TRENDS 2020: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, VIRTUAL REALITY AND KILLER ROBOTS

Unicorns buying unicorns. An $8T opportunity in wellness technology. Empathy in design. Killer robots. Here are the main technological trends that should reshape the industries in 2020. At least, according to the CB Insights report on the 14 Tech Trends 2020. The Startuppers Club goes back over the main points of this report whose conclusions are based on artificial intelligence. Virtual reality and work organisation According to the CB Insights study, virtual reality could well be integrated into the organization of companies to bring people together from far away. Indeed, for several years now, we have been noticing the rise of remote workers and freelancers. But we also note the increase in real estate prices which could push some companies to relocate part of their employees. It would therefore become interesting to make some employees work from home, or in cities cheaper than Paris, London or New York. This is where virtual reality comes into its own! Startups such as Magic Leap or Spatial offer virtual rooms where employees’ avatars can meet. When participants wear the glasses, they feel like they are in a meeting room with others. But startups are not alone on the market because Google, Apple and Microsoft are already on the market. Last year, Google launched a new edition of its virtual reality headset for businesses and Microsoft launched its Hololens 2, also for businesses. Killer robots and ransomwares CB Insights predicts an increase in crimes perpetrated by robots or malware. In 2017, the movie Slaughterbots was released on Youtube. It featured autonomous drones capable of killing. But these drones were also equipped with facial recognition technology. The risk of seeing killer robots is very real according to CB Insights, since all technologies are available today. And they’re not too expensive, so they’re not reserved for states like nuclear weapons could be. Also, ransomwares should multiply and attack key institutions. Last year we saw attacks on the city of Atlanta, the British social security service or the London Stock Exchange. According to a report by McAfee, the hacking ecosystem will grow and concentrate to create more powerful forces. It is expected that in reaction cybersecurity startups will emerge against ransomwares. Cybersecurity will therefore certainly be in the Top 10 of Trends 2020. Artificial intelligence in Trends 2020, of course As every year, artificial intelligence is part of the Trends 2020. Start-ups that are evolving there are raising millions of dollars and the progress made is significant. Machine learning technology should become more democratic. “No code analytics” is seen as the next development of artificial intelligence. Indeed, Chad Meley of Teradata foresees the multiplication of big data platforms accessible to the public in Saas mode. The learning machine will thus become available without computer or coding skills. But while waiting for this to happen you can go and see how to invest in artificial intelligence as of now to take advantage of this trend! But artificial intelligence will not be used only to solve hunger around the world. Deepfakes are the evil counterpart of the benefits of AI. Indeed, DeepFakes should start to be released soon because the technology is already developed. One can think that there will be artificial intelligence startups created to detect deepfakes! Russia and Saudi Arabia to finance large-scale tech startups This is not really one of the new 2020 trends, but it is certainly a trend that will become stronger! Russia and Saudi Arabia have financed very large deals through sovereign wealth funds and should continue to do so. As a reminder, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia has invested nearly 90 billion dollars in the SoftVision fund. The PIF has thus invested 45% of the total amount of SoftVision. SoftVision being one of the largest funds for startups in the world. This fund has moreover taken stakes in a few successful startups such as Slack, and even unicorns such as PayTM. Finally, Saudi Arabia has tripled its startup-focused installations. And “Vision 2030” has set significant targets to support SMEs. For its part, Russia has also been rather dynamic, investing in Richard Branson’s Hyperloop project but also in the Russian Google, called Yandex. Moreover, Moscow has created one of the biggest centres for innovation and start-ups: Skolkovo. This giant incubator created an investment fund “Skolkovo Ventures” in 2018. Together with Sberbank, this new Russian fund dedicated to startuppers should invest in numerous projects. Health and well-being: new markets for $8T Health and wellness will be among the top Trends 2020. Not only medical groups, but also startups and Google are interested in this market which promises to be huge. Indeed, life expectancy is increasing almost everywhere. As a result, more and more people are reaching an age that requires more care: anti-aging, wellness, etc… Google, the tech giant, is already ahead in the field. Its subsidiary Calico Life Sciences is making research a priority. With 2 main objectives: to increase life expectancy and to develop responses to age-related diseases such as cancer or neurodegeneration. Other startups go further by proposing to replace the body organ that no longer functions. Organovo and Celllink propose to use 3D printing technology to print organs. These organs would be made of cultured and interconnected cells. And some solutions already work, such as the artificial heart of the French company Carmat.

