A new crop of super-innovative start-ups are smashing the status quo in their industries and taking market share from the major players despite their relatively small size. Click or scroll through for 30 upstart companies challenging big business, from a company that wants to reinvent fast-food franchising to Kim K's shapewear line to "the Costco for millienials". Stock symbol given where a company is publicly traded.

Upstart scrubs maker FIGS has transformed the staid US medical uniform industry since its launch in 2013. The LA-headquartered firm's fashionable scrubs have gained it an adoring fanbase, and it has weathered its fair share of controversies, including an accusation it stole trade secrets. However, according to an investor pitch deck distributed by a third party and seen by the New York Post, the company has been forecast to grow its revenues this year by 124% following a stellar 2020 and is reportedly prepping for a $4 billion (£2.9bn) IPO, although FIGS denies the deck's findings and any involvement in its creation. Regardless, backed by celebrity investors such as Will Smith, the firm is certainly one to watch.

The financial technology or fintech revolution no doubt has older banks concerned as a wave of so-called 'neobanks' entice away customers. Entirely digital and cloud-based, they have fewer overheads, so can beat the traditional financial institutions on price. LA's Dave (a name inspired by David and Goliath) is a fast-growing app-based service backed by Mark Cuban that bills itself as “banking for humans”. Launched in 2016, Dave provides fee-free banking and financial advice, and hooks up gig economy workers with jobs via its Side Hustle feature. It was most recently valued at $1.2 billion (£867m).

Formerly Transferwise, London-headquartered Wise started out in 2011 offering currency transfers up to 90% cheaper than the bricks-and-mortar banks. The fintech firm now provides a variety of cross-border payment services and serves 10 million customers, who it says save $1.4 billion (£1bn) a year compared to making the same transactions with regular banks. Wise's revenues soared 70% in the last financial year and the firm is said to be eyeing a stock market flotation.

Another fintech upstart reportedly going public, San Francisco's Chime, which has zero physical branches and delivers its services through an app, is also thriving while traditional banks falter. Attracted by its fee-free overdrafts, early stimulus payments and paycheque access, customers have been flocking and Chime is settings its sights on an IPO valuation of a staggering $30 billion (£21.8bn).

Founded six years ago in New York by a former Wall Street trader, Current says it has seen “insane” growth during the pandemic. Similar to its neobank counterparts, the app-delivered service eliminates fees the traditional banks tend to charge, and the free hundred-dollar overdraft and zero minimum balance requirement have made it a boon for people living paycheque to paycheque.

The user-friendly app that lets ordinary investors trade shares, options, funds and cryptocurrencies without paying commission rocked the stock market when it found itself at the centre of the Reddit-driven GameStop trading frenzy earlier this year. It's upended the elitist brokerage industry so much so that established names like Charles Schwab and Fidelity have had to mimic the upstart and introduce fee-free trading too. Poised to go public, California-based Robinhood now has more than 13 million users, with its explosive growth showing no sign of slowing.

Buying a home is known as being one of the most stressful life events, but dinosaur mortgage providers may be heading for an extinction event if the success of upstarts such as Better.com is anything to go by. Founded in 2014, the New York-based firm hit the market in 2016 and has streamlined and improved the mortgage process by moving it online and slashing approval times. It also offers low rates and minimal fees to its ever-expanding base of borrowers. As a bonus, the digital-only approach is fairer to minority applicants, who may experience discrimination from face-to-face lenders.

The world of insurance is being turned upside down too as so-called 'insurtech' upstarts burst onto the scene. Among them is 100% app-based auto insurer Clearcover. Popular with younger motorists, the app, which operates out of Chicago, uses AI to approve applications in a matter of minutes, cuts out wordy jargon to make the process as simple and painless as possible and, best of all, provides premium coverage for less.

Columbus, Ohio business Root's smart approach to auto insurance gives it an edge over traditional vehicle insurers. Unlike legacy firms, it uses state-of-the-art tech to track applicants' driving, and it rewards safe, diligent motorists with savings of up to 52%, the company claims. This makes its policies especially appealing to drivers deemed high risk due to factors such as their age or where they live. Root's IPO on 28 October 2020 raised $724.4 million (£523.7m) at $27 (£19.50) a share on the Nasdaq, in what was the largest IPO in Ohio's history.

