Here are this year’s breakthrough ideas in the enterprise category of Most Innovative Companies.
1. Canva
For bringing its drag-and-drop slideshow tools to the corporate world, empowering anyone to get creative while still coloring within the lines
This female-led tech giant made some giant strides in 2019 to bring its suite of enterprise design tools to more companies around the world, rolling out innovations such as new tech for restricted editing and approval workflow while keeping it all relatively simple with drag-and-drop tools.
Read more about why Canva is one of the Most Innovative Companies of 2020.
2. MongoDB
For enabling developers’ data-intensive web and mobile apps
A giant in the world of data, MongoDB added some cool innovations last year—including Atlas full-text search and more advanced offline analytics capabilities—and expanded its ambitious upskilling and diversity initiatives.
3. Unbabel
For combining the speed of machine translation with the authenticity of a native speaker, to the tune of 1 million customer service messages a month
This machine-powered language translation platform introduced some major advances in 2019, winning several awards for the quality of its machine translation and helping its clients improve the quality of their customer support around the world. Among its most recent initiatives, it partnered with the European Space Agency on an AI moonshot challenge to focus on waste management and sustainability.
4. Elastic
For unleashing the search tools that power Uber and Tinder on any enterprise’s mess of data
It may not be a household name, but this company’s search tech drives major companies like Walgreens, Adobe, and Sprint, and it rolled out many innovative updates in 2019. It also accelerated its humanitarian initiatives, working with organizations that combat human trafficking and facilitate resource matching for nonprofits.
5. InCountry
For flipping global data compliance into a service
Already available in more than 60 countries though it just launched a year ago, this startup’s focus on data-residency-as-a-service has become so timely in this era of widespread concern about encryption and corporate anxiety about new privacy rules such as GDPR.
6. Persuit
For killing the billable hour by offering its RFP auction platform to outside legal counsel
Offering an innovative way of reducing legal fees by moving away from the billable hour to more value-based pricing models, this company’s tech brings price transparency and competition to a process that often saddles startups and smaller organizations with exorbitant legal expenses.
7. Stardog
For smashing data silos and making company knowledge graphs accessible
With its knowledge graph platform, this startup tackles inefficiency with unique data solutions, as well as making some major improvements to its storage engine. Earlier this year, it released a free version to make such graphs more accessible to the entire developer community.
8. Nearmap
For streaming 3D aerial imagery on demand to a web browser
This fast-growing company is democratizing aerial imagery and helping startups compete with established players in all kinds of industries, from solar to food services to construction. It’s well positioned for the future, since it has patented all of its tech, such as cameras that capture oblique imagery.
9. IBM
For meeting businesses such as Kraft Heinz where they are with its global network of digital reinvention Garages
This legacy business is driving innovation with its on-location incubators that are helping small startups and organizations transform their business via tech, such as a wireless company that was able to turn older cars into voice-enabled smart cars.
10. Jobber
For optimizing operations for local service pros
It’s kind of a sleeper because it doesn’t get the sexy headlines, but this CRM startup has been transformative in how it empowers small home-service industries–such as your local plumber or electrician–to get the same access to enterprise tools as huge companies.
Read more about Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies: