then piped to a conventional turbine to generate electricity. To conserve water in the desert, where the systems will be installed, the steam is cooled and recirculated back into the boiler.
Market:
The company has signed purchase agreements with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison for 2.6 gigawatts of power. It plans to build over a dozen plants by 2017 to fulfill those contracts.
Strategy:
To finance its first large-scale project in California, a 370-megawatt installation now under construction in the Mojave Desert, BrightSource secured a $1.4 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The plant, which will double the amount of solar thermal power capacity in the United States, is scheduled to begin generating electricity in 2013. BrightSource's pilot facility in Israel has already demonstrated the viability of the approach on a smaller scale.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The federal loan-guarantee program expires in September, so once BrightSource’s first full-scale project in California is completed, it will have to deliver power with the efficiency and reliability its technology promises in order to secure private funding for expansion.
- 23
Calxeda
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $48 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Runs servers with cell-phone chips rather than processors built on industry-standard designs, which are more power-hungry.
Technology:
Calxeda is using low-power ARM processors developed for mobile phones to run servers, which could make data centers much more energy-efficient. Although individually the chips do not perform as well as those used in today's servers, they can be linked together in a network of thousands of nodes to do the same work using less power.
Market:
Energy consumption is a major cost of operating the data centers that have sprung up to meet the processing demands created by the increasing popularity of cloud computing and social networking.
Strategy:
Calxeda has received funding from ARM, whose basic architecture was used to develop the company's "server-on-chip" technology. The company will begin testing its server platform with major vendors later this year.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The server industry has spent decades developing specialized software for the Intel and AMD chips—software that Calxeda's ARM-based chips won't be able to run. This means the open-source community must step in to develop new programs.
- Industry
- 24
Cellular Dynamics International
- Headquarters Madison, Wisconsin
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011 , 2012
- Valuation Valuation not available, $100 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its new product derived from iPS cells is meant for use in vascular targeted drug discovery, tissue regeneration, and life science research. Uses included pluripotent stems cells to make large numbers of heart cells for testing.
Technology:
Cellular Dynamics uses induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which have the ability to develop into any cell type in the body, to produce large volumes of highly pure, fully functional human cells for use in drug development and screening. The iPS cells are created by genetically reprogramming cells taken from adult human tissue or blood to return to a state similar to that of human embryonic stem cells.
Market:
The company is already selling heart cells derived from its iPS cells to pharmaceutical companies like Roche, which is using them to screen drugs in development and rule out those with dangerous side effects.
Strategy:
iPS cells are virtually indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, but because adult tissue is used to create them instead of embryos, the company will never face a shortage of material and can avoid the political controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells. In addition to its heart cells, the company is developing liver cells, neurons, and blood vessel cells.
Challenges and Next Steps:
By generating iPS cells from people with diverse ethnic backgrounds and genetic conditions, and from those who have reacted poorly to certain drugs, scientists can gain a better picture of how compounds will affect different people. Thomson and others have already created iPS cells from people with ALS, Down syndrome, and spinal muscular atrophy, among other disorders, and while it's not yet clear how well those cells reflect the specific diseases, early research is promising. If it succeeds, researchers hope to use iPS cells to study other disorders and develop drugs to treat them.
- 25
Claros Diagnostics
- Industry Biomedicine
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $11.8 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its microfluidic device for doctors' offices can quickly detect elevated protein levels associated with prostate cancer.
Technology:
Claros uses microfluidics technology, which allows for the manipulation of fluids on a chip at microscopic scales, to develop inexpensive, easy-to-use diagnostic devices that can be deployed at the point of care, whether in a doctor's office or at a patient's bedside. Tests that get results quickly without having to be sent out to a lab for analysis would allow physicians to track certain disease-related markers more often and more thoroughly.
Market:
The market for point-of-care diagnostics could potentially be huge because of the benefits it offers. Patients benefit from getting results at the time of their visit; doctors and insurers benefit from a less complicated process with less overhead.
