AAA The big issues for 2020

The big issues for 2020

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The Global Corporate Venturing annual survey of investors is a unique snapshot of the technologies that caught the eye of corporate venturers in 2019 (see December issue), and that may hide potential opportunities for 2020.

The 150 respondents expect to continue finding opportunities in AI and ML, blockchain, cybersecurity, big data and fintech – where payment tech was the second-most active area for deals in 2019.  They also see opportunities in other spaces like 5G, which telecom carriers are expected to roll out completely by the end of 2020, healthcare tech, mobility and autotech.

What will be the biggest investment opportunities in 2020?

“Artificial food, cultured and plant-based – a truly disruptive technology that may change the landscape of the food industry”
Egor Abramov, Principal investment adviser, Fort Ross Ventures

“Deepened automation and intelligence applied to niche but profitable areas of incumbent industries, for example construction, final assembly and inspection, back office services (think robotic process automation), and anything else dirty/dull/dangerous”
Grant Allen, General partner, SE Ventures

“Artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS)”
Cristina Aparicio Maeztu, Insight and business development director,
Cemex Ventures

“Virtual and augmented reality, automatisation, enterprise software-as-a-service using artificial intelligence”
Miguel Arias, Global entrepreneurship director, Telefonica Open Innovation

“Healthcare IT”
Daniel Ateya, Senior manager 3M Ventures,  head of 3M Silicon Valley Office

“2020 will be a fascinating year with US elections driving uncertainty, which may slow down investment. I do see a new decade that will require attention on environmental issues (global warming) and healthcare system innovation”
Kim Armor, Managing director/CFO Comcast Ventures

“Tech powering new business models”
Sead Bajrovic, Chief digital strategist, ventures and partnerships, Grundfos Water Ventures

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning”
Kevin Barnes, Vice-president and managing director, Ferguson Ventures

“Emerging use cases enabled by 5G, especially millimeter wave spectrum, as well as edge computing”
Samy Ben Aissa, Managing director, Verizon Ventures

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning”
Jose-Maria Blanc, Albasit Investments

“Semiconductors, autonomy, agriculture technology”
Tony Cannestra, Director of corporate ventures, Denso

“Electric mobility”
Rosario Cannata, Investment manager, EDP Ventures

“Developer tools and automation, zero-trust security platforms and the application of AI for industry-specific use cases”
Andy Cao, Principal, Comcast Ventures

“I think mobility has reached the point of saturation. We expect to see more opportunities around the topic of sustainability”
Suzanna Chiu, Head of Amadeus Ventures, Amadeus IT Group

“Energy storage”
Andrea Course, Venture principal, Shell Ventures

“Ever-increasing industry agnostic digitalisation has created a breeding ground for tailored cybersecurity solutions for cloud-based systems”
José Daniel Díaz Ramos, Investment professional, Femsa Ventures

“Products that leverage connectivity technologies (for example 5G, low-power wireless wide area network) and strong integration capabilities in industry”
Conor Clifford, Principal, Eon

Thinking about Brazil, sectors like construction, agribusiness, education, health, mobility, and transportation can receive the best opportunities”
Daniel de Macedo, Head of corporate venture capital, Algar Ventures

“Healthcare”
Takeshi Endo, Corporate strategy and planning, Olympus

“Early opportunities will start to emerge in long-duration energy storage as modern renewables continue to expand their penetration leading to grid management challenges”
Tyler Durham, Venture principal, Schlumberger

“Any emerging device such as storage class memory, neuromorphic device[s] etc”
Kay Enjoji, President, TEL Venture Capital

“The most important opportunities will come from the next wave of technology massification: a) the democratisation of data, processing and infotech, b) an increase in flexible working alternatives, self-improvement and education technology, c) accessible tech oriented towards sustainability and d) access to affordable healthcare and financial services”
Javier García, Head of corporate venture capital, Femsa Ventures

“Computer vision software is an evolving technology that has the potential to change the way we work across industries. Meaningful advances over the past couple of years will enable automation of many manual processes and improved customer engagement from insurance to real estate to automotive sectors. Investors will have an opportunity to invest in emerging winners in this space in 2020”
Tarik Galijasevic, Head, Allstate Strategic Ventures

“Insurtech [insurance technology] and big data”
José Martin Espiritu Gamarra, Associate director fintech partnership – digital banking, Scotiabank

“Verticalisation of AI/IoT applications”
Paul Glaser, Vice-president and head of Hewlett-Packard Pathfinder

“Mining, construction”
George Gogolev, General manager, Severstal Ventures

“Deep tech that is easy to use/get started”
Jenny Gustafsson, Investment Manager, Saab Ventures

“I am still very enthusiastic for innovative customer experience applications assisting large organisations in enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty on a massive scale”
Tobias Hasenjäger, Senior investment manager, VNG Innovation

“Blockchain, enterprise SaaS”
David He, Hyundai Cradle

“Alternatives to alcohol, emerging markets payments, fertility”
Teddy Himler, Vice-president, SoftBank Group

“European markets offer significant opportunity given lower valuations and increased government support for entrepreneurs”
Beckett Jackson, Director, Boeing HorizonX

“As-a-service solutions and transactive energy areas will receive bigger investment in the energy sector”
Hee Suk Jung, Head of investment, SK Gas

“Edge computing, AI, data analytics, automotive, security and privacy, healthcare analytics
and AI”
Michael Janse, Managing director, Qualcomm Ventures

“5G, robotic process automation, blockchain applications”
Herman Kienhuis, Managing director, KPN Ventures

“Payment solution[s] with AI”
Yongmin Kim, Enlight ventures and Samsung electronics outside partner

