5 Innovative Start-ups To Watch Out in 2021

1- CLUBHOUSE (Social Media)

Clubhouse was launched in California in March 2020. The app was created by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, two Silicon Valley regulars. The exclusive invitation-only social networking app is a hybrid of conference calls, talkback radio and Houseparty. Users can listen in to conversations, interviews and discussions between interesting people on various topics – it is just like tuning in to a podcast but live and with an added layer of exclusivity. Clubhouse is invite-only. You can’t simply download it from the app store and set up an account. Much like a real-life country or yacht club, you have to be invited to join by an existing member. Then, you select topics of interest, like politics, tech, health or business. Like other social media, the more information you give about your interests, the more conversation rooms and individuals the app will recommend you follow or join. In May 2020, it had just 1,500 users, and was worth $100m. It became mainstream when Elon Musk hosted an audio-chat on Clubhouse with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Now the app has 2 million users and is now valued at USD 1 billion, and is considered a Unicorn startup like AirBnb, Uber and SpaceX.

2- PERFECT DIARY (Digital Beauty)

Few Chinese cosmetics brands can boast catching the Western press’s attention as much as Perfect Diary (完美日记). The price is less than half of what Western upmarket brands offer, putting Perfect Diary's lineup within reach for young customers. Perfect Diary saves on costs by selling directly online, cutting out retailers and wholesalers in the middle. Founded in 2017, the young brand actually achieved an outstanding performance in China: on November 11, 2018 Singles’ Day, a little over a year after it was launched, Perfect Diary got ranked first among Chinese makeup brands. In 2019, the sales on that special day dedicated to singles reached RMB100 million in 13 minutes on Tmall, overtaking global brands like L’Oréal and Maybelline. Perfect Diary mainly targets Generation Z young women aged 18-28, who are more interested in national brands than previous generations. The brand quickly managed to stand out with an innovative online marketing strategy such as the creation of a KOC virtual character to help the brand build closer relationships with customers and convert public traffic into private, less expensive traffic. The Guangzhou-based cosmetics brand is now valued at USD 4 billion after a new funding round and is planning to open 600 stores around the world by 2022.

3- GEEK+ (Logistics)

Geek+ is a global technology company specialized in smart logistics. They apply advanced robotics and artificial intelligence technologies to create solutions for warehouse and factory operations. With the rise of e-commerce and the demand for a faster and more flexible movement of goods, warehouse and manufacturing operators are facing increasingly complex production and logistic challenges today. For instance, speed, product diversification, same-day delivery, volume, safety are concerns that are impacting a wide range of industries, from apparel, retail, automotive, to even electronics, energy and pharmaceutical industries. Geek+ was founded to be the solution to these problems. By making logistics affordable, efficient, flexible, safe and agile. Created in 2015, They intend to establish a fully automated and intelligent supply chain globally. Last June, Geek+ has closed over $200 million in a Series C funding round with a USD 2 billion valuation.

4- COCKROACH LABS (DBMS)

Cockroach Labs is a software firm that develops commercial database management systems. Founded in 2015 by three ex-Google employees, it's best known for CockroachDB, a cloud-native, distributed SQL database that provides “next-level consistency, ultra-resilience, data locality, and massive scale to modern cloud applications.” Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Cockroach Labs saw its revenue more than double in 2020, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a surge in demand for digital services from work-from-home employees. The startup expects to see similar levels of growth this year and claims to be on track to double its workforce from 200 to 400 employees by the end of 2021. Noting that the database management system (DBMS) market revenue is currently valued at $55.4 billion and Cockroach Labs cited a Gartner report forecasting that by 2022 75 percent of all databases will be deployed or migrated to cloud platforms. Today the company announced a $160 million Series E on a huge USD 2 billion valuation.

5- HOPIN (Virtual Events)

London-based virtual events startup Hopin had a better 2020 than most. Founded in June 2019, Hopin wants to “reimagine virtual events from the ground up and make them so good that they become no longer a sideline option but a mainstream destination.” Investors and customers alike clearly believe Hopin has achieved its aim, with the company raising the fourth-largest European Series B round of 2020. The pandemic undoubtedly had a hand in Hopin’s success in 2020; as of November, it was claiming 3.5 million users at more than 50,000 organizations, including the United Nations, NATO, the Atlantic, UCLA, and Miro. Hopin’s workforce has also experienced high levels of growth over the past 10 months, starting 2020 with a team of 23 people and ending the year with 215. It raised a $125 million Series B round, for a USD 2.1 billion valuation. Launched just eight months ago, it has now raised $170 million in total — making it one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe. Hopin counts Slack, Salesforce, and Northzone amongst its investors.