Strategy:
Claros's platform consists of a small blood-collector device, a disposable cartridge, and a toaster-sized reader. The technology can be adapted to test for any number of diseases, but its first commercial product is designed to detect elevated protein levels associated with prostate cancer. The company's technology is also being used in a pilot project in Africa that provides testing for sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV, and hepatitis C.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Claros's prostate-cancer test has been approved for use in Europe, and the company is currently seeking approval to market it from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- Industry
- 26
Cotendo
- Industry Internet & Digital Media
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $22 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its technology efficiently routes traffic across the Internet and makes websites faster.
Technology:
Cotendo's network helps websites deliver their content and applications over the Internet by the most efficient route possible, as well as software that accelerates the speed at which pages respond to users. The company's software also gives website operators the ability to monitor their traffic and respond to changing conditions in real time.
Market:
With many people now accessing websites and applications from multiple devices, there has been a strong growth in demand for services that let website operators better control the way their content is delivered, with analysts predicting the market for these services will reach $4.7 billion by 2015.
Strategy:
While other content delivery companies focus on bandwidth-intensive content like streaming video and audio, Cotendo has developed ways to speed the delivery of text-based content for dynamic, personalized activities like e-commerce and social networking. The company is also trying to rethink content delivery so it’s better able to respond to changes in demand. For instance, if a global company expects to see increased traffic from a particular country due to a new product launch, Cotendo can help it temporarily move its resources so its website won't be swamped.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Cotendo has worked with Google to integrate an open-source code optimization tools developed by the search giant that could make many websites load twice as fast.
- Industry
- 27
Crowdcast
- Industry Internet & Digital Media
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $6 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Private prediction markets let employees forecast the results of corporate choices.
Technology:
Crowdcast helps companies set up private predictions markets inside their organizations in order to use the collective knowledge and experience of employees to guide management decisions. Employees are given a stake of play money to start with and then bet on the outcomes of company activities, like whether a product will ship on time or how well it will be received in the market. Crowdcast has developed a Web-based software platform that allows its clients to easily collect and analyze this "social business intelligence."
Market:
According to Gartner, business intelligence and analytics software surpassed $9 billion in 2009 and is expected to continue showing strong growth. Founded in 2007, Crowdcast has already landed major corporations like Hallmark and GM as clients, as well as universities like Harvard and MIT.
Strategy:
Crowdcast's service combines two popular trends, harnessing the wisdom of crowds to make predictions, and social gaming. Management sees improved accuracy in its forecasts, and employees feel like they are being listened to while having fun trying to amass the most virtual cash.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Management might not like what it hears from employees, which can sometimes lead companies to drop Crowdcast's service even when it has shown results. Over time, the company will have to show that its service is not only cool, but good for the bottom line.
- Industry
- 28
eSolar
- Industry Energy
- Status private
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $170 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Software controls the mirrors that focus rays from the sun, eliminating the need to position them by hand.
Technology:
The company uses arrays of tens of thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight on a central tower, producing intense heat that turns water into steam to generate electricity. The mirrors are installed on prefabricated metal frames that allow them to pivot and tilt to track the sun throughout the day and from season to season. Proprietary software ensures that all the mirrors are aimed properly.
Market:
The technology is ideal for the utility-scale solar power that could meet needs like those of California, where utilities are now required to produce 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. The only concentrating solar power plant in the country is a five-megawatt eSolar facility that uses two of the company’s receivers.
Strategy:
Last summer, eSolar received $10.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a modified system that will use its mirrors to concentrate heat onto a receiver containing molten salt, instead of directly heating water to make steam. Molten salt can store heat for a while before it’s used to make steam, making solar more flexible as an energy source.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The declining cost of photovoltaic panels has put pressure on solar thermal companies like eSolar, which are rapidly losing their cost advantage. Last summer a planned 92-megawatt facility in New Mexico, which would have used eSolar's system, was canceled after its developers were turned down for a federal loan guarantee.
- Industry
- 30
First Solar
- Headquarters Tempe, Arizona
- Industry Clean energy
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2016 , 2017
Summary
Key innovation: “Thin-film” solar panels based on cadmium telluride, which are cheaper than conventional silicon panels, have made the company one of the world’s largest photovoltaic manufacturers.
- 32
Groupon
- Industry Internet & Digital Media
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, over $1 billion funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Offers local businesses a way to guarantee a return on their promotional budget, thereby tapping into a huge advertising pool that has eluded many Web companies.
