K

121 companies

Kodak

Photography / Technology

In 1976, Steve Sasson demonstrated the world's first digital camera to Kodak executives. Thirty-six years later, the company filed for bankruptcy. Thi...

9 mentions

Kickstarter

Technology / Crowdfunding

The crowdfunding platform that proved two biological insights: humans need recovery time, and commitment requires thresholds. Kickstarter permanently...

1 mention

Kadant

Industrial Machinery

Industrial termite colonies - machinery that breaks down wood fiber into paper pulp, separates waste from recyclables, and extracts water like xylem v...

russell2000

Kahoot

EdTech - K-12

Hijacks dopamine pathways like young dolphins learning through play - timed competition triggers cortisol spikes that burn facts into memory. Social p...

Oslo Stock Exchange

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation

Aluminum

Mimics bird bone architecture - aluminum extruded into hollow tubes and rolled into sheets with strength-to-weight ratios that let jets fly and cars a...

russell2000

Kajima Corporation

Construction

Builds like termite mounds rising from Japanese soil - coordinated teams assembling towers and tunnels from modular components. Each project reshapes...

nikkei225, topix

Kakao Bank

Digital Banking

Spreads through South Korea like E. coli in rich broth - 20 million users in five years, doubling every eighteen months. Zero branches means pure meta...

kosdaq

Kakao Corporation

Internet & Technology

Kakao is a leading South Korean internet company best known for its dominant messaging platform KakaoTalk, with expanded businesses in mobility, finte...

kospi

Kakao Corporation

Internet & Technology

Kakao is a major internet company built around the KakaoTalk messaging platform, which dominates communication in South Korea. The company has expande...

kospi

Kakao Games

Gaming

Parasitic vine growing through KakaoTalk's 47 million users - games that couldn't survive alone latch onto the messaging app's social graph. Friend li...

kosdaq

Kakao Pay

Fintech

Cleaner fish embedded in KakaoTalk's ecosystem - taking a microscopic cut of every transaction while providing payment, investment, and insurance serv...

kosdaq

Kalera

Vertical Farming

Stacks photosynthesis vertically like coral reefs growing upward toward light - LED arrays replacing sun, nutrient solution replacing soil. Each urban...

Private

Kalitta Air

Airlines

Cargo migrations crossing oceans like Arctic terns - 747 freighters hauling electronics from Shanghai to Memphis, pharmaceuticals from Brussels to Dub...

Kaman Corporation

Aerospace & Defense

Dual circulatory systems - aerospace components flowing through defense contractors, industrial bearings distributed through maintenance supply chains...

russell2000

Kansas City Southern

Rail Transportation

Steel arteries running north-south like xylem vessels connecting Kansas City to Mexican industrial cities. Chemicals, grain, and auto parts flow throu...

Kao Corporation

Consumer Goods & Chemicals

Chemical synthesis like a pharmaceutical gland - surfactant molecules engineered to break surface tension, lift dirt, condition hair. Research labs is...

nikkei225

Kao Corporation

Consumer Goods

Chemical synthesis like a pharmaceutical gland - surfactant molecules engineered to break surface tension, lift dirt, condition hair. Research labs is...

nikkei225

Kaplan

EdTech - Test Prep

Test prep as artificial selection pressure - practice exams cull weak answers, feedback loops strengthen correct patterns. Students undergo iterative...

Graham Holdings-Owned

Kapsch TrafficCom

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Tolling sensors like spider webs across highways - RFID readers detect passing vehicles, extracting microtransactions automatically. Once installed, g...

Karat

Technology

Technical interviews as artificial selection - experienced engineers probe coding ability through standardized challenges. Companies outsource their f...

private

Kasikornbank

Banking

Colonizes Thailand then sends spores into Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar - proven digital banking infrastructure replicating across adjacent markets. Venture...

SET:KBANK

Kaspersky Lab

Cybersecurity

Founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky after he became fascinated with malware while working at the Soviet Ministry of Defense. In 1989, his computer was...

Kaspersky Lab

Cybersecurity

Digital immune system - pattern-recognition algorithms scan files like antibodies identifying pathogens. Each malware signature triggers adaptive resp...

Kaufland

Hypermarket

Hypermarket warehouses like termite mounds - vast chambers storing 60,000 SKUs where shoppers forage efficiently. Central location, climate control, a...

Kavak

Automotive

Quality signaling like bower birds arranging colored objects - 200-point inspections standardize used cars, photographed from identical angles. Buyers...

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha

Maritime Shipping

Container ships migrate across Pacific trade routes like gray whales - scheduled journeys between Asia and North America, hulls carrying thousands of...

Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund

Asset Management

Capital stored in pipeline networks like camel humps holding fat - closed-end fund locks investor money into midstream infrastructure. Pipelines trans...

russell2000

Kearny Financial Corp

Regional Banks

Regional bank rooted in New Jersey soil like oak trees - slow growth, deep roots in local communities. Deposits gathered from small businesses and ind...

russell2000

Kellanova (formerly Kellogg Company)

Food Products

Engineered calorie density like acorns packed by squirrels - Pringles stack 150 chips per tube, Cheez-It crams cheese powder onto crackers. Shelf-stab...

sp500

Kellogg's

Packaged Foods

Kellogg's pioneered breakfast cereal with first-mover advantage through brand recognition. International snack brands demonstrate resource partitionin...

sp500

Kelly Services

Staffing & Outsourcing

Labor broker like cleaner wrasse connecting clients and workers - matching temporary employees to short-term needs across industries. Absorbs unemploy...

russell2000

Kemper Corporation

Insurance

Kemper Corporation is a diversified insurance holding company providing property and casualty insurance to individuals and businesses. The company off...

russell2000

Kemper Corporation

Insurance

Risk pooling like prairie dog colonies sharing sentinel duty - premiums collected from many policyholders, payouts distributed to unlucky few hit by a...

russell2000

Kenan Advantage Group

Transportation & Logistics

Tank trucks like blood vessels carrying specialized cargo - petroleum, chemicals, food-grade liquids compartmentalized to prevent contamination. Bulk...

Kenco Logistic Services

Third-Party Logistics

Like ant colonies moving resources through interconnected tunnels, Kenco orchestrates goods flowing through warehouse networks. Third-party logistics...

Kennametal

Industrial

Materials science mirrors evolution's experiments - ceramics, carbides, alloys each optimized for extreme conditions. Kennametal engineers wear-resist...

russell2000

Kennedy-Wilson Holdings

Real Estate

Real estate investment mirrors territorial species claiming prime habitat patches. Kennedy-Wilson identifies undervalued properties in liquid markets,...

russell2000

Kenya Power & Lighting Company

Utilities

Like mycorrhizal networks shuttling nutrients through forest soil, Kenya Power distributes electrons across the national grid. State-controlled monopo...

nse-kenya

Keppel Corporation

Conglomerate

Keppel transformed from offshore rig builder to renewable energy and urban solutions provider, divesting O&M (offshore & marine) business after oil do...

SGX:BN4

Kering

Luxury Goods

Luxury goods competitor to LVMH with a more ambiguous brand hierarchy. Compared unfavorably to LVMH on multiple metrics: 21.4% operating margin (vs. L...

cac40

Keurig Dr Pepper

Beverages

Beverage portfolio spreads risk like mixed-species forest - hot coffee, cold sodas, flavored waters each capture different consumption niches. Over 12...

sp500

Key Energy Services

Energy Services

Oilfield services operate like cleanup crews in ecosystems - rig-based well servicing and coiled tubing maintenance keep extraction infrastructure fun...

russell2000

KeyCorp

Banking

Regional banks function like beaver dams - collecting capital from depositors upstream, holding reserves, releasing loans downstream to borrowers. Key...

sp500

Keyence Corporation

Industrial Automation

Industrial sensors mimic animal sensory systems - detecting vibrations, measuring distances, tracking positions like bats using echolocation. Keyence...

nikkei225, topix

Keysight Technologies

Electronic Test Equipment

Electronic test equipment probes invisible electromagnetic signals, measuring voltage, frequency, and waveforms like electric fish sensing their surro...

sp400

Keywords Studios

Technology

Keywords Studios provides creative and technical services to the global video games industry. The company offers localization, art creation, testing,...

ftse250

Kforce

Staffing & Outsourcing

Matches specialized talent to temporary hosts, like cleaner fish pairing with larger species. Workers flow between client ecosystems, providing techni...

russell2000

Khan Academy

EdTech - Online Learning

Broadcasts skills across generations like vocal teaching in songbird populations. Knowledge transfers freely through video instruction, building cumul...

