FX.co ★ Seven innovators that help people come through pandemic

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer

Albert Bourla is one of the innovators of the post-pandemic world. He is Chairman/CEO at Pfizer Inc., a well-known pharmaceutical company. Pfizer was one of the first companies that began working over the coronavirus vaccine to curb the virus spread. Chairman Albert Bourla, who has been working in the company for 25 years, headed the new research. In May 2020, Pfizer allocated $1 billion to develop a vaccine that would protect people from COVID-19. The team of scientists achieved success only seven months later. The vaccine created by Pfizer Inc. was approved in the UK, Canada, and the US.

Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna

Moderna, a biotech firm, became Pfizer’s main competitor for the leadership in the coronavirus vaccine development. CEO of Moderna and billionaire Stéphane Bancel led the group of scientists involved in the vaccine development. The team did its best to create an efficient medicine against COVID-19 under tight deadlines. In January 2020, Moderna developed a base for the future vaccine that contains a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA​). In March last year, volunteers received their first doses.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom

Governments of most countries forced people to stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak. During this period, online communication became extremely popular. No wonder that Zoom experienced its best moment. According to Eric Yuan, a founder and CEO of the leader in modern enterprise video communications, the number of users showed exponential growth. This platform became the main tool that helped businesses stay afloat and scholars continue their studies. In March 2020, the number of users reached 200 million people a day. As a result, the company’s shares skyrocketed to the previously unseen levels. That is how Eric Yuan became one of the richest people in 2020, according to Forbes.

Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Instacart

During the coronavirus pandemic, delivery services gained popularity. Instacart became one of the leaders in this sphere. The pandemic turned the little-known grocery delivery application into an essential and lucrative business. The company also cooperates with large retailers such as Costco, Wegmans, and Eataly. Company’s CEO Apoorva Mehta launched this business nine years ago. Some analysts suppose that the company has shown a five-year rise just in five weeks amid the pandemic. The company’s market capitalization totals $39 billion.

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix

Self-isolation boosted demand for entertainment services, including streaming entertainment service Netflix. The coronavirus outbreak dealt a blow to most companies in this sphere. Thus, Disney closed its parks, Warner Bros. delayed its film premieres, and AMC closed cinemas. Only Netflix, governed by billionaire Reed Hastings, remained afloat. In the first six months of 2020, the service attracted the same number of clients as it had in 2019. By the end of the previous year, the number of users exceeded 204 million. In 2021, the market capitalization jumped to $233.6 billion.

Brynn Putnam, Founder of Mirror Fitness

Against the background of the pandemic, online fitness classes caught the attention of many people. Mirror fitness became a beloved interactive fitness device. Home fitness reached its peak of popularity and Mirror became one of the beneficiaries. The app lives up to its name as it functions as a real mirror. When enabled, users see a trainer who conducts a training session. Mirror’s income soared amid such popularity. The company gained more than $100 million for the last year. According to the founder of this start-up, Brynn Putnam, subscribers did exercises 15 times a month. Before that, the number of trains did not exceed 10.

Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder and CEO of GitLab

The coronavirus pandemic made a lot of people switch to remote working. As a result, services that provide effectiveness and safety of the working process were in great demand. GitLab became the leader in offering such services. The company was established by Sid Sijbrandij. Firms that began working remotely needed various cloud tools. GitLab specializes in software for app creation, maintenance, and implementation of security measures. In 2020, the market capitalization totaled $6 billion. Naturally, it goes on rising.