BURLINGAME, Calif. - Want to know which company will be the next Google?
It could be Metabolix, a company from Cambridge, Mass., that grows biodegradable plastic in plants. Or British company Playfish, which creates addictive videogames for Facebook and MySpace fans. It might even be Silicon Valley's own Twitter -- assuming it can generate as much revenue as the buzz it's created.
These companies and 23 others were announced Thursday as the "Technology Pioneers" for 2010 by the World Economic Forum, the group that convenes the global gabfest each January in Davos, Switzerland. Past tech pioneers include Google (named in 2001), Mozilla (named in 2007) and smart grid player Silver Spring Networks (in 2008).
The World Economic Forum says these companies "represent the most innovative start-ups from around the globe that will have a critical impact on the future of business and society." They might indeed. Or they might lose out to stronger competition, as so many start-ups do. It's really anybody's guess.
Playfish has plenty of competition from the likes of Zynga and Playdom in the burgeoning social gaming sector. Boston Power, another tech pioneer for 2010, makes rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. But so do a host of other companies in the U.S. and Asia, including A123 Systems, which went public this fall. Lehigh Technologies, which recycles tire scraps, is working to prove that its recycled tire scraps can work as wheel liners on new cars. Lehigh has overpromised growth in the past, but it may just have a decent business on hand.
Kleiner Perkins-backed start-ups appear to figure high in this list. In addition to Lehigh, other KP portfolio companies among the 2010 class of tech pioneers include Bloom Energy, a stealth solid oxide fuel cell company with next to no information on its website; and Pacific Biosciences, which is developing low cost, super-fast gene sequencing technology.
To get onto the Tech Pioneers list, you first have to be nominated -- and the company's technology must be proven. Not necessarily commercially proven, of course, because some of these companies don't yet have significant revenue. Then 58 global tech experts do the picking. Kind of like being a venture capitalist. And we know that they're happy if three out of 10 companies they invest in succeed.