Technology:
Groupon negotiates discounts with restaurants, shops, and event promoters that are then passed on to subscribers through a free daily e-mail. Consumers benefit from the collective power of Groupon's user base to get discounts of up to 90 percent; businesses benefit from a guaranteed flood of new customers.
Market:
Partly due to the economic downturn, consumers are more interested in searching out the best deals on products. Groupon now has over 50 million subscribers in 35 countries, and the company claims it has saved consumers over a billion dollars and generated hundreds of millions of dollars for businesses.
Strategy:
Groupon began as a side project of The Point, a website devoted to harnessing the power of collective action. While the company recruits businesses to feature in its deals, subscribers are instrumental in getting the word out through social media like Facebook and Twitter. While generally focused on deals from local restaurants and businesses, last year the company offered its first nationwide deal for the Gap. By the end of the campaign, 400,000 Groupons were used, generating $11 million in revenues for the clothing retailer.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Numerous other daily deal sites have popped up in the wake of Groupon's success, the largest of which is LivingSocial, which recently received a $175 million investment from Amazon.com and is rapidly gaining market share. Last December, Groupon spurned a $6 billion buyout offer from Google in order to remain independent.
- Industry
- 33
IBM
- Headquarters Armonk, New York
- Industry Computing & Communications
- Status public
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2016 , 2017
Summary
Key innovation:
Is drawing on its research expertise and that of software companies it's acquired to develop services for many infrastructure industries and expand the market for information technologies.
- 34
Joule Unlimited
- Industry Energy
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, funding not disclosed
Summary
Key innovation:
Designed microbes that convert carbon dioxide and water directly into fuels.
Technology:
Joule has engineered microbes that harness the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide and water directly into ethanol or hydrocarbon fuels. When housed in bioreactors in sunny areas and at full-scale production, the company says, these photosynthetic organisms can produce 15,000 gallons of diesel or 25,000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year. The process offers an advantage over making biofuels from corn or cellulose, because growing those materials requires large amounts of arable land. It’s also an improvement over using photosynthetic algae to make biofuel precursors, as some other companies do, because those chemicals must then be processed to make fuel.
Market:
The company says its process will be able to produce diesel fuel at a cost as low as $30 per barrel and ethanol at $50, which would make its fuels immediately competitive in the marketplace. Joule intends to commercially develop diesel fuel itself while partnering with other companies to commercialize ethanol and chemicals based on its technology.
Strategy:
Because Joule's process requires no arable land or fresh water and uses waste carbon dioxide as its only feedstock, its diesel fuels reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 90 percent when compared with petroleum-based diesel, making it a cleaner option than most other biofuels on the market or in development. The company has completed its first pilot plant, in Leander, Texas, and testing of diesel and ethanol production processes is under way. This year, the company will begin construction of its first production facility, a 10-acre demo plant that will eventually scale up to commercial production.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Going from lab-scale to commercial-scale bioreactors poses both engineering and biology challenges that Joule will have to overcome to keep its microbes producing fuel efficiently. The company will face competition from others developing microbes that excrete biofuels, including Synthetic Genomics, which has partnered with ExxonMobil; Algenol, which is working with Dow; and LS9, whose scientists have developed bacteria that metabolize cellulose and excrete diesel.
- Industry
- 35
Lattice Power
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, over $100 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its low-cost process produces LEDs on the same equipment used to make semiconductors.
Technology:
Lattice Power has developed a lower-cost process for making high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which today are widely used to backlight displays in mobile devices, and are being increasingly used in liquid-crystal-display televisions and computer monitors. LEDs can produce the same brightness as fluorescent lights using 20 times less electricity, which means they could eventually be used to light people's homes more cheaply and efficiently.
Market:
The global market for the high-brightness LEDs Lattice Power makes is currently around $10 billion and is expected to more than double by 2015.