How to invest in artificial intelligence?

Investing in artificial intelligence looks promising. A.I. can solve complex problems, but it is itself quite complex for ordinary people to grasp. A broad consensus suggests that it is the next technological and economic revolution, just as machines were for the industrial revolution. A wise investor would certainly want to be part of this adventure! But the average investor doesn’t always have time to immerse himself in the multitude of companies that are making the news about artificial intelligence.  It would also be necessary to deepen the concepts of Machine learning, Deep learning, Computer vision etc… So, how to benefit from the market of artificial intelligence which promises to be gigantic with 4000 billion dollars from 2022? Investing in artificial intelligence companies The Startuppers Club has good news for you, investor friends! Artificial intelligence stars are currently quite well known. They are Google (Alphabet), Microsoft and Amazon! Indeed, each of these companies have important ambitions in the field and are well placed to take the lion’s share. Finally, these stock market values have the advantage of not being too risky because their activity is quite diversified and does not show signs of fatigue, on the contrary! GOOGLE under the NASDAQ code: GOOG Google, now renamed Alphabet to encompass all its services, is at the forefront of AI. We all know about Google Cars and other crazy projects that use artificial intelligence. But in September 2018, Google opened a new fundamental research center in… Paris! Sundar Pichai has inaugurated this new entity by committing to recruit 1000 employees including at least 25% engineers. In addition, we note that Google has made startup shopping its favorite activity, and AI is no exception to this strategy! The purchase of Deep Mind, a British startup specialized in the field, for 628 million dollars can only reinforce the hegemonic position of the Empire. It’s a bit like Alphabet spotting the nuggets in the sector for you and buying them, functioning as an investment fund for you! This value is therefore to be favoured, especially for a neophyte! MICROSOFT under NASDAQ code: MSFT It is no longer a secret that Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, is planning to turn to artificial intelligence. The partnership with INRIA for applied research in AI has been renewed; this alliance will be able to develop patents and create innovations later on. The partnership also focuses on supporting cutting-edge startups in the field. Here again, Microsoft can act as a research head to uncover the best nuggets in the sector. The company has even developed a specialized incubator in Paris: the AI Factory. This incubator is located at Station F (one of the capital’s top 5 incubators and the largest) and complements the Bizsparck programs. If you are also tempted by the association – investors are not just venal creatures – you should know that Microsoft is investing 40 million for humanitarian purposes. Indeed, this sum will be allocated to projects that use artificial intelligence to find the solution to the problems of Humanity! AMAZON under NASDAQ code: AMZN Amazon is our darling at Statuppers Club! The company lives for artificial intelligence. There is no AI department in the company. Every department in the company has an AI component to innovate. Machine learning technology has been used by the product recommendation team to improve the customer experience for a long time! Everyone knows this example. But let’s take Amazon Go stores that don’t even have a checkout. The company has benefited from the wealth of data to track buying trends and customer behavior to refine the strategy. In return, the data gathered from the experiments in the physical stores will enable the learning machine department to make further progress. The virtuous circle for refining intelligence is set in motion! And Jeff Bezos is offering to make his services available via AWS (“Amazon Web Services”), which could eventually give him a leading position in the market. Similarly, the company shares some of Alexa’s artificial intelligence capabilities with other companies such as Liberty Mutual and Capital One. Investing in chip vendors, the NVIDIA alternative approach Rather than or in addition to buying shares in companies developing AI, one may want to buy shares in the company providing the hardware. During the gold rush, shovel salesmen were the first to make a fortune after the gold rush.

