Startups in 2022: 6 trends to watch this year

Have you heard about The Great Resignation, aka the Big Quit? If you live in the United States, you probably know what I’m talking about. Coined by Anthony Klotz in 2021, a professor of management at Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, this phenomenon describes the growing trend in which employees resign from their jobs, primarily in the US.

Many specialists attribute it to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the American government failed to provide necessary worker protection. Do include wage stagnation and a rising cost of living in the equation, and you get the picture. On the bright side, statistics reveal massive startup scene growth. For instance, a whopping 1.4 million Americans filed applications to start their businesses in September 2021 alone, according to an analysis of Census data by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG).

Naturally, the “quit-your-job” trend is being closely watched by investors. In 2021, global venture capital investments, including corporations and corporate funds, have broken a historical record as the volume amounted to $268.7 billion, according to Reuters. The prime deals are associated with various software, e-commerce, digital health, and financial technology companies, whose products and services were in high demand during the pandemic.

In regards to all these numbers, it’s high time to check the global startup trends that will shape the scene in 2022. I suggest considering these six directions below if you’re thinking of starting a company this year. Let’s go!

Recruitment agencies

If you haven’t skipped the first paragraph, it’s not rocket science to guess the first trend. In 2021, businesses reported a catastrophic staff shortage, and HR departments have difficulties finding personnel for many positions.

Well, business is where you find it. It would be fair to predict that the search and employment of people is a promising direction for starting a business in 2022. Just take a look at the phenomenal growth of Human Bees, a staffing firm. According to Inc, the company topped the ranking of the fastest-growing companies in 2021 and has plans to expand further.

2022 seems like a perfect year to start your own recruitment agency. If you’re interested in dipping your toes in this field, I recommend visiting this online event by Eventbrite.

Medical services

It’s impossible to ignore the pandemic nowadays, and market stats just prove it. Take a look at the US-based Carbon Health, the company that provides testing to identify COVID-19. However, that’s not the sole area of their business. The company also provides rehabilitation services after recovering from the coronavirus and helps clients to be treated at home. Overall, Carbon Health is engaged in any kind of medical care in general (and with no expensive insurance premiums, by the way). No wonder this business grew significantly over the past year.

The issue of vaccination and the invention of a cure for threatening COVID and other diseases are the main reasons for the growing attention towards companies in the fields of pharma and biotech. The urgent need to obtain medicine has led to the attraction of investments by startups in their early stages (which is generally uncharacteristic for this market). For instance, Sana Biotechnology, a cell and gene therapy developer managed by ex-Juno Therapeutics executives, raised $588 million in an initial public offering.

Cybersecurity

The trend towards strengthening cybersecurity measures won’t lose its relevance any time soon. Again, the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll: in 2021, cybercrime grew by an astonishing 600%.

Those numbers are pretty understandable, though. The transition to an online mode of work, an increase in the number of online services, and the general global digitalization of businesses contribute to the growing demand for improved security measures. Here’s the top 10 cybersecurity startups chart by Esecurityplanet:

This way, cyber ​security services against various types of threats such as network intrusions, ransomware viruses, and data theft will become one of the hottest trends in 2022. Long-term directions in the field of information security include:

• extended detection and response to threats;
• Secure Access Service Edge;
• processes for ensuring protection against attacks on supply chains.

NFT tokens

Looking back at early 2021, I vividly remember that NTF tokens craze taking over social media and news. The year has passed since its beginnings, but it seems like this cryptoart expansion won’t slow down in 2022 either. All in all, NTF has all the potential to become the main blockchain trend this year.

If you’re new to NFT, it is a technology that allows you to digitize the interaction with any virtual and physical goods. A non-fungible token acts as a certificate of the uniqueness of a digital object, confirming the right to own it. NFT can be released for virtual values ​​(pictures, gifs, audio recording, or, say, a character in a video game), as well as material (stocks, real estate, works of art).

Tokens are radically changing the system of assigning and managing ownership of an object. Feeling its potential, venture capitalists are actively funding NFT startups. For instance, investors poured $90 million into companies producing NFT and digital collectibles last year.

Real Estate

Real estate is a conservative industry, one of the slowest domains to adopt new technology, in fact. This basically means that tech-savvy startups have more chances to succeed in modern digital-driven times. For instance, Brendan Wallace, co-founder at investment firm Fifth Wall, describes the current year as “a year of enormous secular growth in real estate and proptech”.

If you feel you can develop new business models and reinvent the entire customer experience with tech, give it a try. You might be interested in checking out these 20 promising startups in this field.

Green technologies

As they say, green is the color. Industry professionals indicate the growing interest in waste recycling and disposal, energy-saving technologies, decarbonization of industry, production of goods from natural materials, biofuels, electric vehicles, water purification, and solar panels.

Zero waste isn’t just a trendy thing to do — it’s the new way of living, the new normal, so to speak. In 2022, startups will continue to enter this domain because the interest from both consumers and investors doesn’t seem to fade away. According to analysts from Allied Market Research, the global market for environmentally friendly solutions will grow by 24.3% annually and will reach $43.48 billion by 2030.

Interested in going green? Check out some top picks for the best GreenTech startups.

To sum up

When choosing the right idea for a startup, it makes perfect sense to familiarize yourself with all the recent trends in the market. However, it is even more important to evaluate them at a macro scale. Although it’s hard to predict things, make sure to choose the idea that has more chances to keep its relevance in the long run.

Hey! Do you have a startup idea? If you do, you might have wondered what first steps you should take to move forward.

Here at Akveo, being a former startup ourselves, we know this feeling. It would be awesome if the process were unchallenging, but it’s not. I want to make it a bit easier. Here’s the collection of insights to help early-stage companies have a quick start and grow. This startup guide is for entrepreneurs looking to start a company and those in the process of building one.

So without further ado, download the interactive startup pack with advice from founders, downloadable tools, tips, templates, and helpful media resources.

The guide answers the following questions:

• How can I accelerate my growth?
• What tools can help me reach my goals?
• What are the current startup trends?
• Do I need a co-founder?
• What mistakes should I avoid?
• What media should I follow?

Although most of the ideas are born out of… well, other ideas, it is important not to simply copy the product, but to improve it and provide consumers with the better option. Identify shortcomings, analyze what can be added to the existing solution: introduce additional functionality, improve the quality of service, use new distribution channels, and so on. Don’t reinvent the wheel: study the key needs of your client, it’s the key point when starting out.

Here’s how Akveo can help

We provide custom software development services to startups from various industries. As your trusted technological partner, we will deliver everything from an MVP to a full-fledged software product on time and budget. As this article states, the global startup scene is vibrant and full of beautiful ideas, and we believe that ideas rule the world. That is why we care to translate your vision into a scalable and feature-rich solution. Contact us today!