Nonprofit

Kia Corporation

Automotive

Kia is a major global automotive manufacturer and part of the Hyundai Motor Group, transforming its brand with award-winning designs and accelerating...

kospi

Kia Corporation

Automotive

Produces standardized vehicles through coordinated assembly, like termite colonies building identical structures. Each model follows precise blueprint...

kospi

Kick

Media

Competes for attention through elaborate displays, like bowerbirds building decorated arenas. Streamers perform for audiences, each developing distinc...

Media, Entertainment +1

Kilroy Realty Corporation

Real Estate

Constructs and defends premium office territories in coastal markets, like beavers building dams that reshape entire valleys. Properties create stable...

russell2000

Kimbell Royalty Partners

Energy

Collects resource flows without extraction effort, like oxpeckers feeding on ticks from host animals. Owns mineral rights beneath working lands, recei...

russell2000

Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Consumer Goods

Processes plant fiber into absorbent products that manage waste and moisture, like fungi breaking down organic matter. Tissues and diapers capture flu...

sp500

Kimco Realty Corporation

Retail Real Estate

Anchors retail ecosystems around grocery stores, like fig trees supporting diverse wildlife. Shopping centers cluster complementary businesses where f...

Kinaxis Inc.

Software

Coordinates material flows across distributed networks, like mycelial threads routing nutrients through forest soil. Software tracks components moving...

Kindbody

Fertility & Women's Health

Supports reproductive timing and investment decisions, like salmon choosing when to spawn. Egg freezing delays reproduction until conditions favor suc...

Kinder Morgan

Energy

Moves energy resources through continental pipeline networks, like xylem vessels transporting water from roots to canopy. Pressurized tubes carry gas...

russell2000

King

Mobile Gaming

Triggers compulsive engagement through color-matching patterns, like cuckoos exploiting parental instincts with exaggerated begging. Candy Crush deliv...

Private

Kinnevik AB

Investment & Private Equity

Spreads capital across diverse digital ventures, like fig wasps pollinating multiple fig species. Portfolio diversification hedges risk—failures in so...

omx

Kinsale Capital Group

Insurance

Underwrites unusual risks by pooling premiums across diverse hazards, like meerkats sharing sentinel watch. Specialty lines spread unpredictable losse...

russell2000

Kintetsu World Express

Freight & Logistics

Coordinates long-distance cargo movements across continents, like monarch butterflies navigating multi-generational migrations. Goods traverse air and...

Tokyo Stock Exchange

Kirby Corporation

Maritime Shipping

Transports bulk liquids through river networks, like salmon navigating watersheds. Tank barges move chemicals and petroleum products along inland wate...

sp500

Kirin Holdings

Beverages

Transforms sugars into alcohol through controlled yeast fermentation, like fungi metabolizing plant matter. Brewing harnesses microbial metabolism to...

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited

Beverages & Food

Diversifies across beverages, food, and pharmaceuticals like fungi producing multiple compounds. Yeast creates alcohol in one division while related p...

nikkei225

Kirkland & Ellis

Legal Services

Forms coalitions to defend client interests through coordinated legal action, like wolves hunting in packs. Attorneys combine specialized expertise—re...

Kirkland's

Specialty Retail

Displays seasonal merchandise to attract buyers, like bowerbirds arranging colored objects. Store layouts change with holidays and trends, using visua...

russell2000

Kite Pharma

Biotechnology

Reprograms patient T-cells to hunt cancer like wolves learning to take down new prey. This cellular apprenticeship transforms immune cells into target...

Kite Realty Group Trust

Real Estate

Cultivates retail ecosystems where tenants form symbiotic clusters like coral reefs. Each store attracts different shopper species, creating food webs...

russell2000

Kite Realty Group Trust

Retail Real Estate

Anchors shopping ecosystems around grocery stores like keystone species that support diverse tenant populations. These necessity-based habitats create...

Kitopi

Technology

Builds food production colonies like termite mounds, where specialized workers prepare multiple brand cuisines from centralized facilities. Each kitch...

