As the US and the rest of the world emerges from nearly two years of COVID 19 related lockdowns, restrictions and business interruptions, a number of sectors have faced unexpected downturns – hospitality, travel and restaurants being obvious examples.
At the same time, unique opportunities have emerged for businesses who were able to adjust to their employees working from home and their customers requiring online meetings and delivery services, among others. Those factors, coupled with large amounts of cash sitting on the sidelines from both institutional and private investors has created a boom among a number of sectors.
Daniel Summers is the CEO of eVest, a turnkey capital raising software working to disrupt the Private Placement Market by eliminating many traditional fees and barriers to effective funding campaigns. Below Mr. Summers explains seven startup sectors that are experiencing substantial growth over the last year.
1. Biotech
Biotech companies have continued to revel over the past two decades. Daniel Summers of eVest explains it will continue to be a high growth sector, expanding beyond the approximately $300 billion market cap it sits at in 2021.
The success of cutting-edge solutions in fields such as gene therapy and delivery mechanisms came to the forefront with two premier COVID-19 vaccines using mRNA delivery. Another area of focus is DNA research and testing, which has moved beyond ancestry searches to letting people know what to eat, how to exercise etc.
2. Telemedicine
Telemedicine services have been around for a while, but the arrival of COVID coincided with the necessary advances in technology and data management capabilities.
Daniel Summers of eVest notes that patients now not only want to have virtual visits, they look to fulfill data needs, diagnostic and therapy services and much more.
The number of doctors practicing telemedicine has jumped from 18% to 50% over the period.
3. Remote Learning and Virtual Education
Online schools have been around for well over two decades, but remote learning was taken to new heights during the pandemic. With students often trapped at home, and many colleges cancelling entire semesters/years of classes, there has been a significant move to provide anything from academic learning to how-to videos online.
Daniel Summers of eVest explains that the successful companies will combine interactive and superior technology with good course material and teachers, who happen to be more available to willing to participate remotely at this point in time.
4. Virtual Fitness and Self Care
As an extension of eCommerce, online delivery, and specialty services like telemedicine, people stuck at home have looked to virtual gyms and fitness centers which they can use to keep in shape physically, as well as self-care offerings that can address mental wellbeing which has become increasingly more important to people over the last two years.
Daniel Summers notes that a fitness center or wellbeing consultant relies on one-on-one contact with their clients. Now that both consumers and businesses are more accustomed to virtual interactions, startups that can come up with a larger suite of products and virtual services, or improved engagement technology that address their clients’ expanding health needs will do well in this new business environment.
5. Legal, Accounting and Professional Services
Daniel Summers of eVest notes that professional service providers, especially small and medium sized firms, have adopted well to the challenges of the pandemic world. Given that they tend to work with small overhead, it has been easier to thrive in a virtual environment of phone calls, Zoom meetings and eSignatures.
The legal services profession is one such example. Court hearings, once they came to be held with more regularity, were relying on Zoom and phone calls with filings being done online as usual. Now that the three groups of key stakeholders – the plaintiffs/defendants, their attorneys and finally the Court itself, has gotten comfortable in the virtual world, it stands to reason that there will be new professional services startups able to innovate around inefficiencies still found within the ecosystem.
6. The Sharing Economy
We all know about Airbnb by now, a trend that revolutionized the hospitality industry by letting homeowners rent out well maintained spaces for extra income.
During COVID and beyond, storefront restaurants struggled mightily. But what came through were specialized delivery services, aka restaurants without storefronts. With this trend has arisen shared kitchen spaces. Cloud Kitchens, formed by ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, is blazing a standard for shared kitchens dedicated to serving delivery-only restaurants, according to Daniel Summers of eVest.
7. Proven Business Models finding New Markets
The last item on the list has less to do with invention and/or innovation, and much more to do with using a proven technology or business model to fill market gaps beyond the country of origin.
Examples include Uber, Lyft and similar models spreading around the globe, tweaking the US business model to suit local country norms and requirements.
Food delivery services, such as Grub Hub, Uber Eats and Door Dash have proven successful in the US. Multiple vendor companies are utilizing a similar approach in the rest of the world explains Daniel Summers. For example, the Spanish company Glavo stretched its operations from Europe to South America and North Africa and expanded its delivery services beyond food to include flowers to other consumer products – be they flowers, pet food or smartphone accessories.
