Everyone else who responded gave their insights in the December issue on last year’s trends.
“Carbon, artificial intelligence (AI), traceability (food value chain), biologicals”
Erkki Aaltonen, managing director at Yara International’s YaraGerminate
“Climate-tech, agtech, telehealth”
Anil Achyuta, investment director at TDK Ventures
“Net-zero technologies”
Rafael Aregger, corporate ventures and innovation at Swiss Prime Site
“Shift in site of care to home”
John Banta, president and managing director at Blue Venture Fund
“Impossible not to say something in biomedical arena. Rapid virus testing technologies or digital health passports”
Nichola Bates, Boeing HorizonX Global Ventures
“Climate change”
Edelio Bermejo, head of group R&D, innovation and intellectual property at LafargeHolcim
“Machine learning (ML) is no longer interesting in and of itself; to some extent it is now ubiquitous. However, it is still fairly basic and narrow in its application. As computer power increases exponentially, the ability to deliver increasingly powerful and sophisticated AI and ML applications will arrive faster than we may imagine. Understanding what is happening at the forefront of innovation in this space will present significant opportunities”
Jamie Beaumont, partner at Lego Ventures
“Decentralised finance (DeFi), X as an embeddable microservice, cybersecurity”
Stephen Bernardez, partner at Avanta Ventures/CSAA Insurance Group
“Bridge financing and computing”
Marcus Böker, senior director for M&A at Phoenix Contact
“Cloud, AI, digitisation, distributed ledger, future of work”
Daniel Carter, senior investment director at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures
“Vertical-specific applications in AI for enterprise and enterprise software in general”
Jonathan Charles, investment director at Samsung Catalyst Fund
“Gene and cell therapy, digital health, behavioural health”
Chris Coburn, chief innovation officer, Mass General Brigham Innovation and president, Partners HealthCare International
“Vertical software and AI”
Eric Darwin, head of corporate development at DocuSign
“AI and cyber”
Greg DellaFranco, Northrop Grumman Ventures & Partnerships
“New digital representations of ourselves, that is digital passports and social distancing technologies”
Amir Debourou, senior investment director for ventures and business development at Siemens Healthineers
“Connected devices (internet of things), progress in AI, cybersecurity development, healthcare tech, advanced recycling”
Sophie Dingreville, director at Munich Re Ventures
“Everything around plastic waste solutions and sustainable packaging”
Gina Domanig, managing partner at Emerald Technology Ventures
“AI, predictive medicine and telemedicine, robotic process automation, clean technologies”
Matthieu Eyries, managing director at Air Liquide’s Aliad Venture Capital
“AI, quantum computing, lithium battery technologies and telemedicine or remote health”
Michael Falcon, managing director at LG Technology Ventures
“Digital solutions facilitating the digitisation of consumer industries and digital solutions around the topic of remote work”
Patrick Flesner, partner at Metro Group’s LeadX Capital Partners
“Future of work and digitisation of processes that touch the end consumer (this should have already been happening, but some slower moving industries are finally catching on)”
Amelia Gandara, principal for operations at Nationwide Ventures
“Datacom”
George Gogolev, head of Severstal Ventures
“Spatial computing (XR, augmented reality, virtual reality, 5G)”
David Haynes, director of developer ecosystem at HTC’s Vive X
“Digital and tech opportunities which enable natural carbon solutions to scale efficiently”
Katherine Herzog Parsons, venture principal at BP Ventures
“Biotech and healthcare sectors will continue to grow in the pandemic situation”
Huh Jiwon, chief investment officer at Hayan Health Networks
“Climate tech”
Mark Johnson, head of Husqvarna Ventures
“Middle-mile logistics and urban mobility”
Joo Euna, ecosystem development at Hyundai Cradle
“Hydrogen”
Jung Hee Suk, head of investment in Silicon Valley at SK Gas
“M&A and consolidation in consumer and retail to address post-covid environment as CEOs gain more confidence”
Adam Kane, director at Hershey Company’s C7 Ventures
“With digital proliferation in the covid-era, we finally have the infrastructure and accessibility to data to drive AI-based clinical decision support and personalised patient care pathways across surgery and medicine”
Oliver Keown, director at Intuitive Ventures
“Digital infrastructure and conversion to green energy driven by spend from stimulus programmes “
Pyrros Koussios, managing partner at Key Capital (adviser to Innogy)
“AI projects with recurring revenue, scalable ecosystems and marketplaces, superapps (taxi, delivery, videos and so on in one app)”
Ivan Kuzmenkov, head of Nornickel’s Perspective Ventures
“Low code or no code frameworks and technologies that make complex AI and ML techniques easier to access”
Donald Lacey, managing director and chief operating officer for PingAn’s Global Voyager Fund
“Online gaming, esports, agtech, foodtech”
Josie Lai, strategic investment lead at Resorts World (a Genting company)
“AI, collaboration software and cloud solutions”
Pär Lange, partner at Swisscom Ventures
“5G and AI will be two key areas for investing in 2021 because of the innovation and economic benefit each will drive. The biggest investment opportunities in 2021 will entail 5G use cases, such as applications and services that uniquely leverage some of 5G’s specific capabilities, typically high data throughput and-or very low latency. AI processing is also becoming more distributed, with power-efficient on-device AI complementing the cloud and mobile becoming the pervasive AI platform”
Quinn Li, senior vice-president and global head of Qualcomm Ventures
“Energy (software) technology to redefine the industry, machine intelligence and hydrogen”
Jan Lozek, managing partner at Innogy’s Future Energy Ventures
“DeFi, digital health and critical infrastructure”
Vincent Lui, senior director for corporate ventures and entrepreneur in residence at SK Telecom Americas
“Application of AI to genomic and proteomic data sorting; wearables for improved quantitative output in clinical development; next-generation gene therapy; ophthalmology”
Graeme Martin, chief investment officer at Alsa Ventures
“Data privacy and consumers monetising their data”
Julien Mialaret, operating partner at Idinvest Partners
“Healthcare”
Miyasaka Kyoichi, senior manager for Mitsubishi Estate Corporation
“Hydrogen, circular economy, bioplastics”
Girish Nadkarni, president at Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures
“AI, augmented and virtual reality, life sciences, electric vehicles, batteries and autonomy and industry 4.0”
Omkaram Nalamasu, president at Applied Ventures
“The events of 2020 have forced us to experience how many activities – work, learning, healthcare, commerce and socialising – can be done remotely and in new ways using digital tools. Longer term, we expect that many of these new behaviours thrust upon us will become essential and institutionalised (that is – virtual healthcare, remote and dispersed work, and online learning). The acceleration for these activities to mainstream will also bring about a need for significant improvements in security, privacy and the ability to manage our digital identities. This is just an unbelievable time to reset and restructure some industries that are badly in need of it.
