While most industries have been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 health and economic crisis over the past few months, a very exclusive club of privileged tech markets have been propelled to the upper level.
Indeed, the radical shift in work patterns & habits, in strategic focus that has been caused by the Covid-19 outbreak proved the perfect driver to accelerate growth in the below-mentioned 7 specific markets at least. This list does not pretend to be exhaustive and is narrowed to tech markets which is our area of expertise.
Whether these markets are actually resilient over the long-run or simply benefit a sudden windfall will depend on the global recovery scenario, especially its speed and cruve-type (V, U,W, L are the most frequently quoted). By the way, there are sound foundations beyond the current hype.
1. Telehealth & telemedicine:
In France, Doctolib has eventually reached the symbolic threshold of 2.5 million teleconsultations during the Covid-19 crisis, skyrocketing from 1,000 to 100,000 teleconsultations per day in April 2020.
Even if we at Odyssey consider Doctolib to be a tech marketplace and not a telehealth firm, this example highlights the volume potential that is appealing to investors. On top, regulations & public health programmes may favor the emerging players in telehealth.
2. Business communications technology & software:
Zoom currently means boom. Not only did Zoom IPO in March 2020, one month before the virus popped up in the US, but they also climbed to an impressive 300,000 users of their videoconferencing solutions. And the rival Pexip's IPO is coming.
Digital sovereignty is a key issue in terms of business communications technology, in particular in some specific industries such as defence. European collaborative tools are definitely one of the next big things to watch.
3. B2B Fintech & Insurtech:
The percentage of businesses that have been or will go bankrupt in 2020 is set to rise dramatically. With increased tensions on their cash & credit management, startups and SMEs are massively adopting innovative fintech & insturtech solutions that enable them to optimize their short-term financing. A fantastic number of supportive offers to help distressed companies has been recently released.
B2B Fintech & Insurtech were on the investors radar far before the Covid-19 crisis, but some of them demonstrate their resilience and contra-cyclical nature, along with their capacity to generate recurring revenues and/or high transaction volumes. Specificities that investors are looking for.
4. Cybersecurity:
The number of cyberattacks targeting companies and public institutions has soared over the past 2 months, concomitantly with the lockdown measures. Cybersecurity is now on the agenda of most top management teams, and therefore budgeted for. It was already the case in large corporations, and now extends to SMEs.
The providers of cybersecurity solutions & services were already riding the wave of a double-digit growth before Covid-19. Now, they are on a hot spot that investors can't overlook in their portfolio.
5. Edtech:
Edtech benefits from the free time allocated by confined populations to online education. The spectrum of online personal education and executive training programs has seriously been augmented over the past few weeks, with a clear support from governments. The gamification of online learning is probably still in its early stages.
Edtech companies are rapidly growing, which sharpens the appetite of some investors.
6. E-sports & gaming:
While e-sports competitions have been put on hold during the lockdowns, as they require physical attendance (most often in front of a huge offline and online audience), the e-sports & gaming industry gained new visibility during the health crisis.
The existence of a massively-funded industry in the US paves the way for the European market, still restrained by the existence of multiple competitions frameworks that are uneasy to read.
7. Digital Services:
The digital transformation undertaken by SMEs has been accelerating as Covid-19 has shown how essential it is to maintain a certain degree of business continuity in confinment. Therefore, digital services providers focusing on enterprise solutions are facing an exploding demand for cloud migration services, applications management & maintenance, systems & software integration.
This market is well-known by investors who still consider it strategic.
Our research department expects these markets to gradually come into the limelight of institutional investors, including both VCs and PEs as companies in these fields are maturing swiftly, and most likely for a sustainable period of time.
As a consequence, this favorable momentum may concretely translate as follows:
(1) the scope of focus of investors includes at least most of these markets,
(2) the number of transactions in these fields increases despite a potential risk of "cash drought" in certain markets,
(3) the valuation of companies in these markets is on the rise,
(4) the time to process a transaction is now quicker relative to other industries who now face a rather significant extension in that regard.
For more insights on these trends, please contact us: