“What you are will show in what you do.” – Thomas A. Edison

Where do ideas come from? How do they become a business or adapt to changing times? Before we resume our exploration of Meriden and Hartford, people and change, business, innovations and intermodal transportation initiatives plus community connections, history and other discoveries, let's take a look at startups and entrepreneurs at the edge of change – worldwide. One company is headquartered in Connecticut; others from across the globe. In our interconnected world, ideas can spark a change that ripples out, causes others to launch a business or strive for growth in another sector. The World Economic Forum, is “committed to improving the state of the world, is the international organization for public-private cooperation. The forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation, it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland – independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. The forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is at the heart of everything it does.”

The World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers include companies working on blockchain for voting, artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery, city-scale augmented reality and food-production improvement.

Of the 61 companies awarded the title of WEF Technology Pioneer 2018, a quarter was female-led and a majority (54 percent) came from outside the U.S.

Early-stage companies recognized for their design, development and deployment of potentially world-changing innovations and technologies; many from emerging markets.

“Innovation comes from all corners of the earth and from a very diverse group of entrepreneurs, and with this selection we recognize that,” said Cheryl Martin, head of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and member of the managing board at the World Economic Forum (WEF). “The next step is to help these pioneers bring their solutions to complex world-critical problems to global markets and to take action for the public good.”

The Technology Pioneers 2018 address many societal challenges, a hopeful sign that technology will be a force for good in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Apeel Sciences (USA), for example, develops plant-derived technologies to reduce food waste; Pymetrics (USA) matches talents to opportunity using neuroscience games and artificial intelligence (AI); and Horizon State (Australia) enables efficient and secure vote casting.

“Technology and start-ups are not just about computer software, consumer apps and social networks,” said Fulvia Montresor, head of Technology Pioneers at WEF. “Technology Pioneers 2018 are tackling complex challenges such as environmental sustainability, efficient energy use and access to healthcare.”

Technology Pioneers come from all over the world. Among the nations to host Pioneers are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Morocco, as well as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the US.

The WEF Tech Pioneers include: Bangladesh-based ME SOLshare democratizes energy by developing peer-to-peer microgrids. Kenyan-based CarePay is developing an inclusive platform for health financing and delivery in Africa. Brazilian- based Agrosmart makes agronomic models based on genetics, soil type and microclimate data.

Examples from well-known innovation hubs include Precognize (Israel), which is developing predictive maintenance software for the process industry, and BenevolentAI (UK) which is developing and applying AI for scientific innovation.

The leadership of the 2018 Technology Pioneers is gender diverse, with 25% of the companies (co-) founded by women. Examples include: Viola Llewellyn, co-founder and president of Ovamba Solutions, who built a $500 million life insurance investment fund before co-founding Ovamba; Diana Paredes, chief executive officer and co-founder of Suade Labs, who had a successful career in investment banking before applying her expertise to financial regulation as a service; and Elizabeth Rossiello, chief executive officer and founder of BitPesa, who is an advocate for blockchain technology in emerging markets and financial innovation across frontier markets.

Cadenza Innovation headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, for low-cost, high-capacity cell design for lithium-ion energy storage systems. Founder and Chief Executive Officer: Christina Lampe-Onnerud. Year founded: 2012. Website: www.cadenzainnovation.com. “Global access to cheap, safe and compact batteries will help power the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Cadenza Innovation’s novel battery platform establishes a new paradigm when compared to traditional battery price-performance metrics, design and manufacturing.

“Cadenza Innovation’s novel supercell packaging technology provides a pathway for lithium-based storage systems to safely break through the final cost barriers and achieve the discharge duration desired while maintaining the fast response and high-efficiency performance characteristics that lithium-ion cells provide.”

Code.org, Seattle, Washington, for expanding access to computer science in schools. Founder and CEO: Hadi Partovi. Year founded: 2013. Website: www.code.org.

“Code.org has launched a global movement to learn computer science, impacted 10% of the world’s students, changed policies in 43 US states, and helped inspire 25 countries to make national plans for computer science.

“Code.org is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Its vision is to provide every student with the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or algebra. Code.org provides the leading computer science curriculum for K-12 students in the largest school districts in the United States. It also organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign, which has engaged 10% of all students worldwide.”

