In the eighth annual Disruptor 50 list, CNBC identifies private companies whose breakthroughs are influencing business and market competition at an accelerated pace. They are poised to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with tech platforms that have the power to dominate.
The start-ups making the 2020 Disruptor list are at the epicenter of a world changing in previously unimaginable ways, turning ideas in cybersecurity, education, health IT, logistics/delivery, fintech and agriculture into a new wave of billion-dollar businesses.
According to CNBC, companies nominated were required to submit a detailed analysis, including key quantitative and qualitative information.
Quantitative metrics included company-submitted data on workforce size and diversity, scalability, and sales and user growth.
CNBC also brought in data from a pair of outside partners — PitchBook, which provided data on fundraising, implied valuations and investor quality; and IBISWorld, whose database of industry reports were used to compare the companies based on the industries they are attempting to disrupt.
However, For the first time, CNBC Disruptor 50 list added an extra step to its selection process: how companies were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Technology is already a major part of our daily lives and the public markets, and that will only increase on the other side of Covid-19, from the future of food supply to health-care diagnostics and the way we shop, study, work and pay.
Gojek, Indonesia’s first home-grown unicorn started its venture as ridehail. Over 10 years, the company has transformed into food delivery and payment food delivery, on-call beauty services, entertainment booking and e-payments with presence in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
It is now a major competitor to Singapore-based Grab across Southeast Asia. The company has raised $6.2 billion in financing from the likes of Google, Tencent, JD.com, Mitsubishi, and Visa, and is valued at over $12 billion, according to PitchBook.
Earlier this month, Facebook and PayPal also invested in the company. Investments from the two U.S. tech giants, as well as other investors, contributed Gojek’s jump to number 10 in the CNBC Disruptor 50 List from previously unlisted.
Meanwhile, another Southeast Asia’s unicorn, Gojek’s archrival Grab secured number 16 spot on the list. This Southeast Asian “super app” company delivers an array of digital services such as transportation, food delivery, hotel bookings, online banking, mobile payments and insurance services from its app — thus the “super app” title — serving more than 187 million users in over 330 cities across eight countries.