Staying with insurance industry disruptors, Lemonade boasts a seamless AI and chatbot-powered application and claims process that handles quotes and pays out in next to no time. In fact, it holds the world record for the fastest-processed insurance claim, an extremely swift three seconds. Founded in 2015 in New York, the company, which donates a share of its profits to charity, grew revenues by 70% in 2020 and now operates in 27 US states and DC, as well as France, Germany and the Netherlands. The business went public on 2 July 2020, when it achieved a valuation of $3 billion (£2.2bn).

The brainchild of former Salesforce chief scientist Richard Socher, You.com is a search engine in development that could end up being a major Google competitor, especially if it lives up to its promises of protecting users' privacy and delivering fair, unbiased results powered by AI. The site is already live and accepting registrations for early access.

Also in the running to rival Google is Neeva. Set up last year in Mountain View, California by Sridhar Ramaswamy, former Senior Vice President of Ads at Google, and Vivek Raghunathan, former Vice President of Monetization at YouTube, the search engine will be subscription-only and is set to reward paying customers with enhanced privacy and zero ads when it launches later this year.

One of America's fastest-growing restaurant chains gaining an increasingly bigger piece of the pie in a crowded market, MOD Pizza isn't just renowned for its artisan crusts and delectable toppings. The Seattle-born fast-casual upstart, which is in the midst of a massive expansion drive in the South of the US, has won plaudits for its “people-first” ethos that involves everything from rewarding staff with above average pay and benefits to hiring people with special needs and supporting good causes.

Step aside KFC. The Philippines' number one restaurant chain Jollibee, which has a menu packed with viral favourites such as the ultra-crispy Chickenjoy that many say beats KFC hands-down, is going global. Refusing to let the pandemic thwart its expansion plans – Jollibee actually views the crisis as an opportunity – the company is on course to open 450 restaurants this year in other southeast Asian countries, China, the US and UK. That's despite the fact Jollibee posted its first annual loss in three decades last year due to the impact of the pandemic. Today the business is valued at $4.28 billion (£3bn) (as of 29 April).

French start-up Taster is coming for McDonald's crown as it seeks to digitise the franchise model. Instead of opening brick-and-mortar restaurants to create its chain, Taster is focusing solely on food delivery. It already has kitchens across 40 cities, creating food across five street food concepts that it sells on apps such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo. In Paris, Taster restaurants rank number three on Deliveroo, just behind McDonald’s and Burger King, selling more than 5,000 meals per day. Now it is looking to partner with other restaurants to create a modern franchise model with its food brands, which Taster hopes will see it working in 1,000 cities by 2025. It has also built its very own food delivery app. And investors are biting; this month, Taster's plans have been boosted with $37 million (£26m) in Series B funding. 

Launched last year in the US as an 'ethical' alternative to Amazon, Bookshop.org supports independent booksellers by letting them set up free virtual storefronts and giving them the full profit margin on each sale. The platform expanded to the UK in November and has already seen sales of £5 million ($6.9m), generating profits of £1 million ($1.4m) for the 410 independent stores using it so far. The UK 's Booksellers Association has hailed the organisation “a remarkable moment for indie bookselling, and in the fight against Amazon’s dominance in the book market.”

Tesla currently leads the global electric car market, and last year the US firm sold almost half a million units, more than any other manufacturer. But its pole position is under threat, and much of the competition is emanating from China. Bankrolled by the state, Guangzhou's XPeng Motors, which has been accused of stealing trade secrets from its American rival and is subject to an ongoing lawsuit, is busily scaling up production to take on Tesla and has already entered the European market. XPeng started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 27 August 2020 under the ticker XPEV, raising around $1.5 billion (£1bn).

XPeng Motors isn't the only Chinese electric vehicle (EV) upstart Tesla needs to worry about. Nio, which was founded in 2014 in Shanghai, has been steadily expanding its domestic customer base and is actually delivering more EVs than XPeng. The real threat to Tesla though comes in the form of the luxury sedan the firm launched earlier this year, not to mention Nio's unique battery-swapping technology, which cuts costs and enables car owners to rent the battery and switch to a new one when it dies. Nio raised $1 billion (£727m) at its IPO in September 2018. It has since posted its best results for the first quarter of 2021, in terms of deliveries and narrowing its losses.

