Entrepreneurs create innovative ways to disrupt markets with fresh ideas.
New startup spaces are established more frequently than one might imagine. Whether a startup creates a new market, technology, product or service, or applies an existing technology, product or service to a current market, it’s all about thinking differently to solve a problem for customers.
Just a few years ago, it would seem unheard of to purchase an affordable mattress online and have it delivered to your door in a box. Now, Casper – one of the original leaders in the direct-to-consumer mattress space – is trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In a similar fashion, some of the freshest ideas today might soon disrupt billion-dollar markets.
Read on for five emerging spaces on the rise in the United States, according to PitchBook, the private capital market data provider.
1. Cellular Agriculture
Cellular agriculture is the term given to lab-grown agricultural products, including milk, eggs and meat. As more focus is put on the vast amount of resources needed to produce these products using traditional agricultural methods, many believe that growing animal products, like beef, in a cell culture is a more environmentally friendly and humane way to produce and consume these animal products.
2. Decentralized Finance
Companies in the decentralized finance space use blockchain technology – a secure system in which transactions are recorded and verified over a peer-to-peer network rather than a central location – to provide new ways to access and use financial tools and services.
3. Artificial Intelligence-Powered Drug Discovery
Traditional drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry is an expensive and time-intensive process. Companies in the AI-powered drug discovery space aim to use artificial intelligence to speed up the time it takes to isolate promising drug compounds to enable pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs faster and at a fraction of current costs.
4. Ghost Kitchens
Sometimes referred to as restaurants-as-a-service, ghost kitchens operate much like a restaurant kitchen – but only prepare and cook food for delivery or catering. This business model allows restaurants to increase profit margins by catering to the increased popularity in online food ordering and delivery platforms.
5. Robotic Process Automation
Companies in the robotic process automation space use computer software to streamline and automate tasks typically done by a human, like chatbots on e-commerce sites that gather information and assist customers based on their requests. Robotic process automation, which interacts with existing enterprise software, allows organizations to automate tedious processes cost-effectively and provides workers with more time to focus on higher value work.
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Source: PitchBook Emerging Spaces: pitchbook.com
Illustration: Elisa Le, UCI Beall Applied Innovation