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 archaic industries. “The tech is not edge-of-the-ledge,” said seed-stage investor David Frankel, but it’s fixing problems for industries that haven’t yet been brought into the 21st century.
  
  
• Technology niches abound for creative startups. Panelists were bullish on bespoke financial products, collaborative fintech, and tap-to-pay and voice payments.

From MIT Sloan - Thinking Forward email..