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Spotlighting the small and mid-sized businesses driving innovation.

Inclusion on the Norgress® Most Innovative Businesses list begins with nomination by our program contributors — a curated network of founders, operators, consultants, academics and senior leaders from across the business world.

 

Each nominee is then evaluated against a defined methodology and editorial criteria before earning a place on the list.

Why does our list matter?

Methodology

Each business is nominated by a program contributor drawn from the business world. Nominees must be small or medium-sized operations headquartered anywhere in the world, and are measured against a defined methodology before being published.

Coverage

This isn't just another list of Silicon Valley unicorns and Fortune 500 giants. The program was founded on the belief that some of the most innovative work is happening in smaller companies, quieter industries, and places mainstream coverage rarely looks.

Never pay-to-play

Recognition always reflects a business's ideas and outcomes — not its marketing spend. Our list is always free to be on, does not accept unsolicited nominations, and is closed to sponsors and advertisers.

Featured Businesses for 2026

The business featured below represent a diverse group of organizations that are building, experimenting, and rethinking what progress looks like within their industries. 

Intek Plastics

Minnesota, USA

Custom plastic extruder integrating upcycled municipal waste into industrial extrusion lines serving North America's largest window and door manufacturers.

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Tavus

San Francisco, CA, USA

An ambitious AI lab building real-time video agents that can see, hear, and respond with emotional intelligence across 30-plus languages.

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Thankyou

Melbourne VIC, Australia

A altruistic consumer brand owned entirely by a charitable trust, channelling every dollar of profit to organisations working against extreme poverty.

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AirOps

San Francisco, CA, USA

A startup that builds LLM workflow infrastructure for marketing teams, letting Ramp, Webflow, and Klaviyo scale content operations without engineering support.

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Meet Our Contributors

At the heart of our Most Innovative Businesses list are our contributors — the people who put forward the businesses we feature, and who hold a real perspective on the work being done in their corner of the business world.

 

We assembled a network consisting of Y Combinator-backed founders, seasoned small business operators, expert consultants, industry professionals and academics, and asked the question: Which small and medium-sized businesses do you believe are doing the most innovative work right now?

Runbo Li

Co-founder & CEO, Magic Hour

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Jonathan Carcone

Founder, 4 Brothers Buy Houses

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Pratik Singh Raghuvanshi

Digital Marketing Team Lead, Cyber Infrastructure (CIS)

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Liviu Irinescu

Fractional CMO & Founder, Multiply

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