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The start-ups include new leaders in AI, cybersecurity, robotics, and others using tech to address gaps in healthcare, financial access and more
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This year’s cohort has the highest gender diversity yet, with over 30% of companies led by women
One start-up each from the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia is among the 100 new tech firm awardees in the 2021 Technology Pioneers cohort announced by the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.
Souqalmal, a start-up from the UAE, is an online financial education platform in the Middle East
North America (MENA) region and Cambridge Industries, a new tech firm from Ethiopia is addressing climate change by developing sustainable city infrastructure to support waste-to-energy products.
There are 5 African countries represented in this year’s cohort including Ethiopia. Others are Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.
FlexFinTx, a start-up from Zimbabwe, for example, is building self-sovereign digital identities to help the over 400 million Africans that lack proper forms of identification.
This year’s Technology Pioneers are emerging leaders in a wide range of industries that span healthcare, cleantech, AI, education, climate change, logistics, and more. They are taking on top global concerns with innovative technologies and business models.
“The 2021 cohort of Tech Pioneers includes many future headline-makers at the forefront of their industries,” said Susan Nesbitt, Head of the Global Innovators Community, World Economic Forum. “These companies show great potential to not only shake up their industries but offer real solutions to global problems. They’ll bring great value to the World Economic Forum’s mission of improving the state of the world with their participation in the Technology Pioneers community.”
Ceretai, for example, is a Technology Pioneer helping media companies uncover stereotypes and representation gaps in their content through automated diversity and equality analysis. Banyan Nation is using technology to support circular economy climate solutions in India. Century Tech is supporting personalized education options through combined innovations in learning science, AI and neuroscience.
This year’s cohort has the highest gender diversity yet, with over 30% of companies led by women. There are also 26 economies represented this year, with the United Arab Emirates, El Salvador, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe represented for the first time. All the 2021 Technology Pioneers are bringing great innovation to their regions.
Following their selection as Technology Pioneers, this year’s companies will join an impressive group of alumni that include many household names, such as Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Spotify, TransferWise, Twitter and Wikimedia.
The 2021 cohort will also be invited to participate in World Economic Forum workshops events and high-level discussions throughout their two years in the community.
