The 21 most innovative startups set on changing the world by Biz Carson on Jan 31, 2016, 12:06 PM Advertisement
 In a world where there's 30 plus food delivery companies and an army of 'Uber for X' clones, startups working on high impact and daring ideas can be overlooked. But that doesn't mean they're not out there. Eager to impress our editor's five-year-old son who wants to be wowed by the tech world, Business Insider assembled a list of crazy and unique ways startups want to change the world. We polled investors and entrepreneurs to hear what audacious ideas companies are working. Here are 21 companies will go big, or go broke trying. We limited the list to private companies who have raised money in the last five years, so this excludes big projects like Google's Loon or Tesla's world takeover. Think we missed some? Leave your nominations in the comments. SEE ALSO: These 13 startups have raised millions — but no one knows what they do Orbital Insight wants to change what we know about the world, by viewing it from above.  What is it: When retailers missed their estimates in the last quarter, Orbital Insight already knew about it. The mostly-in-stealth startup had been analyzing imagery from satellites and noticed one striking thing comparing year-over-year images: there's fewer cars in parking lots. That's just one example of the power of looking down on our Earth rather than only at what you can see out your window. Orbital Insight wants to understand the trends of the world by taking advantage of data science and machine learning to spot when change is happening. Website: http://orbitalinsight.com/ Funding: $10.45 million
Diamond Foundry is growing diamonds.  What it is: The startup, which launched publicly in November, claims it can grow hundreds of diamonds that are up to nine carats in just two weeks in a lab. The company had been working for three years to come up with a way to lab-grow pure diamonds, not synthetics. The company says it discovered a plasma that allows atoms to attach themselves to the thin slice of Earth-extracted diamond. The atoms then stack on top of that natural diamond, layer by layer, until a pure, jewelry-grade diamond is formed. Website: https://www.diamondfoundry.com/ Funding: Less than $100 million, including money from individuals including actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Twitter/Medium founder Evan Williams, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus.
Fetch Robotics wants to create robots that helpfully work with humans.  What is it: Described as the most prominent robotics company not to be owned by Google, Fetch Robotics wants to change the way warehouses work. Unlike other companies, though, the future with Fetch Robotics doesn't have to eliminate the human entirely. Instead, what investors like about Fetch is how it weaves the two seamlessly together. Fetch has created both a pick robot and a freight one. While the "Fetch" can grab items off shelves, a warehouse doesn't need to go all-in on robots to take advantage of their efficiency. The new "Freight" robot acts more like a trained dog, steadfastly sticking to either a human or another robot's side. So a worker (or the Fetch itself) pulls item off a shelf and adds it to the Freight's bin. Once it's full, it returns to the shipping area and a new robot is automatically dispatched. Website: http://fetchrobotics.com/ Funding: $23 million total, including a $20 million Series A round in June 2015
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