NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Katrina Lake, CEO and founder of the ecommerce retailer Stitch Fix, is the cover subject of Fast Company's 2019's Most Innovative Companies (MIC) package. The youngest woman to take a company public, she earns the spot because her savvy use of data is beginning to transform the $334 billion apparel industry.
Beijing-based delivery tech platform Meituan Dianping has landed in the No. 1 spot in Fast Company's annual MIC ranking. Its "transactional super app," an amalgamation of lifestyle services such as food delivery and movie tickets, connects hundreds of millions of customers to local businesses and has achieved remarkable scale in China. In the first half of 2018, Meituan facilitated 27.7 billion transactions (worth $33.8 billion) for more than 350 million people in 2,800 cities. That's 1,783 Meituan-enabled services booked every second of every day. Meituan is the first company founded and headquartered outside the United States to be No. 1 on MIC since the franchise's launch in 2008.
The remaining top ten companies this year are: (2) Grab, (3) National Basketball Association, (4) The Walt Disney Company, (5) Stitch Fix, (6) Sweetgreen, (7) Apeel Sciences, (8) Square, (9) Oatly, and (10) Twitch.
Last year's No. 1 company, Apple, is number 17 this year. Apple is the only company to have appeared in every iteration of MIC. Half of the companies on this year's MIC 50 list are appearing for the first time.
This year, Fast Company's editors and writers sought out groundbreaking businesses in 35 industries and across every region of the world. We also judged nominations received through our application process.
The World's Most Innovative Companies is Fast Company's signature franchise and one of its most highly anticipated editorial efforts of the year. It provides both a snapshot and a road map for the future of innovation across the most dynamic sectors of the economy.
Highlights:
- Waste not: Stitch Fix, along with sports retailer Fanatics and manufacturing startup Unmade, are eliminating waste in an industry notorious for it through sophisticated algorithms and on-demand manufacturing. Burgeoning salad chain Sweetgreen, material science startup Apeel Sciences, and Chinese tech giant Alibaba (through its Hema grocery chain) are doing the same for food.
- Disrupting disinformation: Truepic has created revolutionary tech to combat deepfake imagery and Mozilla is building protections against data manipulation right into its Firefox browser.
- Big but fast: Disney and the NBA are reinventing themselves to get closer to their customers, and Target has developing a knack for rapidly creating billion-dollar house brands. "Established players are showing the same kind of nimbleness that we've generally associated with startups," said Fast Company deputy editor David Lidsky, who oversaw the issue with senior editor Amy Farley.
Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies issue (March-April 2019) is now available online at https://www.fastcompany.com/MIC, as well as in app form via iTunes and on newsstands beginning February 27.
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Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies and thinkers on the future of business. Since 2011, Fast Company has received some of the most prestigious editorial and design accolades, including the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) National Magazine Award for "Magazine Of The Year," Adweek's Hot List for "Hottest Business Publication," and six gold medals and 10 silver medals from the Society of Publication Designers. The editor-in-chief is Stephanie Mehta and the publisher is Amanda Smith. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication Inc., and can be found online at http://www.fastcompany.com.
SOURCE Fast Company
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