10 Most Inspiring Tech Companies Of 2012


#4 Khan Academy

Who they are: A non-profit that provides free, world-class education to anyone anywhere in the world via video-recorded lessons.

Why they're inspiring: Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, believes that quality education is a right, not a privilege. Khan, who has three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard, left his hedge fund job and founded Khan Academy in 2008. The website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,600 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and computer science.

Khan Academy also released an app for iPhone and iPad.

#3 Social+Capital Partnership

Who they are: A venture capital fund started by former Facebook Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya.

Why they're inspiring: SCP believes that market forces can be utilized more effectively to solve structural social challenges in Canada. The fund focuses particularly on technically risky, early stage investments in healthcare, education, and financial services, which Palihapitiya thinks are most resistant to change.

The company seems to believe that venture capital "can solve the biggest problems, filling a void left by the shrinking scientific ambitions of governments, foundations, and international organizations," according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

SCP has invested in the companies like Integrated Plasmonics, a low cost medical diagnostics startup that uses nanotechnology; Brilliant, which gives gifted kids around the world a shot at Western universities; and Yammer, an enterprise social network which made the fund money after Microsoft bought it.

Read also: 8 Awesome Tech Ideas That Changed Lives In 2012