Kiwibot

Autonomous Vehicles

Deploys sidewalk robots that forage like ants across campus territories, following invisible trails to deliver food. Each bot operates semi-autonomous...

Private

Klabin

Pulp & Paper

Manages forest plantations through cycles of growth and harvest like ecological succession, converting timber into packaging materials. Their integrat...

bovespa

Klarna

Financial Technology

Klarna provides buy now, pay later services with first-mover advantage in BNPL. Network effects from consumer and merchant adoption.

private

Klépierre

Real Estate

Builds retail ecosystems like coral reefs, where anchor tenants create the skeletal structure that attracts smaller specialist shops. Each shopping ce...

sbf120

Knight Capital Group

Financial Services

Knight Capital Group was a major American financial services firm and market maker that experienced a catastrophic software failure on August 1, 2012....

Knight-Swift Transportation

Transportation & Logistics

Operates North America's largest trucking fleet through swarm intelligence, coordinating thousands of trucks like ant colonies manage foraging trails....

sp500

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings

Trucking

Orchestrates truck fleets like ant colonies coordinate foragers, with each driver acting as an independent agent while the collective optimizes routin...

russell2000

Knorr-Bremse

Industrial

Engineers braking systems as nervous system reflexes for trains and trucks, where sensors detect danger and trigger automatic responses faster than co...

dax40

Knowles Corporation

Technology

Miniaturizes acoustic technologies like bats compress echolocation into skull-sized organs. Their micro-speakers and filters process sound frequencies...

russell2000

Knowles Corporation

Electronic Components

Builds acoustic sensors at the scale of insect ears, capturing sound through micro-electromechanical systems that rival cicada tympana in sensitivity....

russell2000

Kobe Steel, Ltd.

Steel & Materials

Diversifies across steel, aluminum, copper and machinery like an organism adapting to multiple ecological niches. Their specialty alloys combine eleme...

topix

Kodiak Robotics

Autonomous Vehicles

Programs autonomous trucks to navigate highways like caribou traverse tundra, using sensor fusion to perceive environments in all weather conditions....

Private

Koei Tecmo

Gaming

Simulates historical warfare and strategic competition through game mechanics that mirror evolutionary game theory. Their Dynasty Warriors and strateg...

Gaming, Entertainment

Kohl's

Department Stores

Operates as a retail generalist, offering diverse product categories like omnivorous species exploit multiple food sources. Their strategy combines ex...

sp500

Kojima Productions

Gaming

Crafts narrative games as complex ecosystems where player choices ripple through storylines like predator-prey relationships shape food webs. Each gam...

Gaming, Entertainment

Komatsu Ltd.

Industrial Machinery

Manufactures construction equipment that moves earth like termite mounds restructure landscapes. Their excavators and bulldozers extend human capabili...

nikkei225, topix

Konami Holdings Corporation

Gaming & Entertainment

Evolved from arcade games through console generations like species adapting to changing environments. Their franchises - Metal Gear, Castlevania, Sile...

topix

Kone Oyj

Industrial Equipment

Designs elevator and escalator systems as vertical transportation networks that function like capillary systems in tall buildings. Their equipment cir...

omx25

Konfio

Fintech

Provides small business loans in Mexico through rapid assessment algorithms that evaluate creditworthiness like predators assess prey vulnerability. T...

Kongsberg Gruppen

Aerospace & Defense

Builds defense and maritime systems through modular engineering like organisms construct bodies from standardized cells. Their weapons, navigation, an...

oslo

Kontoor Brands

Apparel

Manages denim brands Wrangler and Lee through heritage cultivation similar to how oak trees grow from ancestral root systems. Each brand maintains its...

russell2000

Koppers Holdings

Chemicals

Koppers Holdings is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds. The company serves the rai...

russell2000

Korea Investment Holdings

Financial Services

Operates financial services across securities, asset management, and banking like an organism distributing metabolic functions across specialized orga...

kospi

Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd.

Aviation

Connects global destinations through hub-and-spoke networks that mirror how neurons route signals through synaptic junctions. Their Incheon hub concen...

kospi

Korn Ferry

Executive Search

Matches executives to organizations like pollinators identify compatible flowers, reading subtle signals of cultural fit and leadership potential. The...