Strategy:
The company has demonstrated a technique for using chemical vapor deposition technology to deposit layers of gallium nitride on a silicon wafer to create its high-brightness LEDs. Using abundant silicon as a substrate rather than the sapphire or silicon carbide substrates commonly used today could lead to considerably cheaper devices helping to bring down the costs of a wide array of electronic displays.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company recently received $12.5 million from the World Bank's investment arm in order to build a new manufacturing facility in Jiangxi Province, China. The company still has to show that its silicon-based technology can offer the same performance and reliability as LEDs made with current technology.
- Industry
- 36
Layar
- Industry Internet & Digital Media
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $18.6 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its development platform lets businesses and advertisers add AR functions to their own apps.
Technology:
Layar develops software that uses a mobile phone's built-in camera, compass, and GPS to display content about the outside world as the user navigates through it. Someone who has downloaded the application on their phone can walk through a city and see which buildings have apartments that are for rent, learn interesting facts about specific neighborhoods, and read reviews of the restaurants they pass.
Market:
ABI Research projects that revenues associated with augmented-reality applications will grow from about $6 million in 2008 to more than $350 million in 2014.
Strategy:
Layar has negotiated deals with many of the world's major mobile phone manufacturers to have its software preloaded. That software can now be found on one out of every three new phones shipped globally. Businesses, publishers, and advertisers can create their own layers of information to be displayed on the Layar platform. Most are free, but last year, Layar introduced a content store that allows companies to charge for augmented-reality applications delivered to a user's phone. The company plans to make money by taking 40 percent of proceeds from sales of layers.
Challenges and Next Steps:
In January, Layar released an augmented-reality player that lets developers embed the company's technology into any iPhone app. The company plans to offer more ways for its software to be incorporated into mobile applications.
- Industry
- 37
Lyric Semiconductor
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $20 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its microprocessor uses electronic signals to represent probabilities rather than binary 0s and 1s.
Technology:
Lyric has introduced a fundamentally new kind of microchip that is based on probabilities rather than binary logic. Designed from the ground up with the help of funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency, it replaces conventional logic gates, whose inputs and outputs are 1s and 0s, with gates whose inputs and outputs can be any value in between. This allows much smaller chips to perform calculations at the same speed as conventional ones.
Market:
Probabilities and statistical analysis are at the heart of many of the most profitable software applications, such as e-commerce fraud prevention and spam filtering.
Strategy:
The company's first commercial offering is an error correction chip designed to make flash memory more efficient. As memory chips have gotten denser, they have also become more error-prone; with today's technology, one in every thousand bits is wrong. Lyric is offering a chip that can perform the necessary error correction calculations using only a 30th as much space and a 12th as much energy as traditional microchips.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Within three years, Lyric plans to produce prototypes of a general-purpose probability processor that could be programmed to tackle any statistical task. The company has also developed a programming platform to exploit the capabilities of Lyric's chips, but it remains to be seen whether the new approach will catch on with programmers.
- Industry
- 38
Novomer
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status private
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $21 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Its polymer-manufacturing processes use carbon dioxide to make plastics needed for packaging.
Technology:
A cobalt-based catalyst developed by founding chemists from Cornell University facilitates the reaction of petroleum compounds with carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide to form common plastics used in packaging, electronics cases, and absorbent materials. The process could put carbon emissions from power plants and industry to commercial use, rather than requiring costly, unproven technology to sequester them underground.
Market:
Novomer hopes to compete with producers of conventional industrial polymers made entirely from petroleum. The company claims that its process could reduce the variable costs associated with the plastics industry by 30 percent by using ethelyne, which is derived from ethane that has recently become more abundant due to the burgeoning shale gas mining industry in the United States, rather than propylene, which is commonly used today.
Strategy:
Last summer, the company received a $20.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize its polymers, which are composed of up to 50 percent carbon dioxide by weight. The material could be used for coatings on food and beverage cans, among other applications. The company has teamed up with chemical maker Albemarle and Eastman Kodak to scale up its process and manufacture larger quantities of the material for customer testing.
Challenges and Next Steps:
In addition to developing its carbon-dioxide-based products, Novomer is also looking to partner with chemical manufacturers to commercialize its process of using ethylene and carbon monoxide to manufacture acrylic acid, used in diapers and many other products, and butanediol, which is used in the manufacture of plastics and fibers. If it finds the right partner the company hopes to begin production in 2013 or early 2014.