“2020 is the year of 5G – networks are being built around the globe and we’ll see millions of subscribers. We are excited about the impact it will bring to the world and are actively pursuing investment opportunities spanning new use cases (consumer and enterprise) and infrastructure buildout”
Carlos Kokron, Managing director, Qualcomm Ventures

“Cybersecurity, business software, healthcare”
Michael Lee Vice-president and general manager, business solutions, Qisda

“Augmented reality with commercial applications”
Crispin Leick, Managing director, EnBW New Ventures

“Cloud services, mobile finance/payment”
Olivier Letant, Senior vice-president strategy and operations, Apigate

“AI as a service”
João Maia, Corporate venture capitalist, Andrade Gutierrez

“Artificial intelligence, financial technology, health tech, SaaS”
Alex McCracken, Managing director, corporate relationships, Silicon Valley Bank, UK

“1) Accelerating the commercialisation of automated processes in all industries from healthcare to industry to consumer, 2) replacing China as the go-to source of low-cost manufacturing, 3) mass-market adoption of digital currencies. 4) cybersecurity”
Brad McManus, Managing director, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital

“Companies able to cheaply crowdsource information that then is transformed into valuable products or inputs for AI”
Andres Mitnik, Business director, Expande at Fundación Chile

“Autonomous things (robots, drones, appliances first)”
Dominique Mégret, Head, Swisscom Ventures

“The application that related to AI and big data and how can we use the technology to solve the problem of supply and demand imbalance”
Jaytiya Ngam-maykin, Lead of strategic investment at Digital Ventures, fintech arm of Siam Commercial Bank

“AI, edge computing, cybersecurity and quantum computing”
Rich Osborn, Managing partner, Telus Ventures

“Smart city including mobility and human life, and so on”
Ken Nozaki, Senior researcher, Hitachi

“Logistics”
Agustina Palmai, Corporate development supervisor Mexico, Mercado Libre Fund

“Open banking, IoT, blockchain”
Raktapa Pantawongdecha, Vice-president, Ping An Global Voyager Fund

“Deeper AI focused applications, 3D print value stream – materials, inspection, quality”
Nathan Pascarella, Business development manager, Hypertherm Ventures

“Advanced recycling and alternative materials will be key in 2020. I think a focus on sustainability will continue to be important driver of investment opportunities. We are seeing corporations, consumers and investors focus more on sustainability and I think this is an important factor when analysing investment opportunities.

I see investments surrounding physical infrastructure as the largest opportunity in 2020. A combination of many trends ranging from population, growth of middle class, urbanisation, need for sustainable substitutes are driving the need to disrupt a traditionally slow-adopting space.

This recently emergent field of construction tech and proptech are poised to continue to grow to support the workforce shortage and demand”
Ben Price, NOVA external ventures manager, Saint-Gobain

“Sustainable transport, applications for quantum computing, health monitoring and well-being services”
Matthew Ridley, Investment principal, International Airlines Group – Hangar 51 Ventures

“Sustainability, in terms of environmental impact and social responsibility, is driving consumer purchasing decisions as well as corporate impact metrics.  New manufacturing, materials and systems that support these efforts are opportunities that may be undervalued by many”
Ginger Rothrock, Senior director, HG Ventures

“It should be a privacy and/or security analytics-related business opportunity”
Ahmed Said, Private office of Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum

“The biggest investment opportunity in 2020 will be in the areas of hydrogen and circular economy”
Benoit Savattier, Senior investment manager and CFO, Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures

“Digitally native vertical brand”
Rafael Sbampato, CRM, innovation and new business director at Grupo Boticário

“Education, health, commerce, blockchain”
Ashutosh Sharma, India head – investments and M&A at Naspers (Prosus) Ventures

“AI, ML and cybersecurity”
Yair Snir, Vice-president, managing director, Dell Technologies Capital

“5G”
Ken Sobajima, Senior director of investments, KDDI

“I think the trend on taking control of your health through personalisation will continue”
Viktor Söderberg, CFO, Orkla Investments and head of Orkla Ventures

“Digital business models”
Markus Solibieda, Managing director, BASF Venture Capital

“Solutions for gig workers”
Sumito Sugata, Director of fintech business, Fujitsu Laboratories of America

“Investing is becoming more sophisticated; while ETFs were about replicating the broader market performances at a lower cost, investors are now showing signs of wanting to tune their investments strategy to their own beliefs (impact, thematic …). I’m bullish on technologies that will allow individuals and financial advisors to build highly customised baskets”
Alessandro Vigilante, Vice-president, corporate business development, Fidelity

“AI”
Naohiro Sugiyama, Manager at Nifco

“Small and medium-sized enterprise banking platforms”
Harrie Vollaard, Head of Rabo Frontier Ventures, Rabobank

“I believe you will begin to see public data at rest combined with personal clinical data and personal on body data start to drive offerings that will change the way we do business”
Joe Volpe, Vice-president, Merck Global Health Innovation Group

“Digital bank”
William (Penglan) Zhao, Vice-president, Bertelsmann Asia Investments

“Vertically integrated AI/ML solutions – specifically in operations and decision making. We still haven’t seen widespread data-led decision-making solutions and the technology is ready. I am also bullish on fintech, insurtech and healthtech”
Rita Waite, Head of payments business development and innovation, Millennium BCP

“Companies who have trouble attracting funding, which we believe will increase”
Robert Wetzel, Vice-president corporate development, Enterprise Holdings Ventures

“There will be a whole new class of companies that leverage data and AI to provide services optimized for each individual with greater efficiency. New business models will emerge based on the availability of data as well”
Chen Zhou, Investor, Samsung Catalyst Fund

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