Deep Tech Trends

Our first report covering trends in Deep Tech is out!

The report mainly focuses on our key investment areas via our programs (hardware via www.hax.co, and biotech via www.indiebio.co and www.rebelbio.co). It is embedded below with some key highlights. The file can be downloaded here.

• Deep Tech reaches far and wide and every sector, from AgTech to Construction. If you want to interact with the physical world you need bits AND atoms.
• Despite some spectacular failures (#Theranos), the investment landscape is very active, and dozens of funds focused on Deep Tech have emerged like Lux Capital, The Engine, IQ Capital, Entrepreneur First and many more. SoftBank has also been active in the sector with investments in over a close to a dozen deep tech startups. The sector is still quite underfunded which leads to opportunities (less competition on deals) but also challenges (follow-ons, in particular before series A).

• While deep tech is not new, the number of startups has only grown recently and the best exits are yet to come. Still, some early numbers indicate the time to exit and multiples compare favorably to the broader startup sector.

• The consumer sector, which receives the most attention, is not the most active. B2B solutions for industry, enterprise and health have been multiplying, from automation to diagnostics, including things like mental health!

• Even somewhat unglamorous sectors like Architecture/Construction are seeing exciting startups that help save time and improve safety.

• China is very active in sectors like AgTech, Manufacturing and STEM. It bought 4 times more industrial robots than the US in 2018. In AgTech, it already runs facial recognition tech at scale. Apparently, pigs have twice as many recognition points on their face as humans -- the same can't be said for geese!

• In Synthetic Biology, the 'Cell-Ag' sector is booming. Some companies are expecting to get to market soon.

• The combination of computational and wet-lab biology is accelerating the development or general or personalized treatments, and research on rare diseases.

If all those efforts go to fruition, it looks like the world will be fairly better off!