79FLOCK FREIGHT
SHARING SPACE
Companies sometimes need to ship less
than a full truckload’s worth of stuff. But
rather than sending shipments on partially
lled vehicles, Flock Freight’s platform
enables multiple clients to share space on
one truck, which means cheaper prices and
fewer emissions. “We’ve got to do our part
to save the world,” says founder and CEO
Oren Zaslansky, who counts Volvo among
his clients. What’s good for the planet
appears to be good for business: Flock
Freight gained unicorn status in October
by raising $215 million at a $1.3 billion
valuation. —G.G.PERFECT DAY
MILK WITHOUT COWS
While most animal-milk alternatives
have their own unique tastes and
textures, Perfect Day has devised a way
of “teaching” microl ora to produce
milk whey protein, resulting in dairy-
identical products with no cows involved.
The process, which uses precision
fermentation and genetically modi ed
fungi, consumes less water, and results in
fewer emissions compared with traditional
dairy farming. Under CEO Ryan Pandya,
the company has partnered with major
brands like Starbucks and General Mills,
and is making everything from cream
cheese and ice cream to cake mixes and
protein powder. —J.L.ATHLETIC BREWING CO.
A BETTER ALT-BEER
With the “sober curious” trend in full swing,
you’ve probably heard a story like CEO Bill
Shufelt’s: he quit drinking to be healthier
and was unimpressed by the nonalcoholic
beverage options available to him. Shufelt,
however, vowed to create better ones.
Unlike many of its zero-proof competitors,
the resulting company—nonalcoholic beer
brand Athletic Brewing Co.—is actually
competing with booze giants. Founded in
2017, Athletic Brewing sold more than
100,000 barrels of beer last year (up
from 37,500 in 2020) and was named
2021’s craft brewery of the year by trade
publication Brewbound. The brand also
donates 3% of its annual sales to charities
like the Yosemite Conservancy, which in
2021 worked out to more than $1 million.
—Jamie DucharmeRENDEVER
A NEW USE FOR VR
Seniors have spent the past two years
suffering from two pandemics: one
caused by COVID-19, another by the
social isolation intended to reduce the
virus’s spread. Rendever offers a high-
tech solution for the latter: using virtual
reality, it creates shared experiences for
seniors, meant to combat isolation and
loneliness (which are associated with
health risks like dementia and stroke)
as well as improve physical tness.
Rendever’s tech, which is in use in over
400 nursing homes across the U.S.,
Canada, and Australia, is “changing
the lives of participants all over the
world for the better,” says co-founder
and CEO Kyle Rand. —Jared LindzonFADING WEST DEVELOPMENT
BUILDING
ON A BUDGET
America’s housing
inventory has plunged
to its lowest level in
at least 20 years; the
country is now short by
nearly 7 million units.
Entrepreneur Charlie
Chupp’s solution:
factory-built housing
firm Fading West
Development, which
can build a modular
three-bedroom home
four to five times faster
than a builder can finish
a traditional stick-built
house. Fading West
delivers prebuilt homes
95% complete, thereby
reducing costs (its
homes are at least 25%
cheaper than similar
homes on the market).
The goal, says CEO
Chupp, is “to create
attainable housing” for
those who are suffering
“the brunt of the
housing shortage.”
—Abby Vesoulis
SOFI
NEW BANK ON THE BLOCK
After making a name for itself via student-
loan re nancing, nancial- technology
darling SoFi last year launched a bevy of
new offerings, including a credit card, an
auto-loan-re nancing tool, IPO investing
options, and more. It also became the rst
full-service nancial- technology startup
to receive a formal U.S. banking license,
a big step on the way to becoming a
fully l edged major bank. “We’re changing
what banking is and feels like,” says
CEO Anthony Noto. “And we won’t stop
until we’re one of the top 10 nancial
institutions in the country.” —J.L.ALLBIRDS
SELLING SUSTAINABILITY
Allbirds founders Tim Brown and Joey
Zwillinger created their best-known
shoe—a minimalist merino wool runner—
back in 2016, hoping to disrupt the
synthetics-reliant sneaker industry. Since
then, the certii ed B Corp has proven
that sustainability sells: a November IPO
valued the company at $4 billion, and
it posted nearly $100 million in fourth-
quarter sales (a 23% jump). A new design
Allbirds recently launched in partnership
with Adidas, meanwhile, releases less
than a quarter of the greenhouse
gases during production than a typical
running shoe. —Cady LangJOEY ZWILLINGERFLEXPORT: ILLUSTRATION BY LAURIE AVON FOR TIME; COURTESY SE
QUOIA; COURTESY FADING WEST DEVELOPMENT; COURTESY ALLBIRDS