The Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst List

The coronavirus has raged across the globe for 18 months, bringing with it waves of infection, economic calamity and millions of deaths. But this catastrophe has also led to the delivery of multiple vaccines in record time and new technology that holds promise for treating other intractable afflictions, like cancer.

If you could distill the most powerful words of 2021 so far into just a few, one of them would have to be Moderna. You can thank Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of the pharmaceutical and biotech company, for that—with 33 years in the business and more than 100 patents, he’s earned it. Moderna’s mRNA vaccine (along with one from Pfizer-BioNTech) helped turn the tide in the global fight against Covid-19, and unlocked a powerful weapon against future pandemics. Dr. Afeyan is also the CEO and founder of Flagship Pioneering, a venture capital firm that’s invested more than $20 billion in health-care advancements and sustainability.

While some tech titans are bidding to heat up the space race (the roughly $350 billion global industry could surge to more than $1 trillion by 2040, Morgan Stanley estimates), Sarah Al Amiri is a forward thinker with her feet on the ground. As the minister of state for advanced technology and chairperson of the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, she’s applying her knowledge of space-enabled technologies to inform sustainable development here on Earth. Al Amiri also spearheaded the Emirates Mars Mission earlier this year. (Elon Musk isn’t the only person interested in the red planet.)

After tackling the 2014 Ebola epidemic and campaigning against blood diamonds, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr is bringing an inclusive, data-driven approach to Sierra Leone’s capital city, where her 3-year-old “Transform Freetown” initiative is putting the environment front and center. And it couldn’t come at a better time: According to a World Bank Groundswell report, as many as 86 million people in sub-Saharan Africa could be forced to migrate within their own countries by 2050 to escape the consequences of the climate crisis. A large share of these future refugees are expected to move to cities. Under Aki-Sawyerr’s leadership, Freetown has already committed to planting 1 million trees to build resilience against flooding and to absorb carbon dioxide.

To turn smallholder farmers in Africa into agricultural entrepreneurs, Alloysius Attah begins where most tech gurus start—with the data. Sub-Saharan Africa has a quarter of the world’s arable land, but it produces only 10% of the world’s agricultural output. As the CEO and co-founder of Ghana’s Farmerline, Attah forms partnerships that have helped 600,000 farmers on more than 1 million acres of farmland in 25 countries access the digital tools they need to reach markets of scale, affordably. The goal? Generational wealth, a new standard in agribusiness and a fighting chance at food security for millions in Africa and around the world.

As the co-founder and CEO of India’s largest social commerce platform, Vidit Aatrey is transforming entrepreneurship in the country one user at a time. Through his platform, Meesho, more than 100,000 small businesses have successfully landed online, no investment capital necessary. As a result, more than 45 million people across India have been able to enjoy the convenience of e-commerce. Now, Aatrey wants to set 100 million more entrepreneurs on the path to success.

With $15 billion per day of trading volume, FTX is one of the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges. It’s also the first major crypto exchange to offer tokenized stocks, which are digital coins that track the value of shares of publicly traded companies. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried also makes it a priority to give back by donating 1% of the company’s revenue to charity (he was also a major donor to the Biden campaign). If you don’t know the name yet, you will soon—last March, FTX signed a 19-year, $135 million deal to rename American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat.

Many people see the problems with fast fashion—a $2.4 trillion industry with major carbon emissions and waste which is also rife with child labor—as fatal flaws of e-commerce. But Ankiti Bose saw an opportunity to innovate. She founded Zilingo at the age of 23 to help give small merchants easy access to technology, working capital and economies of scale so they can build and expand global businesses. With an initiative to offer financing for female factory workers (notably in India and Thailand) so they can work from home, Bose is distributing more than just ethical fashion—she’s helping to distribute power.

Harnessing the potential of cryptocurrency for good is no small task, but Simon Chamorro is proving it just might be possible. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 5 million Venezuelans are now living abroad, making the displacement crisis one of the largest in the world. Through Valiu, a cryptocurrency bank that provides U.S.-dollar-denominated accounts for Venezuelan residents and migrants, Chamorro seeks to replace the volatile bolivar with a stable cryptocoin and make it easier to transfer money safely. Next up? Tackling hyperinflation and the possibility of financial prosperity for millions of Latin Americans.

With 8 million tons of it constituting an existential threat to wildlife and the food supply while clogging waterways and harbors, plastic has earned its reputation as a top environmental offender. Enter BluePhin Technologies co-founder Simran Chowdhry and her plastic-chomping robots. When deployed, these prototypes aid with cleanup efforts by pulling plastic waste out of the ocean. Soon, Chowdhry’s algorithm could be used to give the robots an appetite for oil and other liquid waste.

Despite its incredibly diverse population, Africa accounts for less than 3% of global research in genomic data. Abasi Ene-Obong’s 54Gene wants to see that number change. His company is creating a genomic dataset to help combat health-care inequality across the continent and beyond. The 54Gene Biobank contains about 100,000 samples aimed at better understanding the drivers behind afflictions such as cancer, sickle cell anemia, and cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, endocrine and autoimmune diseases.

