Stripe, Coupang, Indigo Ag, Coursera and Klarna are top “disruptors” of 2020 … innovators poised to thrive as they emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic
August 19, 2020

CNBC’s 2020 Disruptor 50 list is a great source of companies whose breakthroughs are influencing business and market competition at an ever accelerated pace. In particular, this year, they are poised to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic with tech platforms that have the power to dominate.
They are turning ideas in cybersecurity, education, health IT, logistics/delivery, fintech and agriculture into a new wave of billion-dollar businesses.
A majority of them, in fact, already are billion-dollar businesses: 36 disruptors this year are unicorns that have already reached or passed the $1 billion valuation mark. Maybe more important this year: 37 have hired new employees since the pandemic began, and 19 have pivoted their products or launched new ones to meet the challenges of the 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.
Here is CNBC’s top 50 ranking:
1 | Stripe | Unlocking the lockdown’s biggest value |
2 | Coupang | Beating Bezos at his own online game? |
3 | Indigo Agriculture | The future of farming is carbon negative |
4 | Coursera | Online ed’s biggest test begins |
5 | Klarna | No online sale left behind |
6 | Tempus | Precision medicine for the Covid crisis |
7 | Zipline | Medicine takes flight autonomously |
8 | SoFi | The future of your financial future |
9 | Neteera | Contactless health |
10 | Gojek | Indonesia’s original ridehail, growing up |
11 | WeLab | Branchless banking |
12 | DoorDash | The most in-demand in on-demand |
13 | Heal | The next big thing in medicine: housecalls? |
14 | Movandi | A network key to the 5G future |
15 | Better.com | Closing the mortgage gap online |
16 | Grab | Southeast Asia’s super app |
17 | Lemonade | A.I.-ing the end of the insurance agent |
18 | Root Insurance | Replacing demographics with real driver data |
19 | Healthy.io | Home-based health testing |
20 | GoodRx | Technology tackling the high cost of health care |
21 | Eat JUST | Just the egg, no chicken |
22 | goPuff | The convenience store gets more convenient |
23 | Affirm | Building new credit history |
24 | Kabbage | A main street lending lifeline |
25 | Chime | No-fee banking |
26 | Dave | Taking down the overdraft Goliath |
27 | Trulioo | Verification for a more virtual world |
28 | Ripple | A crypto answer to money transfer |
29 | TALA | Making microloans add up to a billion |
30 | Didi Chuxing | Riding a post-Covid pickup in China |
31 | SentinelOne | Cybercrime is up; so are defenses |
32 | Butterfly Network | A smarter ultrasound |
33 | Marqeta | Paying with a full deck of cards |
34 | Apeel | Ridding the world of rotten produce |
35 | K Health | Primary (smartphone) care |
36 | Databricks | Data help for data nerds |
37 | C3.ai | The world’s biggest brains building an even bigger one |
38 | Attabotics | Amazon’s ant-size competition |
39 | CLEAR | Biometric screening for a new world of hidden dangers |
40 | Snowflake | A data warehouse in the cloud |
41 | Airbnb | Your delayed destination |
42 | Duolingo | The universal language |
43 | LanzaTech | A carbon-capture moonshot |
44 | Ginkgo Bioworks | The world’s most advanced manufacturing |
45 | Guild Education | Upskilling America |
46 | Robinhood | The new bull market-makers |
47 | Convoy | A monster trucking problem solved |
48 | Beautycounter | A makeover for the cosmetics industry |
49 | Impossible Foods | Doesn’t seem so impossible anymore, does it? |
50 | UiPath | The robots are coming for your boring, repetitive job |