Billionaire Li Xiang's eponymous SUV electric car start-up is also eating into Tesla's market share in China. Adding to the market leader's woes is the upcoming launch of Zekr, a premium EV brand from Geely, the country's leading automaker, along with the Chinese government's toughening stance. It recently banned Tesla from military facilities over spying concerns, a move that could impact sales nationwide. Li Auto started to trade publicly on 30 July 2020, raising $1.1 billion (£795m).

When it comes to meat alternatives, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are soon becoming old news. The latest challenger to the global meat industry literally makes faux meat out of thin air and very little besides. Finland's Solar Foods has perfected a process that produces a high-protein flour out of carbon dioxide from air, electricity, water, microbes and nutrients. The company calls this meat-free substitute Solein.

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Zoom has been one of the standout business successes of the past year for obvious reasons, but competitors are already lining up to snag its legions of users. They include London-based Hopin. Although it's only been in operation since June 2019, the online events platform is fast-becoming the go-to for larger virtual meetings and was recently valued at a cool $5.65 billion (£4bn).

Despite controversy surrounding Kim Kardashian's body-sculpting underwear and comfy loungewear brand's original name, SKIMS is shaping up to be a formidable rival to established names such as Spanx. As well as its pricing, the brand excels with an inclusive ethos: it offers larger sizes than Spanx and an impressive nine shades to match a diversity of skin tones.

As many of the other upstarts in our round-up, UK energy company Bulb, which supplies 100% renewable electricity and carbon-neutral gas, has been able to undercut legacy firms as its overheads are significantly lower, plus the company invests in new technology to keep prices down, though it has hiked up tariffs in recent months. The firm, which started in 2015, has been enjoying explosive growth and tops the latest FT-Statista ranking of Europe’s 1,000 fastest-growing companies.

This cult Singaporean beauty brand has quietly built up a huge global following as teens and twentysomethings in particular abandon the traditional big names like L'Oréal for indie brands with niche appeal. Allies of Skin offers just 10 products, each of which is meticulously thought-out and, according to loyal fans, gets results.

New York's Tula Skincare is also benefiting from the surge in popularity of niche beauty brands. The start-up's 'clean' approach is hot right now, as is its use of probiotic and concentrated superfood ingredients, and this is reflected in the company's blossoming sales, which have been hitting record levels during the pandemic.

One of the fastest-growing retailers in the US, upstart Boxed.com has been called “the Costco for millennials”. The online and mobile-only membership-free bulk retailer sells discounted items across categories including groceries, personal care, and household products. Boxed.com has only been around since 2013, but has experienced “unprecedented demand” during the pandemic, increasing its market share to the detriment of the more established bricks-and-mortar names.

Start-ups that aim to challenge Big Pharma's stranglehold of the US market and slash drug prices are appearing all over the country. Massachusetts' EQRx, for instance, has garnered $500 million (£361m) from investors to develop new medications, including four cancer treatments that are already in the later stages of development, which will work out considerably cheaper than existing alternatives. The firm expects to have its first drug approved in the next few years.

GoodRx is also working to make healthcare more affordable in the US. The online coupon-based marketplace helps millions of Americans find cheaper drugs by scouring more than 70,000 pharmacies nationwide to pinpoint the lowest prices, saving users up to 80%. Along with this, GoodRx offers virtual doctor appointments for as little as $19 (£14). GoodRx went public on 23 September 2020, when the stock closed at $50.50 (£36.51) per share, up from its IPO price of $33 (£23.86) per share. Today the share price has dropped slightly to $40.48 (£29) (as of 30 April 2021).

Dubbed “the Uber of pharmacy”, digital drugstore Capsule has taken off in a big way in New York and is expanding across the country, disrupting the pharmacy industry in its wake. Making a trip to the local drugstore a thing of the past for many Americans, the app-controlled service's key advantages are its ease of use and speed, hand-delivering same-day prescriptions for free.

Edtech start-ups have been doing a roaring trade during the pandemic and US e-learning provider Coursera is no exception. The company has disrupted the education sector by offering prestigious courses including degrees from Harvard and Yale and professional certification courses from IBM, Google, and more at strongly competitive prices. Slated to go public sometime soon, the firm is now valued in the billions.

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