Modern farming is built on big data, genomics and artificial intelligence—standard practice in advanced economies but often unavailable in the developing world. Justin Gong is looking to end that disparity. He and his team at XAG have introduced precision technologies to about 9.3 million farmers working more than 52 million hectares of land worldwide (that’s enough to feed about 16.42 million people for a year). XAG Academy, meanwhile, has introduced futuristic concepts such as drones, robots and AI to more than 120,000 rural Chinese youths, paving the way for a smarter farming future around the world.

It’s no coincidence that the youngest woman ever elected to the Parliament of Australia might also be the most passionate about the climate crisis. Sarah Hanson-Young has been advocating for a greener future for her country, including protection of the Great Australian Bight and the Murray-Darling Basin, since she was elected in 2007 at the age of 25. She is currently responsible within her party for issues including the environment and the arts, and in 2018 she released a book about her experience in politics.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death, accounting for 10 million fatalities globally in 2020 alone. But what if your own cells were on the front line of fighting cancer? Caribou Biosciences believes it’s possible. CEO and President Rachel Haurwitz has been at the cutting edge of biological research for years, exploring ways gene-editing technology can change how we fight disease and live better, and longer, lives.

With $100 billion worth of commodity hydrogen produced annually, it could be the silver climate bullet we’ve been waiting for. Unfortunately, its production yields a lot of carbon dioxide, which presents quite the conundrum when you consider the U.S. will need to remove at least 2 gigatons of CO2 every year until about 2050 to achieve net zero. But through a process called “methane pyrolysis,” CEO Zach Jones and his team at startup C-Zero have unlocked a low-cost, low-emission way to produce hydrogen while producing only solid, storable carbon. Their technology could mean a huge shift in the ability to decarbonize major industries including agriculture, chemicals, manufacturing and transportation.

Traditional banking is failing in Latin America. According to the World Bank, about half of the population in the region have no access to financial tools or banking services. In Brazil alone, some 60 million are unbanked. With no fees and the ability to serve 100% of Brazil (as well as Mexico and Colombia), Nubank is ready to change that. To date, Cristina Junqueira’s fully digital platform has given 7.2 million people access to credit cards or savings accounts for the first time.

Anyone who lives in a city knows accessibility is key. ArkDes director Kieran Long takes that a step further, believing it’s possible to have everything you need one minute away. Long is working to decentralize the future of urban development by designing systems that make it possible for urban dwellers to meet all their needs just around the corner, including housing, education and health care. It’s a tall order considering the United Nations has projected that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. But Long’s prototypes in Sweden have had positive results, with ArkDes reporting a 400% increase in movement on the streets around each unit.

With 80% of China's groundwater categorized as “bad to very bad,” an environmental catastrophe is at hand. A former investigative reporter for the South China Morning Post whose book China Water Crisis has been compared with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Ma Jun has been sounding the alarm on the state of China’s water supply for years. Now, Jun is at the helm of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs. One of China’s most powerful nongovernmental organizations, it has created China’s first public water pollution database, promoted a global green supply chain and collaborated with the Natural Resources Defense Council to launch the Pollution Information Transparency Index, which evaluates environmental information transparency in 113 cities around China.

While some futurists imagine tomorrow from the vantage point of a conference room, Megan McArthur has a different view entirely—space. She’s currently the pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station, which launched in April. For many, these missions signal the potential success of both commercial crews and exploration beyond the moon. Prior to her time on the ISS, McArthur served as a mission specialist aboard STS-125, the final space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Food insecurity and climate change are inextricably linked, a fact that’s been exacerbated by Covid-19. At least 155 million people faced crisis levels of food insecurity in 2020 because of conflict, extreme weather and economic shocks linked in part to the pandemic. In fact, the United Nations Foundation has reported that by some estimates, in the absence of effective adaptation to combat extreme heat, severe weather and drought, global crop yields could decline by up to 30% by 2050. Sara Menker’s Gro Intelligence is using machine learning with dynamic data points to tackle both problems at once, and to distribute information and solutions that connect the Earth’s ecology with our human economy.

We don’t think of space as a new environmental battleground, but perhaps we should. After all, upon reaching orbit, the world’s heaviest operational rocket will have burned about 400 metric tons of kerosene and emitted more carbon dioxide in a few minutes than an average car would in more than two centuries. Luckily, Isar Aerospace CEO and co-founder Daniel Metzler knows that just because you’re leaving the planet doesn’t mean you put sustainability aside. Isar is working to lower the barriers for commercial space access with flexible, sustainable and cost-effective rockets. Using environmentally friendly propellants and advanced manufacturing, Isar’s vehicles are capable of reducing soot and CO2 by 25% to 40%, while leaving no trace of the launcher behind. The company’s first commercial launch is planned for 2022.

