In this piece, we will take a look at the fifteen small innovative companies according to the media. For more small and innovative companies, head on over to 5 Small Innovative Companies According to the Media.
Innovation is the bedrock of the modern day corporate world. Companies large and small strive every day to be innovative in their customer facing and internal operations. After all, while innovation is generally thought to be only in the product domain (for instance new gadgets from tech firms), it also covers the operations of a firm where newer methods of performing daily activities come with the potential of reducing costs or driving shareholder value.
Surviving Competition Though Innovation
A combination of both these facets — introducing new products and reducing costs at the same time — is called value innovation. The technology industry is full of examples of such products, and perhaps one of the most popular (and commercially successful) comes from the Japanese firm Nintendo Co., Ltd. (OTCMKTS:NTDOY). Nintendo is one of the largest and most popular gaming companies in the world, and its Wii gaming console is a classic illustration of value innovation. Its strategy, dubbed as a Blue Ocean by professors at the INSEAD Business School, saw Nintendo create an entirely new market after it struggled to compete with the PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles.
The Wii, known for its interactive and active gameplay, simplified Nintendo’s struggling GameCube as it removed features such as a DVD drive and hard disk alongside using off-the-shelf components to reduce costs. The strategy worked and the Wii ended up creating its own market — essentially driving down costs, introducing a new product, and creating a ‘Blue Ocean’ where Nintendo could safely earn its revenue and remain unconcerned about its rivals Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony Group Corporation (NYSE:SONY). The Wii is now one of the most successful gaming consoles in the world, having sold almost 102 million units worldwide since its launch in 2006 and beating consoles from Microsoft and Sony launched in the same year as well. As if this wasn’t enough, Nintendo’s Wii upgrade, the Nintendo Switch, which allows users to either play games portably or plug it in and use it as a Wii Remote, has sold 114 million units worldwide. Switch is the youngest console in the world’s top five selling models since it was launched in 2017 – four years later than the next best performer, Sony’s PlayStation 4.
Quantifying Innovation
Yet, even though Nintendo’s unit shipments are in millions, as a whole, innovation is hard to quantify in dollar terms due to its arbitrary nature. Fortunately for us though, famous hedge fund boss Ms. Cathie Wood and her fund Ark Investments just published their Big Ideas 2023 report. In this report, Ms. Wood and her team, who are some of the most talented and competent professionals in the world when it comes to valuing up and coming companies, share eye opening dollar estimates for innovation. According to Ark Invest, the market value for disruptive innovation platforms is currently at $13 trillion today, and if a multi-trillion dollar estimate just wasn’t enough to pique your attention, then the investment firm would like to inform you that by 2030 end, these platforms can scale up by 40% each year to be worth an astounding $200 trillion.
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Some top firms on our list are Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD), Glaukos Corporation (NYSE:GKOS), and Everbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVBG).
Our Methodology
Our methodology was subjective for this article given the nature of the topic. Evaluating innovation requires thorough research and insights into businesses. We scoured the web and consulted several authority websites that spend a lot of time and resources in finding and ranking innovative companies. Some of the important web resources we came across include Fast Company (1,2) and Daily Muse. We used these resources to find out which companies are driving innovation in their industries. We chose companies that are working on innovative products in their domains that are expected to have huge impact on human societies and progress. Most of the innovation is happening in the AI and software sectors. That’s why you will find several innovative companies from those domains in our list.
For each company we have mentioned its market cap (if it’s public). For private companies their funding raised so far or their current valuation when available was listed down.
15 Small Innovative Companies According to the Media
15. ProStar Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:MAPPF)
Market Capitalization as of February 6, 2023: $18.46 million
ProStar Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:MAPPF) is an American software company that is based in Grand Junction, Colorado. The firm’s software lets customers use geospatial intelligence to map out territories and discover the location of subsurface items such as pipelines and other buried utilities. ProStar Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:MAPPF) has been on a roll in 2023, as it has won multiple contracts from utility location scanning and concrete scanning companies.
