“Artificial intelligence (machine and deep learning)”
Harrie Vollaard, Head of Rabo Frontier Ventures, Rabobank
“AI, blockchain, new commerce – social commerce”
Ashutosh Sharma, India head – investments and M&A, Naspers (Prosus) Ventures
“Blockchain, IoT and AI”
Claudio Barahona Jacobs, Country manager at Wayra Chile
“Modular construction, artificial intelligence robotics, artificial and virtual reality, blockchain, big data, three-dimensional printing”
Andreas Kronthaler, Planning and analysis manager, Knauf Digital
“AI applications in real world with real revenue”
David He, Hyundai Cradle
“AI is maturing beyond the core technology stack, for tech experts and data scientists, and entering the business-related layer, where a broader set of business executives can easily apply this ‘intelligence layer’ to specific business use cases”
Alessandro Vigilante, Vice-president, corporate business development, Fidelity
“Maturing AI/big data analytics in multiple vertical domains – medtech, fintech, cyber”
Steven Katz, Consultant, Signtel Innov8
“Metal-based additive manufacturing, emerging AI for industrial data sets”
Nathan Pascarella, Business development manager, Hypertherm Ventures
“AI, AI ethics, quantum computing”
Daniel Attallah, head of corporate venture & innovation, CEWE
“AI/ML getting more traction, blockchain and biometrics are now more understood, electric air taxis are now considered inevitable”
Bonny Simi, President at JetBlue Technology Ventures
“Artificial intelligence reaching production maturity. Wide adoption of facial recognition tech”
Suzanna Chiu, Head of Amadeus Ventures, Amadeus IT Group
“Robotic process automation or RPA – the industry was shaken by that terrific growth trajectory of UiPath not to mention several other close competitors”
Egor Abramov, Principal investment adviser, Fort Ross Ventures
“The (further) cooling of blockchain, bitcoin, Level 4/5 autonomous driving, IoT and about every other buzzy area out there… in short, a sobering period of getting back to basics and realising there’s little new under the sun”
Grant Allen, General partner, SE Ventures
“Record liquidity realised through initial public offerings with mixed public market performance that highlights path to profitability versus growth at all costs”
Kim Armor, managing director/CFO, Comcast Ventures
“Autonomy, robotics, agtech”
Tony Cannestra, Director of corporate ventures, Denso
“By leveraging existing back-end capabilities tech companies are expanding into financial services”
José Daniel Díaz Ramos, Investment professional, Femsa Ventures
“US becoming a net oil and gas exporter continuing to depress energy prices”
Tyler Durham, Venture principal, Schlumberger
“The outsourcing of venture creation through venture studios is a major trend that many large companies are not yet that familiar with and need to get up to speed. The focus is on business model innovation rather than new technologies – this is where the new business, growth, customers and profit will come from”
Michael Ellenby, Director of corporate innovation, Coplex
“From our point of view, there were great advances in technologies working to reduce digital poverty and increase financial inclusion”
Javier García, Head of corporate centure capital, Femsa Ventures
“Uber-copter”
Takeshi Endo, Corporate strategy and planning, Olympus
“Robotics, software-defined networking, virtual kitchens, quantified self”
Teddy Himler, Vice-president, SoftBank Group
“The evolution toward hybrid computing integrating both edge and cloud processing. The progression of mobility solutions to becoming airworthy/certified”
Beckett Jackson, Director, Boeing HorizonX
“Continued advances around silicon accelerators”
Paul Glaser, Vice-president and head, Hewlett-Packard Pathfinder
“While we are still a few years away from large scale implementation, quantum computing was one of the most important technology trends in 2019. Not only has it become a buzzword among key influencers in the industry, but investments in this technology continue to increase significantly. With more companies, startups and VC firms taking an interest in this technology, quantum computing is on track to become a reality sooner than we expect”
Tarik Galijasevic, Head, Allstate Strategic Ventures
“One, increase in agricultural automation and robotics. Two, expansion of personal mobility, especially with respect to electric vehicles”
George Kellerman, CEO, Yamaha Motor Ventures and Laboratory Silicon Valley
“Resurgence of deep tech”
Dong-Su Kim, Chief executive, LG Technology Ventures
“Distributed energy resources management system was the most important tech in 2019 to be able to orchestrate DERs”
Hee Suk Jung, Head of investment at SK Gas
“Property tech”
Sumito Sugata, Director of fintech business, Fujitsu Laboratories of America
“The first 5G networks were launched and there are now over 100 smartphone models available”
Carlos Kokron, Managing director, Qualcomm Ventures
“Technology to accelerate development of fusion energy, especially development of high field superconducting magnets”
David Kingham, Executive vice-chairman, Tokamak Energy
“Digitisation”
José Maria García, Planning and control manager, Repsol Corporate Venture Capital
“IoT”
Yoshihiro Kataoka, R&D professional, Hitachi
“Fintech”
Agustina Palmai, Corporate development supervisor Mexico, Mercado Libre Fund
“Electromobility becomes mainstream”
Crispin Leick, Managing director, EnBW New Ventures
“3D printing and last mile delivery were two most important and relevant technology trends in 2019”
Ben Price, NOVA external ventures manager, Saint-Gobain
“Insurtech [insurance technology], payment, digital banking”
Raktapa Pantawongdecha, Vice-president, Ping An Global Voyager Fund
“We saw interesting IoT applications being deployed as well as agtechs and food”
Guilherme Lima, Head of venture capital, Elsys Corporate Venture
“Connectivity, more specifically 5G technology”
Ahmed Said, Private office of Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum
“Blockchain”
David Ross, Senior director global innovation, Halliburton
“The most important technology trends for 2019 were alternative meats and bioplastics”
Benoit Savattier, Senior investment manager and CFO, Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures
“Connected devices (IoT) as it relates to smart buildings and cities has been a problem we continue to see construction tech startups looking to solve from a predictive maintenance perspective. Offsite construction is another segment that continues to gain traction. [The] methodology is not new but the combination of unique business model approaches and technology combined the continued rise in cost of living is helping offsite construction startups gain adoption. The offsite construction startups that can standardise their base models before they take on more of their demand pipeline will be the winners”
Stephanie Vega Ziegler, Senior portfolio and partnership development manager, Ferguson Ventures, Ferguson Enterprises
“Autonomous systems. While the promise has been delayed it is inevitable and will fundamentally change the nature of people’s lives”
Peter Seiffert, Managing director, EmbraerX
“Healthcare number one: The creation of high-quality proprietary data streams and merger with other structured/unstructured data, delivered at the point of care to drive changes in care pathways at the individual level. Healthcare number two: Improvement in the quality of data capture modalities (ie, wearables, genomic data, etc)”
Kurt Sheline, Principal, Echo Health Ventures
“Progress in quantum computing”
Markus Solibieda, Managing director, BASF Venture Capital
“SoftBank debacle”
Brandon Yahn, Principal – Convivialité Ventures, Pernod Ricard
“I feel it is very much still about data and technology to ingest, harmonise, secure, store and understand that data. We can use all the current soundbites out there but it comes down to assets that can give us answers”
Joe Volpe, Vice-president, Merck Global Health Innovation Group
“Data analytics, hybrid cloud, containers”
Paul Weiskopf, Ex-senior vice-president, corporate development, Adobe
“Virtual reality”
Robert Wetzel, Vice-president, corporate development, Enterprise Holdings Ventures
The January issue will have answers to question two: what are the biggest opportunities for 2020?