Everledger, London, United Kingdom, for digital ledger that tracks and protects valuable assets. Founder and CEO: Leanne Kemp. Year founded: 2015. Website: everledger.io.

“Everledger harnesses the best of emerging technology for provenance tracking to assert supply chain transparency through an immutable digital ledger. Our goal is to build trust and drive sustainability in global markets for the mitigation of real-world economic, environmental and societal challenges.

“At Everledger, emerging technologies including blockchain, smart contracts, internet of things (IoT) and machine vision have been harnessed to create solutions for encrypting the immutable provenance of an asset through a distributed ledger platform. The core characteristics of blockchain technology – immutability, security, speed and scalability – combine with other technologies to form a hybrid model for innovative and effective solutions.”

Gamalon, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for next generation artificial intelligence for natural language. CEO: Ben Vigoda. Year founded: 2013. Website: www.gamalon.com.

“Gamalon believes the future is not about AI replacing humans. It will be about machines augmenting human ability. Using Gamalon, organizations and individuals can have personalized conversations with millions of people as fluently as they do with their friends.

“Gamalon’s mission is to accelerate human understanding by combining human and machine learning. Gamalon’s Idea Learning responds to new ideas by understanding them as combinations of ideas it has already learned – by itself or from people. It can be taught simply by talking to it. With Gamalon, millions of people can text or talk with organizations as fluently as they do with their friends. Customers are already using Gamalon to personalize interactions with customers.”

Horizon State, headquartered in McKinnon, Australia, for a decentralized engagement and decision-making platform. CEO: Oren Alazraki. Year founded: 2017. Website: horizonstate.com.

“Horizon State is closing the gap between individual ideas and collective action. Our platform unlocks the power of communities to improve the quality of collaborative decision-making outcomes and drive meaningful progress forward.

“Horizon State has built a token-based blockchain voting and decision-making platform that delivers unprecedented trust through the integrity and post-unforgeable attributes of blockchain technology. Horizon State delivers a secure digital ballot box that cannot be hacked, in which results can never be altered, and voter identities are protected.”

Plenty, San Francisco, California for indoor vertical farming using optimized resources. CEO: Matt Barnard. Year founded: 2013. Website: www.plenty.ag.

“Just minutes from people rather than weeks, Plenty's indoor farms grow clean, delicious, nutritious fruits and vegetables year-round. The world has run out of land to economically grow produce and this new way is vital to human and planet health.

“Plenty is indoor vertical farming aiming to bring local produce to people and communities worldwide by growing fruits and vegetables using 1% of the water, less than 1% of the land, and none of the pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or genetically modified organisms of conventional agriculture. These field-scale indoor farms combine the best in American agriculture and crop science with machine learning, internet of things, big data, climate creation technology and top-quality seed stock. Plenty is based in San Francisco.”

A complete listing of all the newly selected Technology Pioneers http://widgets.weforum.org/techpioneers-2018/.

WEF Tech Pioneers will meet at the WEF annual meeting of the New Champions 2018 in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, Sept. 18 to Sept. 20. Some of them will also participate in the WEF annual meeting 2019 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, Jan. 22-25. As leaders of innovation, they will be supported by the Forum’s new Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and contribute to fostering the innovation ecosystem and delivering critical mass to solve global challenges.

About the Technology Pioneers

The World Economic Forum believes that innovation is critical to the future well-being of society and to driving economic growth. Launched in 2000, the Technology Pioneer community is composed of early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to make a significant impact on business and society.

The Forum recognizes a limited number of companies each year as Technology Pioneers and incorporates them into its initiatives, activities and events, where they bring cutting-edge insights and novel perspectives to world-critical discussions. Companies selected in the past include: Airbnb, Bloom Energy, bluebird bio, Cyberdyne, Editas Medicine, Foundation Medicine, Google, Kaggle, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Proteus Digital Health, Rethink Robotics, Scribd, Spotify, Twitter and Wikimedia.

About the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship leverages the World Economic Forum’s platform to enable new generations of businesses to achieve scale and social impact in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It builds on the work of the Forum by providing an ecosystem for businesses to put the principles and values identified as crucial in the Fourth Industrial Revolution into practice. The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will launch at the annual meeting of New Champions in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, Sept. 18 to Sept. 20.