Future leaders of tech
Agencies
The World Economic Forum's 2008 picks for the hottest startups in health care, biotech, IT, Internet, and energy.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/icons/etfavicon.ico
The Economic Times
Synopsis

The World Economic Forum's 2008 picks for the hottest startups in health care, biotech, IT, Internet, and energy.

Every year, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum honors as “Technology Pioneers” anywhere from 30 to 50 companies offering new technologies or business models that could advance the global economy.

This year’s winners in information technology, biotechnology, and clean tech hail from Moscow to Mountain View, Calif and lots of places in between. They were chosen by an independent panel of venture capitalists and industry experts. The selection criteria included innovation, proof of concept, and potential impact.

The class of 2008 includes companies tackling failing eyesight and infertility, trying to help the environment by decreasing emissions, and improving the Internet with better search and access. Some were started by veterans, others by newcomers pursuing a passion.

Neurosynaptic Communications, Bangalore, India Sector: Health Care Sameer Sawarkar, CEO, Age: 35

Bangalore’s Neurosynaptic Communcations is making health care for India’s villages accessible and affordable. The company has a $255 portable diagnostic kit that performs five basic health tests, including blood pressure, temperature, and even an electrocardiogram. Used by the village paramedic, results are transmitted back to the closest hospital through any of the multimedia kiosks mushrooming across rural India. The cost to the patient: a rock bottom 63 cents per test. The pioneer of this telemedicine for the masses is Sameer Sawarkar, a former sensor expert at Motorola, who was motivated by the hardships of getting health-care during his childhood in a village.

Meraki, Mountain View, Calif. Sector: Wireless Sanjit Biswas, Co-Founder and CEO, Age: 25

Meraki—Greek for “doing something with soul, creativity, or love” —develops wireless mesh networking technology aimed at bringing affordable broadband access to a billion people. The company allows individuals to set up Internet access in their local communities using networks of inexpensive wireless repeaters which configure and maintain themselves. In less than a year, thousands of Meraki networks have sprung up in more than 70 countries. Meraki was born from a research project CEO Sanjit Biswas co-led during his PhD studies at MIT, from which he is on leave.

23andMe, Mountain View, Calif. Sector: Life Sciences Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey, Co-Founders , Ages: 34 and 47

Genetic testing goes mainstream: 23andMe’s $1,000 genetictesting kit requires users to salivate into a vial, then mail the sample to a lab, where special scanners look for small hereditary genetic variations. Users can log on to 23andMe’s Web site to find out their predisposition to certain diseases, trace their ancestry, and discover amusing facts, such as whether their genes are coded for disliking certain flavors, or if they share an ancestor with Marie Antoinette or Jimmy Buffett.

Nanostellar, Redwood City, Calif. Sector: Emissions Control Pankaj Dhingra, President and CEO, Age: 47

Nanostellar develops materials to trap the noxious particles emitted by automobile engines. It creates these nanomaterials by combining precise formulations of precious metals according to the performance characteristics of each particular engine. In June, Nanostellar pioneered the use of gold in combination with platinum and palladium, the traditional metals used in emissions reduction. The company markets its products globally to the automotive market.

Hycrete, Carlstadt, N J Sector: Construction David Rosenberg, CEO, Age: 35

It’s not everyday a company improves a tried-and-trusted product like cement. That’s what New Jersey-based company Hycrete has managed to do by designing a chemical that makes cement completely waterproof. Unlike rival approaches, which tend to add external membranes or coatings after the cement has set, Hycrete’s additive is mixed in with cement’s other ingredients right from the start. That helps to reduce construction costs, as well as make structures waterproof from Day One.

Arteris, Guyancourt, France Sector: Microchips K. Charles Janac, President and CEO, Age: 50

The microchips that power electronic systems often contain hundreds of elements arranged in a complex structure, and managing the signal traffic between them has become a serious challenge. Arteris has pioneered a concept called Network-on-Chip that allows the different elements to communicate with each other, much like a computer network in an office or a traffic management system in a busy city. The result is higher performing chips that take less time to design.

