Chicago-area tech companies LanzaTech and Uptake have cracked CNBC’s list of most disruptive companies, which ranks 50 private firms whose “innovations are changing the world.”
LanzaTech, a clean-energy startup in Skokie that’s developed a gas-liquid fermentation process that produces fuels and chemicals from gas resources, came in at No. 26, while Uptake, a predictive analytics startup that helps companies in industries like construction and rail operate more efficiently by using data to predict when their machines will fail, landed at No. 39. This is Uptake’s second year in a row appearing on the CNBC list. Last year it landed at No. 5.
LanzaTech, launched in 2005 by Richard Forster and Sean Simpson, has raised $266.8 million in venture capital funding, according to the list. Its investors include Khosla Ventures, K1W1 and Qiming Ventures Partners, according to Crunchbase.
Uptake, launched in 2014 by Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell, has raised $260 million and is valued at about $2.3 billion. In April, Uptake acquired Albuquerque-based Asset Performance Technologies, a company that built a comprehensive library of equipment failure data. And just earlier this month, Uptake announced it is opening a San Francisco office in June, where it plans to have up to 100 employees in the next two years.
Of the 50 companies on CNBC’s list, 32 of them are considered “unicorns,” which means they have reached or passed a billion-dollar valuation. Altogether, the companies on the list have raised nearly $78 billion in venture capital and are valued at more than $350 billion, according to PitchBook data.
The list, now in its 6th year, is based on quantitative and qualitative metrics including VC funding, sales and user growth data.
Notable tech giants like SpaceX, Uber and Airbnb took the first three spots on the list. Cryptocurrency company Coinbase, which just announced it’s opening a Chicago engineering office, landed at No. 10, and co-working giant WeWork, which has six locations in Chicago, landed at No. 23.
