COVID 19 not Adverse to Venture Capital - MIT Sloan
1. Analysts expected COVID-19 to take a toll on venture capital. Instead, 2020 turned out to be the second biggest year for venture capital in history, with funds deploying some $141.9 billion in investments. That left investors feeling highly optimistic coming into 2021. At two recent events — the MIT Sloan Investment Conference and the MIT Fintech Conference — panelists identified trends they believe will shape the industry post-pandemic : Impact investing continues to gain momentum. “Impact is not mutually exclusive with financial returns,” said Connie Deng, a senior associate in venture capital at Emerson Collective. “We think they’re mutually beneficial.” Frontier markets — economies in the developing world — are attractive because of their large, untapped populations, but country-specific dynamics require “a bit of trial and error,” said Amanda Cotterman, a Kenya-based managing partner of Equalife. An investment in standard technology can help revamp ...