ProStar Holdings Inc. (OTCMKTS:MAPPF), Glaukos Corporation (NYSE:GKOS), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD), and Everbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVBG) are some of the top small innovative companies that are generating media buzz and hype.
14. Tractor Beverage Co
Funding Raised: $18.5 million
Tractor Beverage Co is a beverage company that sells purely organic carbonated and non-carbonated drinks. The firm has 21 different flavors such as strawberry, chocolate, cardamom, peach, and orange. Additionally, it also provides fresh drink dispensers to restaurants, hotels, and other food service industry partners.
13. Maestro Technologies, Inc.
Funding Raised: $20.8 million
Maestro Technologies, Inc. is a small and innovative company that provides a streaming and online shopping platform. This enables firms and small businesses among others to hold live events and monetize the streams at the same time. Additionally, it also allows customers to run analytics, alongside providing coverage for a variety of events for sports, esports, conferences, and more.
12. Synthesis AI
Funding Raised: $21.5 million
Synthesis AI, as the name suggests, is an artificial intelligence firm. It uses artificial intelligence to create digital human faces, under the product category that is dubbed Synthesis Humans. Another innovative product lineup is Synthesis Scenarios, which allows users to place animated humans in a digital environment to train their machine learning models.
11. Thimble
Funding Raised: $28.9 million
Thimble is an insurance company that targets its products for small businesses. It has a large number of products in its portfolio, which include liability, professional liability, property, drone, and event insurance among others. Through these, Thimble provides coverage to businesses such as gyms, cleaning services, and retail stores.
10. HeadLight Technologies Inc
Funding Raised: $32.5 million
HeadLight Technologies Inc is a software company that is taking an innovative approach to solving the ever dreaded and ever present problem of delays in construction projects. The firm serves the needs of the water, energy, and transportation industries, and it offers products to both project owners and engineering firms. These allow them to inspect their projects daily, test materials, and conduct quality control.
9. Jeenie
Latest Valuation Estimate: $34 million
Jeenie is an interpretation and translation service with a unique focus on the healthcare sector. The company provides a platform that allows translators to sign up and provide round the clock coverage to ensure that doctors can effectively provide services to their patients irrespective of the language barrier. The firm claims to support more than 300 languages through its platform as well as support individuals in 140 countries. According to Slator, Jeenie was valued at $34 million as of April 2022.
8. Bubble Group, Inc
Funding Raised: $106.3 million
Bubble Group, Inc provides a software development platform that serves the needs of people who want to develop their own software products but have limited coding knowledge and experience. It provides users with an end to end development experience, letting them not only build their products but also deploy them and run analytics. At the same time, Bubble also has a team of collaborators that help users while using its services.
7. Cazoo Group Ltd (NYSE:CZOO)
Market Capitalization as of February 6, 2023: $196 million
Cazoo Group Ltd (NYSE:CZOO) is a British firm that is headquartered in London. The company provides a digital marketplace for people looking to buy and sell cars. At the same time, it also provides customers with value added services such as financing and delivery management.
Like other used car companies, Cazoo Group Ltd (NYSE:CZOO) is also facing the heat of an economic slowdown – which has been particularly painful in the U.K. The firm has terminated its sponsorship of the English cricket team and it is also considering site closures in Lincolnshire. 27 of the 920 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s Q3 2022 survey of 920 hedge funds had bought its shares.
Cazoo Group Ltd (NYSE:CZOO)’s largest investor is Bruce Emery’s Greenvale Capital which owns 46 million shares that are worth $21 million.
6. Step Mobile, Inc
Funding Raised: $491 million
Step Mobile, Inc is a financial services platform for teenagers that allows them to save, invest, and build credit. At the same time, it provides a Visa supported card that allows parents to provide their children with controlled financial responsibility. Step claims to have more than three million users, and also lets parents digitally transfer allowance to their children through the Step card.
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD), Glaukos Corporation (NYSE:GKOS), and Everbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVBG) are met by Step Mobile, Inc in the list of small innovative businesses that the media can’t stop gushing about.
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Disclosure: None. 15 Small Innovative Companies According to the Media is originally published on Insider Monkey.