2022 is a few weeks away.
So tell me, crystal ball, what will be THE BIG IDEA in the new year?!
The message: Consumer & Science
Over the last few years, we’ve seen various deep tech sectors converge.
To name a few:
-The advancement of synthetic biology, novel ingredients for alternative proteins.
-Sensors, AI and the rise of self-driving cars.
-Sequencing, screening technologies and longevity / health.
What do these all have in common?
Technical breakthroughs are bursting out of the engineering bubble and into the hands of consumers.
It is consumers, hand-in-hand with the scientific community, that can democratize these breakthrough innovations in the new year.
Why is this so thrilling?
The consumer space is oversaturated.
Existing tech innovations revolve around software.
These patterns are becoming predictable and underwhelming for consumers.
What consumers crave now are solutions that address fundamental, human needs — from food security to sustainability.
At Conscience VC, we call this phenomenon “consumer-led science.”
We believe that companies at the intersection of consumer and science will be the most exciting, impact-driven, socially responsible, and financially promising in the market.
This is not to say that the investing world has been kind to science-driven founders. Investors have, for the most part, considered deep tech to be a risky investment.
Deep tech takes time to understand, time to develop, and time to scale. R&D, and then company-building, was not moving fast enough for VC.
With the explosion of tech enablers, such as 4G/5G and cloud computing, a bridge between technical innovation and consumer was built. What made the difference is that consumers found these products easy to use and accessible.
With that, we see consumer-led science emerging as the next big hit. 2021 was already a record-setting year, with many well-known science-led companies clearing $1B valuation.
Investors are also better at seeing the value in early-stage technical investments after witnessing widespread adoption among customers.
Looking ahead to 2022, we at Conscience see the upcoming year as absolutely monumental for science-led, consumer-obsessed startups.
A few of the trends boosting our confidence:
-New sources of non-dilutive capital for science-led companies.
-COVID as the catalyst for accelerated innovation.
-With exponential tech and convergence, R&D timelines are getting shorter.
-GenZ and millennials as the most progressive, open-minded, and technologically adept generation to date. With young consumers overeager to adopt technically-defensible products, product validation accelerates.
-Unresolvable global problems that current technology can’t solve, and individuals are passionate about.
A key belief for us is that very soon, frontier tech and science will become less “frontier” and evolve into a more central commodity for the individual.