China : Didi Chuxing, the local Uber !

Today, the Startuppers Club presents a Chinese startup: Didi Chuxing! The Chinese equivalent of Uber … Importing an idea from abroad can be a good idea if you understand the specifics of the target market. Travis Kalanick created Uber in 2009, Didi Chuxing released his app 4 years later! The competition was bound to rage for the Chinese market. Launch of Didi Dache on transportation on demand In June 2012, through its company Orange Technology, the startupper Cheng Wei created Didi Dache. It means “Beep beep Call a taxi”. Just 6 months after the launch of the application, in November 2012, the Chinese giant Tencent was investing $ 15 million in this promising local Uber. Indeed, Tencent is the chinese equivalent of Messenger, with some internet services added. When Tencent invested in Didi Dache, Uber was exploding in the United States and the investor hoped to be able to replay his own scenario (the boss of Tencent said that “copying is not bad”). Didi Dache against Kuaidi Dache But Didi Dache is not the only one on this big market! Kuaidi Dache is a serious competitor since Jack Ma, the investor and venture capitalist and his fund “Alibaba Group” backs the startup. Each contestant pay a price war and make the effort to gain market share. In February 2015, Didi Dache holds 55% of the market and Kuaidi Dache the remaining 45%. Each of them had fundraising in Series A, B and C in 2014. The global market is 150 million people which is huge, but the losses also start to be important for both competitors. Didi Dache suffers $ 700 million loss while Kuaidi Dache is around $ 600 million loss. The two rivals decided to merge, but to keep each their management, which could be likened to a practice of unlawful agreement. Didi Chuxing vs Uber As of September 2013, Uber was trying to penetrate the Chinese market. Price competition was raging against Uber, especially in 2015. Uber had taken over 40 cities in China for a valuation of 8 billion dollars. But the losses are massive, around the billion dollar, maybe even 2. The merger allowed Chinese groups to better defend themselves against Uber. And besides the American is financed by Baidu (equivalent of Google in China and giant of the Chinese Internet), Uber China has since been bought by … Didi Chuxing in August 2016! In December 2017, Didi raises $ 4 billion to establish its dominant position in the market and enter new markets like artificial intelligence. The new developments of Didi Chuxing Recently in 2018, Didi Chuxing launched its international expansion with the development of the application in Mexico, Australia and Japan. Also, we find in the projects of the startup ideas about artificial intelligence and autonomous driving of course. An artificial intelligence laboratory opened in Beijing in January 2018. Its goal is to solve transportation issues in China. 200 engineers and data scientists worked on it from the outset. 20 cities are already equipped with the Didi Smart Transportation Brain. This software makes it possible in particular to regulate the duration of the traffic lights and thus to make traffic flow more fluid. But artificial intelligence also serves Didi Chuxing. In China, Didi collects 10 billion trips every year. The developed AI can predict demand 15 minutes before it arrives with 85% accuracy. The launch of the application in Japan is planned for autumn 2018, in partnership with SoftBank. Didi also bought the group 99, which is also focusing on transportation on demand, but in Brazil. Didi Chuxing in Mexico in 2018: Guadalajara and Mexico The Chinese startup launched its app in July 2018 in Mexico! To get a good start, the application was deployed in 2 cities: Guadalajara and Monterrey. Respectively 3rd and 8th largest cities of Mexico, Guadalajara is 5 times less important than Mexico. But the student and international population is very important, less efficient transport can be noticed and competing applications are less advanced. To accelerate its development, Didi Chuxing offers recruited drivers the home navigation system and above all a guaranteed salary of around € 500. Finally Didi Chuxing proposes the lowest commission of the market for the drivers. Let’s see what happens !