Kornit Digital

Industrial Machinery

Prints textiles on-demand through digital inkjet systems that apply dye like chromatophores change octopus skin. Their technology eliminates tradition...

russell2000

Kotak Mahindra Bank

Banking

Grew from an investment bank into full-spectrum financial services like a specialist species colonizing adjacent niches. Their expansion from corporat...

nifty50, bse sensex

KPMG

Professional Services

Operates like mycelial networks beneath forest floors - 143 nodes sharing expertise through invisible threads. Each office digests local regulations w...

S&P 500

Kraft Heinz

Packaged Foods

Kraft Heinz combines iconic American food brands with aggressive cost-cutting. Economies of scale in manufacturing with resource partitioning across g...

nasdaq100

Krafton

Gaming

Built PUBG as a battle royale ecosystem where 100 players compete in shrinking territories until one survives. This gameplay mechanic mirrors resource...

kosdaq

Kraken

Cryptocurrency

Operates cryptocurrency exchange infrastructure with the resilience of its namesake cephalopod. Their platform handles billions in daily trading volum...

private

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

Defense

Manufactures unmanned aerial systems and missile defense technologies that extend human combat capabilities like tools extended early human hunting ra...

russell2000

Krispy Kreme

Restaurants

Manufactures doughnuts through automated production lines that achieve yeast fermentation at industrial scale. Their "Hot Now" signal exploits scent m...

Krones

Industrial

Builds beverage bottling systems that fill thousands of containers per hour through synchronized mechanical choreography. Their production lines orche...

mdax

Kronos Worldwide

Specialty Chemicals

Produces titanium dioxide pigment that scatters light like butterfly wing scales create structural color. This white pigment achieves opacity through...

russell2000

Krystal Biotech

Biotechnology

Delivers gene therapies through engineered viruses that insert corrective DNA like retroviruses integrate into host genomes. Their HSV-1 based treatme...

russell2000

KT Corporation

Telecommunications

Functions as South Korea's nervous system - fiber optics like axons firing 5G signals at millisecond speeds. Smart cities respond to traffic, energy,...

kospi

Kuaishou Technology

Short Video & Live Streaming

Built short-video platform algorithms that surface content like neural networks filter sensory input for relevance. Their recommendation engine learns...

hsi

Kubota Corporation

Industrial Machinery

Manufactures agricultural equipment that extends human farming capabilities like tool use extended early human foraging efficiency. Their tractors, ha...

nikkei225, topix

Kuehne + Nagel

Transportation & Logistics

Coordinates global freight logistics through information networks that track shipments like migrating birds navigate using multiple cues. Their system...

Kueski

Fintech

Provides instant consumer loans in Mexico through algorithmic risk assessment that evaluates creditworthiness like predators gauge prey vulnerability....

KUKA

Robotics

Robotic arms that move like octopus tentacles - each joint sensing position, torque, and resistance in microseconds. Six-axis manipulators adapt to ca...

mdax

Kulicke & Soffa Industries

Semiconductor Equipment

Builds semiconductor assembly equipment that bonds microscopic wires to chips with precision matching spider silk attachment points. Their wire bonder...

russell2000

Kulicke and Soffa Industries

Semiconductor Equipment

Engineers automated bonding systems for semiconductor packaging that connect chips to substrates with spider-like precision. Their equipment places mi...

sp400

Kumba Iron Ore

Mining & Resources

Extracts iron ore from South African deposits through open-pit mining that removes overburden like leaf-cutter ants excavate soil to reach food source...

jse

Kumon

EdTech - Tutoring

Teaches mathematics through incremental difficulty progression that mirrors how organisms master skills through graduated practice. Students advance t...

Private

Kuwait Finance House

Banking

Provides Islamic banking through partnership structures that align lender and borrower incentives like mutualistic relationships align organism benefi...

boursa-kuwait

Kweichow Moutai

Beverages

Kweichow Moutai is China's largest and most prestigious liquor producer, specializing in baijiu, considered a luxury status symbol and one of the most...

csi300

Kylie Cosmetics

Beauty & Personal Care

Launched beauty products through social media influence that spreads like viral cascades through networks. Kylie Jenner's direct-to-consumer model exp...

Kyndryl

IT Services

IT infrastructure services company spun off from IBM in 2021 with $19B in revenue. The spinoff was part of IBM's strategic decomposition to focus on h...