附近上门

The startup and venture world has a lot to live up to in 2022, after a year that pretty much broke every record.

With the big caveat that we of course can鈥檛 foresee the future鈥攚ho would have predicted at the start of 2020 that a pandemic would upend lives globally, but ultimately lead to a monster rally for the tech industry?鈥攚e nonetheless gazed into our crystal balls and came up with our best educated guesses for what 2022 has in store.

1) VC funding will (mostly) come back to Earth

Global venture funding in 2021 nearly doubled compared to 2020, which was already the second-largest year on record for startup investment. Investors last year poured a whopping $643 billion into startups worldwide as the pandemic buoyed the tech industry.

Funding across all stages was up, but none more than the late and technology-growth stage. Last year also saw large, nontraditional investors including and push aggressively into Silicon Valley鈥檚 turf, outpacing investment by traditional venture firms.

Our prediction: The big question going into this year is whether we鈥檒l see an encore in 2022. That seems unlikely, given how many startups are now flush with cash and eyeing exits, and rising interest rates that are likely to make for a more challenging environment for investors this year. While venture investment will likely remain strong in 2022, we expect it will settle down a bit and come in somewhere between the almost $650 billion invested last year, and the $300 billion or so we鈥檝e seen in less heady years.

2) A strong IPO cohort will face some headwinds

Last year also posted record proceeds from public-market offerings and featured some of the largest startup IPOs of all time, including , and . All told, 2021 was the busiest year on record for IPOs, with 399 offerings collectively raising $142.5 billion, according to IPO research firm .

But many of those newly public stocks performed underwhelmingly as the year wore on, and we enter the new year with the threat of rising inflation also weighing on valuations.

Still, 2022 has a strong pipeline of highly funded IPO candidates鈥攖here are now well over 1,100 companies on 鈥攁nd rising antitrust pressure from policymakers around the world means M&A has become a much less viable exit option for many of these companies.

Our prediction: Despite some headwinds, 2022 could match or top last year鈥檚 IPO market. We offered our bets for 30 companies we think could go public next year, including , , , , and .

3) Fintech will continue its record streak

Of the record $643 billion in venture capital deployed globally last year,聽no single industry received more investment than financial services, which got at least $131 billion. Investment went into a host of sectors within fintech, from crypto trading to payments infrastructure to neobanks.

The buy now, pay later industry has grown massively in the last few years鈥攔aking in more than $4 billion in VC investment last year, compared to $1.7 billion in 2020鈥攍ed by well-funded players including , and . But even as these startups look to expand into new markets and partner with other companies, they over their business models that could dampen that growth.

Our prediction: With fintech powering much of digital commerce in the pandemic world, investment in the sector will remain strong in 2022, with funding likely to go toward the infrastructure layer, embedded services, consumer fintech, B2B payments and, of course, crypto.

4) Crypto investment will remain red-hot

The crypto sector has emerged as its own heavily funded area that鈥檚 increasingly distinct from the rest of the fintech industry. 附近上门 numbers show VC funding to crypto startups last year totaled more than $21 billion, far outstripping the $3.7 billion invested in 2020. More than 30 new crypto unicorns were minted last year, accounting for about three quarters of all the billion-dollar startups in the space.

Our prediction: Industry watchers only expect crypto investment to grow this year, with investment likely to go toward infrastructure, compliance and analytics, among other areas.

5) Cybersecurity eyes an encore

The digital world can be a scary place, but for startups in the cybersecurity industry that has spelled massive opportunity. The sector globally hauled in an unprecedented $21.8 billion in VC investment last year, with the fourth quarter of 2021 also setting the all-time quarterly record.

Our prediction: Amid big corporate hacks and data breaches, a multiplication of attack surfaces as more people work from home on less secure networks, and new decentralized environments including the metaverse and crypto platforms, cybersecurity startups will have plenty of opportunities to flex their muscles in 2022. Investors we spoke with predict areas that will continue to draw interest this year include personal ID security, auditing and the trending practice of 鈥渟hift left,鈥� which is intended to find errors earlier in software delivery.

6) Proptech is poised for another big year

Property tech also had a banner year in 2021. Venture-backed companies in the real estate and property tech space raised nearly $21 billion, 附近上门 data shows, and the sector saw milestones like 鈥檚 IPO.

It wasn鈥檛 all rosy鈥攖here was also the embarrassing collapse of construction unicorn , which had raised some $1.6 billion from and other prominent investors鈥攂ut, by and large, the sector benefited from both a pandemic-fueled homebuying boom and increasing digitization of office spaces to accommodate the new work environment.

Our prediction: Sources we spoke with say there will likely be more investment in real estate software surrounding the construction and property management spaces鈥攖wo sectors that were standout areas for investment within proptech in 2021, according to 附近上门 data. They also expect more consolidation in the industry as companies mature and look for exits.

7) Biotech investment gets a big shot in the arm

Sure, the pandemic put a massive spotlight on the biotech sector and drew increased investment to the area. (COVID-19 vaccine-maker is itself little more than a startup.)

But investors and other experts we spoke with say it鈥檚 not just virus-fighting technology that鈥檚 prompting a spike in biotech investment. Other areas, from artificial intelligence breakthroughs to new candor about mental health issues, are also pushing more venture investment into the health and biotech sectors.

Our prediction: Expect continued investment this year in areas ranging from AI applications for biotech鈥攚hich can help researchers analyze massive troves of data and simulate new treatments鈥攖o mental health to more accessible health diagnostic tools.

8) Startups aimed at helping us live longer will prosper in 2022

Isn鈥檛 all this about helping our species live longer, happier鈥攐r maybe just less miserable鈥攍ives anyway? While many startups claim to be working on breakthroughs that will change the course of human history, a small niche cohort of companies are literally working on technologies that could potentially radically extend the human lifespan.

Prominent companies in the space that raised funding last year include , an AI-enabled precision medicine company, , a developer of epigenetic tools and analytics, and , which is focused on epigenetic editing.

Our prediction: Experts say that along with overall biotech investment, startups in the longevity sector will likely see continued investment interest in 2022, in areas from neurodegenerative disease prevention to age indexing to organ regeneration.

9) The SPAC party is over

Special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, were the hot trend at the beginning of 2021, with nearly 300 of these investment vehicles created in the first quarter. Blank-check acquirers offered a faster and less complicated route to the public markets and have been particularly attractive to startups in riskier but capital-intensive industries like electric vehicles.

Still, the overwhelming majority of venture-backed companies that went public via SPACs in 2021 ended the year trading far below their former highs, 附近上门 News reporter Joanna Glasner found in a recent analysis. Among the worst performers were auto insurance startup , smart-glass maker , and tech-enabled baby care products maker .

Our prediction: The SPAC bubble had started to deflate by mid-2021 and the performances of these stocks as the year wore on doesn鈥檛 bode well for blank-check companies to make a big comeback anytime soon. Instead, we expect we鈥檒l see most startups heading to the public markets this year do so via the traditional IPO route.

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