Going into 2021, the opportunities that most excite us at Telus Ventures are those that enable digital transformation, accelerate and support the delivery of remote healthcare and work, and protect the infrastructure that delivers and manages information (security, privacy, identity). Among investors, an area we really see growing and gaining more interest is the social impact lens on investment opportunities, and that is something that we have embedded deeply within Telus Ventures and the social purpose mission at Telus”
Rich Osborn, managing partner at Telus Ventures
“If the economy bounces back and oil goes up enough for most companies to thrive, the small companies will be able to rebuild quickly. Startup funding for clean energy will become stronger and some of those startups will be able to commercialise enough to start to move the market, albeit only a little. A huge push on carbon capture and storage (CCUS) will create a lot of opportunities for large, small and startup companies. The winners and losers will be determined by the market as always, but government subsidies may distort the winner-loser pool and should be watched carefully”
Greg Powers, vice-president of Halliburton Labs
“Decentralised energy, ground mounted solar photo-voltaic, e-mobility for fleets”
Susana Quintana-Plaza, chief operating officer at Galp
“Foundational technology – enterprise and infrastructure software around data management and analytics”
Gayathri Radhakrishnan, director of AI Fund at Micron Ventures
“Embedded financial services that enable any company to offer a financial service to their customer without requiring the company to have the technology, licences or balance sheet to offer the service”
Jay Reinemann, partner at Propel Venture Partners
“Use of software and data to drive industrial processes and decision-making”
Ginger Rothrock, HG Ventures
“Investments related to remote work and education (remote leadership and productivity, infrastructure and innovation on virtual experiences, wellness)”
Rodolfo Sagahón, director at Corporate Impact Ventures
“Zero-emission technology. This will continue for two to three years at least”
Sasai Takeshi, senior strategic planner at Komatsu
“Medical life science tools: startups that combine knowledge of microbiology, genetics, microfluidics and electronics to create systems that enable enhanced human, animal, plant health monitoring”
Nicolas Sauvage, managing director at TDK Ventures
“Acceleration of decentralised clinical trials”
Dave Schulte, managing director at McKesson Ventures
“Internet of behaviours, anywhere operations, hyper-automation”
Hector Shibata, director of investments and portfolio at AC Ventures
“Aside from contactless technology, there will be interesting investment opportunities to be had around remote work. Virtual meeting platforms today have the opportunity to expand upon current successes by adding feedback mechanisms to gauge how participants are feeling or what they are doing to better simulate in-person meetings”
Raj Singh, managing director at JetBlue Technology Ventures
“5G”
Ken Sobajima, senior director of investments at KDDI
“Sustainability”
Markus Solibieda, managing director at BASF Venture Capital
“Impact investing”
Gabriele Strassburger, investment manager and venture developer at Kärcher New Venture
“Quantum computing and hardware to support AI”
Justin Strausbaugh, managing director at Molex Ventures
“AI, fintech, healthtech, distributed organisations and no-code platforms”
Stanislas Subra, senior investment manager at MACSF
“Energy efficiency, data efficiency and agricultural innovations”
Aruna Subramanian, managing director at Sabic Ventures
“Telehealth and virtual care, diagnostics and vaccines and cybersecurity”
Mayank Taneja, director of venture investments at OSF Healthcare
“AI, disruptive distribution (example: drones), blockchain”
Bill Taranto, president at Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
“Virtual currency and blockchain application”
Terahigashi Hiroki, head of corporate planning at Ceres
“Climate tech and carbon-neutral solutions”
Joseph Tiller, global head of corporate transactions at Specialized Bicycle Components’ Zone 5 Ventures
“Personalised medicines and nutrition, digital health, alternative proteins and cleantech”
Tina Tosukhowong, senior director at GC Ventures America
“AI”
Toyoda Nobu, JSR Corporation
“Fintech”
Tsuchikawa Gen, CEO of Sony Innovation Fund
“New modes of mobility in China and India“
Geert van de Wouw, managing director at Shell Ventures
“Digitalisation of the core business; Marketplaces and platforms (including APIs, backend-as-a service…); cybersecurity; onboarding: know your customer, anti-money laundering, transaction monitoring; adjacent services (accountancy, payrolling, workflow….)”
Harrie Vollaard, managing director at Rabo Frontier Ventures
“Content moderation, AI, distributing computing, 5G”
Denise Xifara, co-founder Guardian Media Group’s GMG Ventures
“Clean energy, climatech, agtech”
Raymond Zheng, managing director at Honda Innovations
“Cleantech”
Richard Zeiger, partner, MSW Capital
