The global economy in 2024 is a tale of two forces: optimism fueled by falling interest rates and uncertainty fueled by geopolitical unrest. As companies focus on sustainable growth, such a volatile environment inevitably tests their resilience.
Since 2017 Wealth and Boston Consulting Group we’ve come together to identify our annual list of the Future 50 Companies—those built to withstand just such volatility. The Future 50 companies promise outstanding future growth with exceptional shareholder returns. At BCG, we call these companies high ratings vital; they have the ability to adapt, innovate and grow amid technological, economic and political changes. This list is designed as a tool for investors and a guide for business leaders looking for partners and role models.
This year’s ranking is our first to include not only public companies, but also privately held pre-IPO companies with more than $1 billion in funding. The Future 50 now better reflects the universe of the world’s most vital companies, which is especially valuable as venture capital-backed and private equity-backed companies more and more often they remain private for longer. We’ve also updated our methodology to include new data sources that allow us to assess the scalability of a company’s technology stack and the composition of its growth and innovation teams. In total, we evaluated 3,000 candidates to generate the final rankings.
This year’s Future 50 honorees saw four times the sales growth and three times the total shareholder return over the past five years than the average company in our sample group—let’s hope it predicts similar results. Indeed, the Future 50 has historically highlighted companies whose growth would later launch them onto the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 lists. Nvidiafor example, it made its debut on the Global 500 this year, after five appearances on the Future 50 (it’s sixth this year). Intuit, ServiceNowand Workday were similarly featured here before they ascended to the Fortune 500.
Technology leads the way
As in 2023, more than half of the Future 50 companies are software vendors, reflecting the idea that “software is eating the world” and the scalability advantages of bytes over atoms. The most successful technology companies also consciously practice highly vital behaviors to maintain leadership, including aggressively hiring top talent, investing heavily in research and development, and relentlessly launching go-to-market strategies.
Most of this year’s software companies are enterprise companies. Cybersecurity and programming support systems are very present, with a software vendor for collaboration Atlasian occupy the No. 1 spot. The data infrastructure industry includes several players, including No. 9 Snowflake and No. 11 Databricks. On the business-to-consumer side, the gaming platform Roblox (No. 2) and social media giants Snap (No. 12), Mohalla Tech (No. 39) and Kuaishou (No. 41) scored highly.
Artificial intelligence remains a huge growth driver, as businesses largely shift from generative AI research to adoption. Almost all of our Future 50 tech companies have AI in their products, and the list includes several core model and software players, such as OpenAI (No. 5), Anthropic (No. 46), and Scale AI (No. 27). Nvidia (No. 34) returns to the list, after a one-year absence, as a company uniquely positioned to power large language model builders with its GPUs.
Outside of software, the list includes six companies that have made advances in biopharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Both energy companies on the Future 50 focus on clean energy, with Adani green energy (No. 35) pioneering large-scale solar and wind projects and Commonwealth Fusion (No. 45) working on the world’s first fusion power plant. (November 20 US authorities have indicted several executives at parent company Adani Green Energy on charges of fraud and bribery in connection with the daughter’s company. The company denied any wrongdoing.)
At number 40, Celsius Holdingsenergy drink supplier, is the only consumer company to make the top 50, showing that marketing can still create great value for customers and shareholders.
USA maintains the lead
The list also shows that the United States remains the center of gravity of the world’s innovators. Thirty-eight of this year’s Future 50 are located in the US. The country’s large, growth-oriented entrepreneurial and public capital markets play a major role in attracting ambitious and capable founders from around the world.
Another factor in this dominance: our analysis shows that US companies often occupy leading positions in industries that are themselves fast-growing and highly innovative, such as media, finance, semiconductors and medical technology. The soft landing in the US after COVID has also helped: while the UK and many of Europe’s biggest economies stagnate and growth in China slows, the American economy continued to thrive.
Compared to the US, European venture capital lags behind in all phases. Despite this and other obstacles, Europe’s presence on the Future 50 grew slightly, with five companies, up from two in 2023, including software companies that rely on artificial intelligence: autonomous driving player Wayve (No. 44) and BioNTech (No. 50), a biotech company aiming to cure cancer.
China’s share of our Future 50 list has fallen sharply. This partly reflects the fact that China’s innovation ecosystem has stalled in recent years amid broader economic challenges, tight government control of the technology sector, stricter financing conditionsand reduced investment in the US. It also reflects China’s economic model of innovation, which relies heavily on public investment in research and development—which in turn often goes to universities or larger “national champion” companies.
However, there is a scene of promising Chinese gen-AI startups such as Moonshot AI and 01.AI that did not make our top 50 but have come to dominate the global LLM open source rankings. And China continues to lead in industries of declared national importance, including automotive, batteries and renewable energy.
The Future 50 for 2024 shows that rapid growth and significant value creation is possible — even in volatile times. Namely, 12 of this year’s companies are younger than a decade. However, only a few countries foster the conditions necessary for the development of such companies, and even these foundations are sensitive to economic and geopolitical pressures. Supporting the success of companies with transformative potential and nurturing successive generations is a shared responsibility for all of us – whether as founders, employees, investors or policy makers
Ketil Gjerstad is a managing director and senior partner at BCG and the global head of BCG’s strategic business. Johann Harnoss is a partner and associate director at BCG and a fellow at the BCG Henderson Institute. Viacheslav Romanov, Marley Finley, Gabe Bouslov and Mar Martin contributed to the research.
This article appears in December 2024/January 2025 issue of Wealth.