LS9, San Carlos, Calif. Sector: Biofuels/Petroleum Robert Walsh, President, Age: 49

LS9, Inc. is developing clean, sustainable, and cost-effective fuels from agricultural feedstocks via fermentation by specially engineered microbes. Still in the working stages, the company’s biofuels have a higher energy content than ethanol or butanol, and are essentially indistinguishable from gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. LS9 was founded two years ago by venture capital firms Flagship Ventures and Khosla Ventures, and two science professors from Stanford and Harvard universities

Garlik, London Sector: Internet Software Tom Ilube, Founder and CEO,Age: 44

Garlik sells software-as-a-service to protect consumers against identity theft. But in November, it also branched out into a new area: helping users measure and manage their status in the digital world by ranking their popularity, impact, activity, and individuality . Based on the ratings, Garlik will advise consumers on how they can take control of their digital image and change it. The company says it has already profiled 45 million people in Britain and will turn to the U.S. next. Garlik’s board includes Tim Berners-Lee , who’s credited with creating the World Wide Web. Both CEO Ilube and Executive Chairman Mike Harris were with Egg, the largest online Internet bank, which was sold to Citigroup this year for $1.1 billion.

QlikTech, Lund, Sweden Sector: Software Mans Hultman, Chairman, Age: 46

Ever since Microsoft launched Excel, managers have been looking for better ways to analyze their businesses. Swedish tech firm QlikTech has come to the rescue with a userfriendly software package that blends Excel’s numbercrunching power with PowerPoint’s photo-oriented interface. Used by big financial institutions and police departments alike, it offers minute-by-minute data analysis in an easy-touse format that won’t put customers to sleep.

Polar Rose, Malmo, Sweden Sector: Internet Imaging Nikolaj Nyholm, CEO,Age: 32

Polar Rose uses 3D and facialrecognition technology to make it easier to find photos of family and friends on the Internet. Later, the technology also could help users locate animals, cars, and other objects. Like Google, Polar Rose harnesses the collective intelligence of the Net, but it also decentralises the process by encouraging users to add information and context to photos they find on the Net. The product is available now as a browser plug-in and could be built directly into Web sites and mobile services. Competitors include Google, which purchased Neven Vision, and Riya, a Silicon Valley company specialising in photo recognition.

Unidym, Menlo Park, Calif. Sector: Electronics George Gruner, Chief Technology Officer, Age: 64

The popularity of flat-panel TVs has led many companies to look for ways to improve the manufacturing process. One of the leaders is Unidym, a unit of Arrowhead Research, which has developed sheets of carbon nanotubes as an alternative for today’s expensive silicon coverings used in flat-panel displays. Not satisfied with taking on the TV market, Unidym says the product also can be used in solar cells and windows, helping to cut production costs in these multibillion-dollar industries.

SkySails, Hamburg, Germany Sector: Clean Tech Stephan Wrage, Co-Founder and, CEO, Age: 34

SkySail’s patent-pending towing-kite system aims to use wind power to reduce a ship’s fuel costs and emissions by 10% to 35% per year. Measuring anywhere from 150 to 1,000 square meters in size, the kites are connected via a rope to the bow of container ships or oil tankers and grab ocean breezes to reduce the work of onboard diesel engines, not replace them. Kites work better than sails because they are higher up, allowing them to harness stronger and more constant winds. If the system catches on with the 50,000 ships in the world’s trade fleet, the maritime transportation sector, which currently consumes around 280 million tons of oil per year, could guzzle far less.

RainDance Technologies Location: Guilford, Conn. Sector: Pharmaceuticals Jonathan Rothberg, Chairman, Age: 44

Few inventors have the confidence to boast that their creations will have as much impact as the personal computer. Jonathan Rothberg, however, isn’t your everyday inventor. After completing the first sequence of an individual human genome, Rothberg helped design RainDance’s personal laboratory system (PLS), a general-purpose device that does the job previously done by dozens of lab machines. Using specially created chips similar to PC floppy disks to test laboratory cultures, the PLS is a onestop-shop for scientific tests.

SpeedBit Herzliya, Israel Sector: Internet Ariel Yarnitsky, CEO Age: 40

Even with the highestspeed Internet connection it takes hours to download a full-length movie. So SpeedBit has developed a video accelerator aimed at dramatically reducing download times—to around 20 minutes for a full-length feature film. The technology enhances standard Internet connections by using multiple routes and optimizing bandwidth. Beyond movies, the technology has broad potential for use in devices such as mobile phones and game consoles. The startup is already in talks with major cellular and telecommunications operators to embed the technology.

InSightec, Tirat Hacarmel, Israel Sector: Medical devices Jacob ‘Kobi’ Vortman, CEO, Age: 60

It sounds straight out of science fiction. A surgeon zaps a tumor without even touching the patient. There’s no anaesthetic or radiation, treatment is noninvasive, and the surgery can in many cases be performed on an out-patient basis. But that’s what the ExAblate system, developed by Israeli startup InSightec, does by using ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. The system already has U.S. and EU approval for treating uterine fibroids, and clinical trials are underway for solid tumor applications in bone, breast, and brain cancer. The company already has sold more than 50 units at $1 million a crack.

