Hybe named among Fast Company’s top 50 innovative companies in the world

K-pop powerhouse Hybe made it on Fast Company’s list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies for the current year.

Fast Company, an American business magazine, tracks 58 industries and sectors from advertising to video to compile the annual list.

Hybe landed at No. 23 on the list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024, according to Fast Company.

This is the third time Hybe has been named on the list, following 2020 and 2022.

Fast Company directs the success of the K-pop girl group NewJeans and the creativeness of Min Hee-jin, CEO of Hybe’s sub-label Ador, as the factors that helped Hybe reshape the entertainment industry and culture.

“NewJeans has stood out by offering fans a distinctly analog vibe and tapping ’90s nostalgia with R&B-adjacent songs and fuzzy, dreamy visuals. The group’s distinctive identity has also made it a blue-chip advertising product. NewJeans’s five members —Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein — have brand ambassadorships with fashion houses like Chanel, Gucci, Burberry, Dior and Louis Vuitton,” said Fast Company.

Fast Company also evaluates that NewJeans, under its creative director Min Hee-jin, elevated music into peak commercial art, looking into how the group collaborated with world-renowned brands including Apple, Nike and Coca-Cola.

“I don’t think business has to be cold. When you connect with fans at a heartfelt level, that’s when the business really starts to take off,” Min said in an interview with Fast Company.

Other companies on the list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024 include Nvidia at No.1, Novo Nordisk at No. 2 and Microsoft at No. 3.