- Industry
- 39
PrimeSense
- Industry Computing & Communications
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $29.4 million funded (does not include an undisclosed third round of funding)
Summary
Key innovation:
Developed the 3-D sensor system that Microsoft's Kinect device uses to track movement.
Technology:
PrimeSense has developed a system that uses an infrared projector and camera and a special microchip to track the movement of objects and individuals in three dimensions. The system can interpret specific gestures, making completely hands-free control of electronic devices a reality.
Market:
PrimeSense's platform was an integral part of Microsoft's Kinect, which enables users to play video games without a controller. Eight million of the devices sold in the 60 days after it went on sale.
Strategy:
Although the first application was for gaming, the company's hardware and software platform can be adapted to any type of electronic device. In collaboration with PC manufacturer Asus, PrimeSense has developed a set-top box that allows gesture control of a computer wirelessly connected to a television, providing a more intuitive way to integrate the two devices than the keyboard-type controllers used in current Internet TV systems. The company has also created an open application programming interface for its 3-D sensing platform in order to encourage developers to create new ways to use the technology.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company is working on improving the resolution of its tracking system so it can recognize subtler movements and potentially even finger movements, which would allow users to input text.
- Industry
- 40
Serious Materials
- Industry Advanced manufacturing
- Status private
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $132 million funded
Summary
Innovation:
Making greener building materials
Technology:
The company focuses on reducing the environmental impact of the building industry. Its drywall takes 80 percent less energy to make than ordinary drywall and uses manufacturing processes that emit less carbon dioxide; its windows incorporate a thin film that acts as an insulator; and it recently developed software to help property managers monitor energy usage in commercial buildings.
Market:
The economic downturn combined with billions in stimulus funding has meant a surge in investment into improving the efficiency of government and commercial buildings in order to cut costs and save energy. In 2010, Serious Materials took part in a major retrofitting of the Empire State Building by recycling the glass from existing windows in the creation of its super-insulating windows. This move alone is expected to reduce energy costs at the site by more than $400,000 per year.
Strategy:
In 2010 Serious Materials branched out from its core business of engineering new building materials, and launched a cloud-based software system for building owners who are looking to cut operational expenses by better managing their energy usage. The software works with existing building management systems from companies like Cisco, and because it is delivered over the Web, it doesn't require users to install any software or download updates.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Although investment in energy efficiency has been great for the company's windows business, commercial production of its drywall has been delayed due to the dearth of new construction in the United States.
- Industry
- 42
Silver Spring Networks
- Industry Energy
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011
- Valuation Valuation not available, $250 million funded
Summary
Key innovation:
Developed hardware and software that standardize the way disparate parts of the grid communicate.
Technology:
The company builds secure, adaptable network infrastructure that helps utilities and their customers manage their energy use more efficiently. Silver Spring Networks' software allows utilities to automatically manage their distribution of electricity by quickly responding to spikes and lulls in electricity generation and demand, as well as failures in the grid. The company also builds its communication chips into smart electric and gas meters that relay data to a centralized software system. Consumers can access the data to monitor their own energy use through a Web portal that Silver Spring maintains.
Market:
Analysts are predicting that smart-grid investments will top $15 billion worldwide by 2015, with advanced metering and networking technology accounting for a third of that total.
Strategy:
Utilities are using Silver Spring's networking technology to meet increasing demand for electricity by doing more with the power plants they have rather than building new ones. Thanks to the company’s smart metering platform, for instance, Oklahoma Gas and Electric is managing demand so much better that it has been able to shelve plans for two new power plants, which would have cost up to $320 million to build.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company faces increasing competition from larger companies like GE, which already has a huge presence in the energy sector, and Cisco, which is a leading vendor of networking hardware. But it believes that there is room for large and small companies to work together in the smart-grid market. It already does business with GE.
- Industry
- 44
Square
- Headquarters San Francisco, California
- Industry Computing & Communications
- Status private
- Years on the List 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014
Summary
Key innovation:
Square has moved beyond its initial credit card reader for smart phones; a new app lets you automatically open a tab with a merchant on entering a store. Built technology that lets anyone accept credit cards using smart phones.