Innovative Silicon Santa Clara, Calif. Sector: Semiconductors Pierre Fazan, Chairman, Founder, and CTO, Age: 49

Innovative Silicon calls its Z-RAM , developed at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology, the world’s lowest-cost memory technology. A direct replacement for conventional dynamic random access memory (DRAM), the most common form used in computers, phones, and consumer electronics, Z-RAM cuts the price of memory in half. That means manufacturers can save big, or can get double the amount of installed memory for the same price. Customers already include Korea’s Hynix and U.S. chipmaker AMD. Innovation Silicon has raised $47 million in venture capital, including $25 million in October.

FluXXion, Eindhoven, Netherlands Sector: Food Processing Thijs Bril, CEO, Age: 59

What do microchips and beer have in common? If you’re FluXXion, more than meets the eye. Using technology first developed by Phillips to create semiconductor chips, the Dutch company has created a micro-filtration technique using silicon wafers and lasers. The holes are so fine that FluXXion can filter bacteria out of liquids such as beer without pasteurisation, thus preserving the original taste. Competing technologies tend to use densely packed fibers or fossilised algae

Oxitec Oxford, England Sector: Genetics Luke Alphey, Chief Scientist Age: 44

Created as a spin-off from Oxford University, Oxitec has a novel approach for combating some of the world’s most dangerous pests. By sterilising bugs without the use of radiation—the current industry norm—the British firm can release modified insects quicker into ecosystems than its competitors. After they mate with wild bugs, Oxitec’s insects pass on their sterile genes, causing pest populations, such as mosquitoes carrying dengue fever, to decline over time.

AdMob, San Mateo, Calif. Sector: Mobile Advertising Omar Hamoui, CEO and Founder, Age: 31

AdMob runs a mobile advertising marketplace that serves over 1.5 billion targeted ads per month. Founded in 2006, it has since added a product called AdMonitor that presents live data on who is viewing mobile ads around the world, including which phones and which network operators they are using. In November, AdMobs released an application that allows thirdparty developers to embed mobile advertising into the popular social networking site Facebook. AdMob’s executives previously worked for Doubleclick, YouTube, and Yahoo! Competitors include Third Screen Media and ScreenTonic, which was purchased by Microsoft in September.

Lumio, Menlo Park, Calif. Sector: Computer Hardware Jonathan Curtiss, President and CEO, Age: 42

Lumio earned renown in 2005 for creating the first virtual laser keyboard. Using Lumio’s virtual touch layers and laser projection technologies, any flat surface can become interactive. The technology is used to make touch screens, medical devices, toys, ATMs, dashboard control surfaces in automobiles, and more.

Roundbox, Florham Park, N J Sector: Communications Dennis Specht, Founder and CEO, Age: 39

Roundbox provides mobile broadcast software solutions for mobile operators and handset manufacturers. Its innovations enable cell-phone users to experience a new class of real-time services, such as TV broadcasts, emergency notification, radio, and information feeds that deliver news, weather, sports, and stock market data. The company is funded by venture capital firms Core Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and RRE Ventures.

Yandex, Moscow Sector: Internet Arkady Volozh, Co-founder and CEO, Age: 43

A popular Russian Internet portal, Yandex is a local version of Google, Flickr, and LinkedIn all rolled into one. It has 55% of locallanguage desktop queries in Russia, compared with about 15% for Google, according to LiveInternet.ru, a research site. Yandex organised its own free Wi-Fi network, with hotspots all over Russia , and has its own mail service (powered by unique anti-spam technology). Plus, it offers news-clustering and aggregation, blog searching, free Web hosting, shopping, photo-sharing , mobile search, its own payment system, and a social-networking service for professionals called MoiKrug. The company now accounts for 55% to 60% of all context ads tailored to search topics on the Russian Internet, generating $72 million in ad-driven revenues last year.

(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

...moreless

(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News, Budget 2024 Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

...moreless

4 reasons why MFs are stocking up on CreditAccess Grameen and other microfinance lenders

Once declared dead, Nifty Next 50 is up 70%. Will stocks like Trent, BEL keep up its momentum?

A new Sebi proposal for MFs spells good news for risk-averse investors

Hyundai’s top line has a lot riding on this INR6000 crore bet

The missing heavyweights in Nifty’s amazing run

Stock picks of the week: 5 stocks with consistent score improvement and upside potential of up to 44%

1

2

3