Grab your popcorn and Twizzlers, because 2011 is already shaping up to be an exciting year to watch startups and giants do battle for market share and big ideas. If you’re not sure which companies to look out for in the coming year, our writers and editors have submitted their expert picks below.
What do you think? Did we miss any promising tech companies (new or established) that you see making a big splash in 2011? We want — nay, demand — your forecasts in the comments below.
1. Minimal, Inc.
This Chicago-based design firm finished off 2010 by completing the most successful funding campaign in Kickstarter history. Its TikTok+LunaTik iPod Nano watch conversion kits raised more than $940,000 from more than 13,500 backers and garnered the kind of attention that should help launch this company to new heights in 2011. The gadget accessories market has a new player.
~ Josh Catone, Features Editor
2. StumbleUpon
OK, so StumbleUpon has been around since 2001, so it’s not new to the scene. But with Digg’s fall this year and StumbleUpon’s planned release of premium features and publisher pages early this year, it has the potential to scale and be exposed to more users. And considering it’s a big source of traffic for many news sites, it may start investing its time into figuring out how to leverage the site further and connect with its community on the site.
~ Vadim Lavrusik, Community Manager
3. Amimon, Inc.
This Israeli company has perfected its wireless HDTV system over the past years. Imagine plugging a tiny USB device into a laptop, and then displaying its output in full 1080p HD resolution on a monitor 100 feet away, with no lag. Amimon has already introduced one of its own products, but the big deal is the presence of its superior wireless HD standard (known as WHDI, or Wireless Home Digital Interface) chips built inside numerous other products, such as laptops, projectors, TVs and set-top boxes.
~ Charlie White, Senior Editor
4. Bloom Energy
If there is any company poised to revolutionize the energy market, it’s Bloom Energy. The Bloom Energy Server (a.k.a. the “Bloom Box”) changes inputs like natural gas or oil into clean, reusable energy. It’s actually a dynamic fuel cell that creates energy through a chemical reaction. The company has raised more than $400 million to date and is testing its technology with Google, eBay, Wal-Mart and others.
~ Ben Parr, Co-Editor
5. Skype
Its recent outage notwithstanding, Skype has been on an impressive run since its breakup with eBay. Usage is at record levels, and features like group video chat and deep Facebook integration have reminded us that Skype is a top tier consumer and business web company. In 2011, the company is likely to go public, and with it, face a whole new level of scrutiny and expectations. Google will also continue to gun at Skype with enhancements to Google Voice (free U.S. calling for Gmail users through 2011 is an obvious sign of that), making the company all the more intriguing to watch.
~ Adam Ostrow, Editor-in-Chief
6. Tumblr
With $30 million in funding in its coffer and increasing content curation (not to mention 14 book deals born from its blogs), Tumblr could be shaping up into a much more organized — and ad-worthy — hub for entertainment. We’re interested to see if the company spends that money wisely — and how.
~ Brenna Ehrlich, News Editor
7. Clicker
The connected device ecosystem is still evolving, in large part because of the battle over control between content publishers, device makers and consumers. Clicker is managing to avoid the battle itself and is instead focusing on making it easy for users to find content, irrespective of what service that content might use. The company recently branched into recommendations and has mobile apps, supports Google TV and the Boxee Box and has a killer web app.
~ Christina Warren, Mobile & Apple Reporter
8. inDinero
Today, an SEC filing revealed that Solar Power Technologies raised $6.08 million for technology that helps wirelessly measure, manage and optimize the performance of large, solar power generating systems. Investors included Austin Ventures and Oxantium Ventures, the filing said.
The company claims its technology enables commercial solar arrays to harvest 15 to 20 per cent more total power over a 20 year lifespan than they would otherwise.
The system works, Burgess explained, by alleviating something called the “christmas tree light problem,” where panels in a solar array only harvest and output as much power as the weakest one in the chain.
SPT’s Clarity system includes the installation of small controllers behind panels within the array. The controllers identify a weakened panel or any other constraint or restriction in the system, then boost up the outputs of capable panels around it.
As Todd Woody noted today in a piece for Sustainable Industries: one large solar power plant can cost more than $2 billion to build in the U.S. making productivity-spiking technology (like SPT promises) sound at the very least attractive for companies that laid out so much cash to go solar, and want to get every last watt of renewable power that they can for their money.
The company’s chief executive, Ray Burgess, reported Monday that SPT will advance to a commercial launch by mid-year. The startup is currently working on field trials of its Clarity-brand monitoring and optimizing system with potential customers, namely utilities based in the southwestern United States.
Burgess said:
“We have the ability to give [customers] insight into how [their] large-scale solar arrays perform, and help them harvest and put out more power under all conditions.There are some estimated 200 million solar photovoltaic panels installed around the world right now. Probably 20-30% of the power they could be generating now is lost before it ever gets to the grid. Maintenance of all that equipment is a challenge.
These are huge financial matters if nothing else for utilities and for commercial renewable energy.”
SPT plans to use its new-found capital to: complete its field tests; attain various safety and environmental certifications; ramp up its production; hire personnel to expand its sales footprint to Europe and Asia by the end of 2011; and to develop technology that works beyond crystalline solar panel arrays with CIGS, thin-film and concentrated photovoltaics.
Utilities may use each of these technologies in the field, SPT anticipates, depending on everything from costs to improvements in efficiency conversion rates.
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