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My 10 Innovative Companies To Watch In 2016

This article is more than 8 years old.

One of the most exciting aspects of living in the 21st century is witnessing rapid evolution and disruption of industries that impact our lives and businesses. From cyber security to radio and real estate to cancer treatment, creative technologies are being introduced left and right, and many of them are making a big impact. Here are my 10 innovative companies to watch in 2016 :

Illusive Networks

Illusive Networks has a different take on the open-the-gates approach to cyber security. The Israeli startup, founded in 2014, sets up elaborate decoys within a client’s network. The decoys start out looking like targets—such as troves of valuable data—and lead into a kind of digital alternate reality. When a hacker stumbles into the trap, the alarm sounds and Illusive Networks knows there’s been a breach. But the client’s network and data are safe. Sometimes, Illusive and the client even decide to let the hacker hang around for a little while to pick up clues about his intentions and identity. Companies have flocked to Illusive Networks to bolster their cyber security and investment dollars have followed. Last October, the company closed a $22 million Series B round, bringing total equity funding to $27 million.

DataXu

With a team of founders that includes MIT data scientists, DataXu offers clients an advertising platform that buys ads, tracks their performance, and models their ROI based on complex analytics. The process is called “algorithmic marketing,” and many  companies are engaged in it. But DataXu’s platform may be the fastest-growing one. Clients include 3M , Ford and Vodafone , and the company has raised funds to the tune of $76 million, including a fresh $10 million round.

ZocDoc

A simple idea worth serious money, ZocDoc enables users to book doctor’s appointments as you’d make a reservation on OpenTable . It helps users get appointments soon by showing gaps in doctors’ schedules—many the result of cancellations—and helps doctors eliminate downtime by the same mechanism. ZocDoc is also offering new features such as the ability to fill out paperwork through the app and receive tailored reminders for upcoming appointments and preventive check-ups. As consumer tech advances into the health industry, the company’s opportunities may expand, which has contributed to ZocDoc’s estimated $1.8 billion valuation.

InSightec

InSightec was founded in 1999, but its recent technology has produced the kind of hype and investor interest usually reserved for startups. Its Exablate procedure uses guided ultrasound and MRI to enable doctors to eliminate tumors, by essentially cooking them, without performing any surgery. The procedure has been used successfully on benign tumors and received FDA approval. If widely adopted, the technology could eliminate the need for surgery for many patients with tumors. That potential led to a recent funding round of $22 million.

Nixplay

Who doesn’t love scrolling through pictures on social media and mobile devices? Well, Nixplay brings the experience onto our living room mantles with its Wi-Fi digital frame. Unlike antiquated digital frames of the past, NixPlay frames access photos from your social media and cloud accounts, and allow anyone to simply email photos to an email address that is connected to the frame for automatic upload. The frames range from $90 up to over $300, and vary from 8 inch to 18 inch screens. Amidst the flurry of apps and technologies that distract us from our families, this is one product that can bring loved ones together by streaming their best moments and memories.

ConnectAndSell

What if companies could Increase their number of closed deals by having more sales conversations? That is what ConnectAndSell, a Silicon Valley-based tech company, is out to accomplish for its 1,000 customers. The platform help sales teams navigate through the dialing and gatekeeper-bypassing phases of cold calling, automating those processes so reps can hold more conversations over the phone with potential buyers. In an increasingly competitive market landscape, greater efficiency with sales seems perhaps more relevant than ever before. The platform has dialed over 65 million numbers, according to ConnectAndSell’s website.

AudioBurst

Radio stands out as a content medium that is still beloved and used by millions, but that has some catching up to do in terms of shareability and searchability. Enter AudioBurst, a new startup that is seeking to become the Google for radio. The technology aims to index, segment and make searchable clips from thousands of radio stations. Users can easily find clips on topics or keywords they care about and share them through social media. Perhaps most interestingly, the content’s shelf life increases infinitely, as it now exists on the cloud rather than evaporating through the airwaves. With the monumental rise of video in the last few years, it seems that radio is ripe for this kind of disruption.

Real

Real is a technology-powered real estate brokerage. The company offers agents a 100 percent virtual setup, where agents are empowered with all the technology, licensing and operational tools they need, without having to be associated with a physical office. The company aims to bring real estate brokers more freedom and flexibility, while keeping overhead to a minimum and technology assistance and tools to a maximum. In an industry where time in the field is crucial, Real may be onto something with its hasslefree, accommodating business model.

Oscar

A tech startup that sells health insurance. That’s the identity of Oscar, a $1.75 to 3 billion valued company founded by Josh Kushner and his partners at Thrive Capital. Oscar strives to bring internet business savvy to health insurance: the company offers sensible consumer-focused features like a map-based tool for choosing doctors and a search tool that helps users find medical providers based on their symptoms.

Flowthings

Flowthings aspires to be the cloud above the internet of things, that is, the software and hardware that make interconnected buildings, infrastructure, and hardware talk to each other to become more efficient. The internet of things has been a buzzword for a few years now, but no standard regime for managing it has emerged. This is why Flowthings thinks it can help. It’s a small, agile company—it has fewer than 50 employees and has raised $8 million from angel investors—that can respond to the changing landscape of the internet of things without much lag time. But it also packs a punch. Its software is robust enough to handle systems in urban planning, agriculture, and energy.

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