Technology:
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's new venture makes it possible to process credit card transactions with a small reader that hooks up to a smart phone or tablet computer. The Square app allows a buyer to sign for a purchase on the device’s touch screen and uses the device's Internet connection to complete the transaction. The software then produces a digital receipt, which can feature a picture of the purchase, information on how many times the buyer visited that seller in the past, and a map showing where the transaction took place. The receipt can be e-mailed or texted to the buyer.
Market:
Although the majority of transactions are now electronic, it is estimated that U.S. consumers still spend over a trillion dollars in cash each year. Most people still need cash to buy things from smaller retailers, restaurants, and markets, and to complete transactions with friends and family or individual sellers.
Strategy:
Square is targeting small-business owners and independent retailers who don't have the capital to purchase a traditional credit card reader, as well as people who want an easier way to take money from customers at a garage sale or farmer's market. The company is giving away its readers by mail to anyone who downloads the Square app on its website. Square makes money by collecting a fee of 2.75 percent plus 15 cents from every transaction, although it must pass on a portion of that to the customer's card provider.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company still has long way to go in establishing trust. It also faces competition from Intuit, which offers a similar service that is more geared to the needs of established businesses rather than casual merchants.
- 46
Synthetic Genomics
Summary
Key innovation:
Created synthetic bacterial cells, possibly paving the way for organisms specifically tailored to make fuels.
Technology:
Strains of algae engineered by Synthetic Genomics excrete oils that could be refined to make biofuels, including equivalents of gasoline and diesel. In partnership with ExxonMobil, which has agreed to invest up to $600 million in the project, the company is studying many strains of algae, using high-throughput methods to help identify those that produce large amounts of the desired oils and to reveal techniques for engineering known strains in ways that will increase their oil production.
Market:
Ethanol is the leading biofuel today, but the market for it is constrained by the difficulty of distributing it and using it in vehicles. Demand could be much greater for biofuels that can be produced at existing refineries, distributed in existing pipelines, and used in most vehicles.
Strategy:
In 2010, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that they had made the first synthetic cell by piecing together a genome made from bottled chemicals and transplanting it into a recipient cell. The research was funded by Synthetic Genomics and is a first step in engineering microbes from scratch to produce biofuels. Although the synthetic bacterial cell produced is unsuited for fuel production, researchers intend to create an algae genome that has been optimized for fuel production.
Challenges and Next Steps:
Last July, ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics opened a greenhouse facility at Synthetic Genomics headquarters in La Jolla, California, to test different strains of algae in conditions that more closely approximate the real world. Researchers will test whether putting the algae in either open ponds or closed bioreactors will yield enough fuel to make the method commercially viable.
- 49
Ushahidi
- Industry Internet & Digital Media
- Status private
- Years on the List 2010 , 2011
- Valuation Valuable not available, funding not disclosed
Summary
Key innovation:
Its open-source crowdsourcing tool overlays field reports on maps, providing critical and often life-saving data during emergencies.
Technology:
Ushahidi is a nonprofit, open-source software company that develops a Web platform that makes it easy for people in any part of the world to disseminate and collect information about a crisis. Users can submit reports by text message, e-mail, or Web postings, and the software aggregates and organizes the data into a map or timeline. In addition to its crisis-mapping software, the company has also launched a product called Swift River that uses machine-learning algorithms to extract and organize accurate information from the flood of e-mails, text messages, blog posts, and tweets that can seem overwhelming in the first days of a crisis.
Market:
Ushahidi’s crisis-mapping software was first used in early 2008 to track violent outbreaks related to the disputed Kenyan election of 2007, and it has been used since to coordinate everything from disaster relief following the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, to snow cleanup in New York City this past winter.
Strategy:
Ushahidi has never accepted government funds, instead relying on grants from philanthropic organizations like Humanity United and the Omidyar Network to keep it going. Last year, it began generating revenues for the first time through custom deployments of its software for clients.
Challenges and Next Steps:
The company recently launched a cloud-based version of its basic mapping platform that can be deployed quickly and easily and is hosted on Ushahidi's servers. The basic service is free but the company has developed plug-ins and upgrades that it will charge for.
- Industry