What does the Generation Z consumer want? If you ask Afterpay co-CEO and co-founder Nick Molnar, he would tell you the golden ticket is the ability to buy without debt. As the leader in “buy now, pay later” technology, Afterpay was the best performer on the S&P/ASX 200 index in 2020. Customers praise Afterpay’s ability to let you pay in interest-free installments without incurring credit card debt. After all, Molnar knows something about managing money—he’s Australia’s youngest self-made billionaire.

Removing a gigaton of carbon from the atmosphere by 2030 is no small feat, but Henrietta Moon co-founded Carbo Culture to do just that. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we’ll need to reach net zero in carbon dioxide emissions over the next few decades to prevent the worst of climate change. Moon’s company is converting forestry and food production residues into biocarbons, which remain stable and out of the atmosphere for more than 1,000 years.

Since half of Africa’s population has no reliable access to electricity, solar-powered microgrids could mean a bright future for millions across the continent. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, more than 75% of people go without power. Co-founded by Nthabiseng Mosia, Easy Solar offers energy solutions and financial services across sub-Saharan Africa, bringing solar power to 500,000 people.

Plants have always been powerful, but they haven’t always been the most desirable food group. And while the benefits of a plant-based diet have long been proven for both humans and the environment, only now is the market catching up. Sales growth in plant-based meat alternatives is forecast to reach $450 billion by 2040. Matias Muchnick wants to be part of that revolution by using artificial intelligence to reverse-engineer animal products, creating healthy, sustainable plant-based versions of food we love. So far, burgers, milk, ice cream and mayonnaise are all on the menu.

When it comes to arming sub-Saharan Africans in the fight against cancer, Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa thinks drones are a pretty good place to start. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among African women, with a five-year survival rate of only 40%. As a survivor herself, Nabuuma Kaliisa founded Chil AI to fight back with artificial intelligence-guided e-oncology services and drone-powered transportation of cervical cancer specimens from remote rural villages to laboratories. Chil’s chatbot has also helped serve communities in Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the pandemic.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that safe, effective and accessible vaccines are vital. Since October 2020, Aurélia Nguyen has been leading coordination and delivery of Covid-19 vaccines for COVAX, a global initiative that works with both governments and manufacturers to ensure that people of all financial means can be vaccinated safely. She’s also been at the forefront of directing Gavi’s vaccine sustainability efforts, working to stamp out the disease in at-risk communities across the globe.

A blockchain revolution may be in the cards for Africa. According to one McKinsey & Co. report, the continent’s business opportunities may be worth $5.6 trillion by 2025, an explosion that could be sparked by emerging cryptocurrency opportunities. Elizabeth Rossiello’s AZA Finance is one company that’s helping push the envelope, using cutting-edge technology to lower costs, speed up payments and facilitate intra-Africa trade and business. AZA’s hybrid infrastructure has the potential to enable $1 trillion in growth through currency trading solutions, which accelerate global access to frontier markets. Currently, AZA is a market maker in every major African currency.

Despite the fact that 75 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices are expected to come online by 2025, only 10% of these gadgets (so far) have mobile coverage, which impedes the growth of major industries like transoceanic shipping and farming in developing countries. An alum of both Google X and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Sara Spangelo has turned her expertise to Swarm, where her team develops and optimizes satellite hardware and connectivity to change this dynamic. Swarm uses innovative technology to assist companies around the world with everything from monitoring water resources in Africa to supporting agricultural conservation in the U.S. Currently, Swarm is on track to launch a total of 150 satellites by the end of 2021.

When it comes to sustainability, the fishing industry has been falling short for years. Between excessive bycatch, fishing waste and massive carbon production, it’s clear that to meet global demand (which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports will grow 100% by 2050), there’s got to be a better path forward. Enter Shiok Meats, a cell-based seafood company that’s developed an environmentally friendly way to grow meat, seafood and even crustaceans. An expert in stem cell research, CEO and co-founder Sandhya Sriram has pioneered a method that feeds cells with an animal-free nutrient mix of amino acids, carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, producing cultured seafood at six times the speed of conventional fishing.

What if ride-sharing were just the beginning? That’s what Grab CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan thought when he transformed a former taxi app into a “super-app” platform that provides a range of on-demand services to the Southeast Asian market. With the potential to reach a population of 600 million largely unbanked Southeast Asians, Grab’s technology is poised to revolutionize the digital commerce sector with a range of consumer financial, payment and microlending services.

For Danielle Wood, director of the Space Enabled Research Group at MIT Media Lab, justice on Earth and progress in space have a symbiotic relationship. Wood uses her expertise to harness space technology for development challenges around the world. Through her leadership, the research group has worked on projects that align with goals set by the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, including a Space Sustainable Rating that helps reduce orbital debris and ensure future missions are managed sustainably. Prior to her role at MIT, Wood held positions at NASA headquarters and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Catalyst profiles by Laura Bolt