[ad_1] The post 3 Little-Known Growth Stocks That Are Shaping the Future appeared first on Millennial Money. We all want to get in on the ground floor of a multi-decade opportunity — that’s why many investors focus on disruptors, aka the companies trying to change the future of an existing industry. This can be an insanely successful investing strategy. Many of the best growth stocks over the past decade have been disruptors: Tesla (up 743% in 2020 alone) didn’t invent the automobile (or even the electric vehicle), but it upended the entire auto market by making an EV that Americans actually wanted to buy. Apple (up 81% in 2020) certainly didn’t create the telephone or even the smartphone, but it built a device that’s easy to use and created a supporting ecosystem that users can’t get enough of. Amazon (up 76% in 2020) disrupted the retail industry by shifting sales to the Internet, and now it’s one of the biggest retailers in the world. However, there are quite a few smaller growth stocks that might have even brighter future potential than these huge companies. Here are three little-known businesses that are bringing their own disruptive technologies to the market. MercadoLibre is disrupting two industries at the same time MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) Price: $1851.6 (as of close Aug 13, 2021) Market Cap: 92,046,091,140 document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-8c2ca103a1fc365ed74fdc93907ff41e”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “30-Day Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false },series:[{name:”NASDAQ:MELI”,data:[[1626235200000,1507.01],[1626321600000,1508.48],[1626408000000,1512.51],[1626667200000,1497.27],[1626753600000,1542.15],[1626840000000,1550.17],[1626926400000,1591.22],[1627012800000,1613.81],[1627272000000,1585.71],[1627358400000,1580],[1627444800000,1637.03],[1627531200000,1641.52],[1627617600000,1568.7],[1627876800000,1578.65],[1627963200000,1575.7],[1628049600000,1570],[1628136000000,1786.11],[1628222400000,1756.27],[1628481600000,1755.74],[1628568000000,1878.53],[1628654400000,1887.57],[1628740800000,1842.66],[1628827200000,1851.6],],tooltip:{valueDecimals:2,xDateFormat: “%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); Investing in MercadoLibre (Nasdaq: MELI) today could be like buying both PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) 10 years ago. It’s a double-disruptor in both retail and payment processing. Never heard of it? MercadoLibre isn’t well-known because it’s not a U.S.-based company. But that obscurity is your opportunity: MercadoLibre is Latin America’s largest e-commerce provider with operations across 18 countries. Most investors make the mistake of thinking that e-commerce isn’t really disrupting retail anymore. Not true! E-commerce accounts for only 14% of total retail sales in the U.S., so imagine the runway for growth in the developing economies of Latin America! The company’s sales (and shares) are rising, with the volume of goods sold on its e-commerce platform growing 46% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier. The highlight was a significant gain of 218% in mobile sales volume, which is an important data point because mobile-based e-commerce is just starting to take off and because mobile is the primary way many Latin Americans access the Internet. It gets better with MercadoLibre – remember, I promised two disruptive industries. In fact, it’s this second industry that the company is disrupting that gets growth investors excited. MercadoLibre is taking on the banking industry with its fintech MercadoPago payment solution. The original idea behind MercadoPago was to provide a way for users who don’t have a bank account to buy things on MercadoLibre’s e-commerce site (“on-platform transactions”). But the service became so successful that it’s migrated to off-platform usage for transactions like buying gas or getting food at the local grocer or corner store. MercadoPago’s total payment volume rose 72% in the second quarter, and off-platform usage nearly doubled over the prior year. Look for the disruption to continue. MercadoLibre is working on other banking services like MercadoFondo asset management and MercadoCredito lending service. This company has a long runway for growth in both e-commerce and in providing banking services to Latin America’s substantive unbanked population. Upstart could permanently change the lending industry Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) Price: $203.29 (as of close Aug 13, 2021) Market Cap: 15,809,340,438 document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-95e31c0a3c17167bb0dfd722567983a6”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “30-Day Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false },series:[{name:”NASDAQ:UPST”,data:[[1626235200000,113.13],[1626321600000,113.09],[1626408000000,113.79],[1626667200000,115.28],[1626753600000,117.63],[1626840000000,119.15],[1626926400000,116.91],[1627012800000,116.57],[1627272000000,121.82],[1627358400000,115.75],[1627444800000,121.79],[1627531200000,123.87],[1627617600000,120.76],[1627876800000,133.41],[1627963200000,128.68],[1628049600000,127.98],[1628136000000,133.17],[1628222400000,132.13],[1628481600000,137.19],[1628568000000,135.68],[1628654400000,171.2],[1628740800000,178.12],[1628827200000,203.29],],tooltip:{valueDecimals:2,xDateFormat: “%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); Shares of lending tech startup Upstart (Nasdaq: UPST) are on fire, exploding 350% so far this year. Despite the strong gains, there’s reason to believe the long-term story is just getting started. Here’s why. As you doubtless know, most lending decisions are based on the FICO credit scoring system. If you want to borrow money, your entire financial future is determined by that one number. Your FICO score determines whether you can buy a home, qualify for the best credit card rates, and even get cheaper insurance. But there’s a problem: FICO scores are a flawed predictor of risk. Four in five Americans have never defaulted on a loan, but less than half have top-notch credit. If a lender had better data about its potential borrowers, it could make more loans, provide lower rates, and make more profit. This is Upstart’s massive opportunity. The company’s AI-based underwriting system is well situated to disrupt the lending industry as it enables lenders to evaluate risks with something more insightful than a simple three-digit number. According to a study with major banks, Upstart’s model could approve up to 3 times the number of borrowers while keeping loss rates the same as traditional underwriting. Even better for Upstart’s bank partners is the fact that its technology-enabled system is less labor-intensive, enabling banks to quickly approve and scale lending programs. In the recent second quarter, revenue grew to $194 million, more than 1,000% higher than the prior year. More importantly, lenders are requesting underwriting through Upstart’s AI-based system more frequently and are choosing its terms over their in-house models. Founded by former Googlers, Upstart is on the forefront of disrupting the entire lending industry — which is a trillion-dollar industry (per month!). While it’s unlikely to continue these tremendous growth rates, the long-term story for Upstart’s stock is undeniably compelling. 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