Where Money Goes

We’ve been round the clock on the unprecedented impact of the current pandemic situation, and that’s probably enough for the moment. End of Days or Live Another Day? Follow-up at the next episode. In the meantime, we looked at recently-funded projects to peep into what the future has in store. Here is a shopping list of what we’ve gathered this week.

Working remotely. Electronic identity verification (ForgeRock), cyber-security, web conferencing, remote desktop (Ziteboard), and live chats have noticed big spikes in interest.

Self-Educated. Great push to streamline education, from tutoring to educational content. French startup Molotov is launching SchoolMouv for age-appropriate videos and learning. MOOCs are becoming mainstream and certainly question the real value add of offline education.

At home. Automated delivery is gathering pace, with Alibaba, JD.com in China or Google in the US expanding the use of delivery drones.

Healthy. In a time where healthcare systems are overwhelmed, healthcare screening will be carried out from home. French insurtech Alan raised $50m for online medical advice and insurance claims. Elsewhere, the MIT patented washable sensors that embed in clothing to monitor constant vital signs. Outcome-based pricing will be the norm (Adelade). And, as Bill Gates puts it, vaccines, diagnostics and anti-viral drugs should also attract more attention and investments post pandemic (Affinavax).

Going local. As globalization seems to have received a stab in the belly, firms’ offers are becoming more local and granular. Stripe, a payment technology firm, is now offering card issuing services directly to businesses to let them make credit cards for customers tailored for specific purposes.

Preventing cash crunch. As small businesses will need help to pinch pennies, Dgits raised $22m series B to track expenses more efficiently. Firms, like Noah raising $150m lately, are providing liquidity debt-free and interest-free against a participation in your home’s future appreciation.

Agile organizations. Software has been for a long time facilitating our work, by shortening data processing time. Now, it is evolving to directly trigger actions or react to other pieces of software. Event-streams become the new central nervous system, and firms such as US-based Confluent ($4.5bn valuation) help building such systems.

This should all give us a hint on where the money goes.

BR