[Techie Tuesday] What will 2022 look like for deeptech startup industry

There has been a massive shift in our lives as the world faced COVID-19 pandemic for almost the last two years. Just a couple of years ago, nobody would have thought of the way the entire population, governments, and companies would function in the way we did during the pandemic.

One thing that helped us to keep moving forward is enablement of technology in every walk of life brought by deep-tech and digital technologies. Deep-tech companies and startups are going to create bigger impact in the coming year.

There are few areas like Machine Learning (ML), IOT, mobility, and Blockchain where deeptech startups will continue creating a huge impact.

AI & ML

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI & ML) are now not the matter of textbooks or fantasy of geeks, but have started impacting every walk of life. Companies started using deep learning-based predictions, pattern recognition, natural language processing (NLP), recommendation, and sentiment analysis on their products to provide automation and personalisation.

Leading tech companies focussing and investing billions of dollars on this area will boost AI and ML, and we will be seeing a big leap in 2022. Two major areas that will really reap the benefit of continuous improvement in AI & ML will be autonomous vehicles and voice-based virtual assistants. 

At the same time, we will see many startups creating impactful products in fintech, agriculture, and healthcare to shake the old incumbents because they will be able to disrupt these sectors with technological advancements. 

For example, we started seeing the emergence of neo-bank startups that are able to provide better banking, lending, and insurance services at a fraction of cost than traditional banks using superior technology based on data science, AI, and ML.

Similarly, we are seeing the emergence of a good number of startups in agriculture to enable farmers and merchants to utilise data for making better decisions on harvesting, selling, and storing their crops, ultimately leading to better productivity and higher income.

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Internet of Things

During and post Covid, IoT is accelerating new trends such as working from home, digitisation, and smart living. With better connectivity like 5G and better products based on smart devices, startups are truly going to bring innovation in hardware and software products in 2022. 

We will see the trend that people will be using smart IoT devices to connect, communicate, and live their lives.

Smart home automation is a big example here where voice-enabled devices will be making our life easier and even transcending into becoming a single device for all our needs -- whether you want to see a particular series of Netflix on your smart TV or do shopping on Amazon.

When Apple brought iPhone for the first time, it created a parallel app economy worth multi-billion dollars and enabled individual developers and entrepreneurs to harness smartphone ecosystem to create unique products and offerings.

We will be seeing a similar trend in IoT where individuals and startups will be using IoT devices capability to bring unique offerings for industry and consumers.

There are areas like smart city, home automation, and home security, where deep-tech startups will bring positive changes.

Mobility

We started seeing the impact of pollution caused by activities done by us. Some cities are s so polluted and not breathable and some cities are grappling with either floods or shortage of water. And one of the major contributors is mobility and vehicle pollution. 

India is now seeing electrical mobility revolution brought by startups to provide affordable two-wheeler mobility and soon that will reach to cars. Due to self-realisation and rising fuel prices, consumers are also showing very warm responses to these products and that will attract many deep-tech startups to build smart electrical mobility solutions in 2022.

This will open up opportunities in manufacturing, servicing these vehicles and at the same time building integrated solutions like smart charging facilities, etc., and this sector is really going to be exciting for deep-tech startups.

Blockchain

When blockchain first made rounds on the news, many were quite sceptical about its long-term functioning and terms it as hype, but time has proven the fact that blockchain technology is here to stay and is advancing at a rapid pace. 

Cryptocurrency, NFT, and Decentralised Finance are using blockchain and attracting the smartest minds of our generation to build products that were never heard of a few years ago.

Many startups using blockchain for healthcare and customer verification (KYC) have started providing services to businesses to make their process simpler. Year 2022 will be interesting to watch these blockchain startups thrive.

Overall, 2022 looks an exciting year for deep-tech startups and we will be seeing great impact of these companies in our lives and economy.