According to data from the Startup Ecosystem, in recent years some 1,370 new startupsconsolidating a trend of change in the orientation of these every 5-10 years. All this is due to the social, political, economic, technological and demographic changes that influence the lives of citizens, and therefore, the needs to be satisfied.
There are many new companies, driven by new investors, who are betting the latest technological trends such as blockchain, Web3, the metaverse and AI, especially after the boom in ChatGPT. In recent months, the trend of automate sectors such as travel planning, marketing and recruitment processes.
Sergi VilaCEO of the Startup Venture Corporation Combinator, ensures that the changes that take place during the next decade will have an impact on the future of humanity. Thus, and despite being submerged in a period of full economic recession and uncertainty for the markets, with inflation and interest rates soaring, 2023 is being and will continue to be a year marked by new lines of investment among startups.
The entrepreneurs of the present
In Spain they appear two very different profiles of entrepreneursalthough both are characterized by having a restless mind, high qualifications and the desire to take risks to meet the needs of today’s world.
On the one hand, we highlight the adult entrepreneur who has a consolidated work career and enough experience to now face the challenge of creating a new startup. His entrepreneurial adventure began because he believes that it is time to solve a current problem in the sector.
On the other hand, the young entrepreneur. Recently graduated and loaded with illusions and revolutionary ideas, he has sufficient financial resources to venture into making the leap and launching an idea that could become a success on the market. It is true that among young people there is less fear of failure, but it is also ideas mature much more as their future depends on them.
Entrepreneurial horizons
Sergi Vila, from Bcombinator, details what are the new investment trends in the startup sector today, and therefore, by the second half of 2023.
- Irruption of B2B startups: Following the success stories of B2C startups from wallapop either balloonnow it seems that the trend is changing and investors are betting more on B2B projects. This is because they have a stable customer base with low turnover, full scalability with controlled costs, and a controllable and predictable structure. In addition to all this, they have higher profit margins.
- The value of education: The edtech business will succeed as a method of innovation in the classroom through gamification or robotics. This trend, driven by Generation Z to the world of work, goes hand in hand with a new concept; the digital nomad, the nomad who works in the digital sector. This supposes a transformation of all economic levels.
- Investments at a decelerating rate: The concept of ‘The winner takes it all’ is being lost, according to Vila, and the idea that made companies like WeWork either uber to invest at any price now is not successful. All this is reporting that these businesses have experienced notorious falls in the stock markets in recent months. For all this, investors are believing in a new investment methodmore rational, in which fully profitable and large-scale business models are sought.
- Profitability as an engine: To the detriment of fundraising. The financial market is very skeptical and for this reason new startups must fight against their main competitors to demonstrate their good numbers and achieve high valuations.
- New Horizons: Entrepreneurship will be marked in the remainder of the year by the power of AI, which together with the great advances in robotics, is expected to revolutionize all sectors in the next ten years. It is also expected the rise of startups linked to concepts such as energy, sustainability and climatefor which public institutions will allocate budget items.
Despite the economic uncertainty and the different circumstances that affect all economic sectors, the trend that can now be elucidated among startups will end up having an impact on the situation of society in the next 5-10 yearsTherefore, new changes are not ruled out in the coming months.
