As we say goodbye to 2022, one can’t help but wonder about a year that has been a whirlwind of activity on all fronts when it comes to industry. The Tech Panda sought to know what industry experts are thinking as we end another year.
AI
Atul Rai, CEO & Co-founder, Staqu
“Investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups grew steadily in the years preceding and following the COVID-19 pandemic, as this ground-breaking technology displayed its potential to promote people’s lives.
Investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups grew steadily in the years preceding and following the COVID-19 pandemic, as this ground-breaking technology displayed its potential to promote people’s lives
“In 2022, venture capitalists partnered with a large number of promising early-stage startups in disciplines where AI can have a notable influence, such as health care, climate science, retail, security, and education, and where AI tools can empower individuals by assisting them in being more productive and meaningful.”
GIG ECONOMY
Vidyarthi Baddireddy, CEO & Co-founder, PickMyWork
“In 2022, the gig ecosystem’s fast expansion and readiness have unleashed a remarkable appetite for scalability, alternative funding offerings, expansion into the Indian market, and the potential to cultivate millions of jobs. The investment figures, which gradually plunged from the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic, began to recoup as startups as well as clients widely embraced digital services.
Gig platforms played a huge role as startups recognized the value of hiring gig workers for both skilled and unskilled jobs to save on overhead expenses
“Gig platforms played a huge role as startups recognized the value of hiring gig workers for both skilled and unskilled jobs to save on overhead expenses.”
WOMEN’S WELLNESS
Sujata Pawar, Co-Founder & CEO, Avni
“We have been seeing a change in consumer behaviour and consumers becoming more aware of the quality of products being offered in the market. There is an insistence from customers to use products with clean labels, encourage reusability and appreciate young brands. The customers are not anymore afraid to try new products and are willing to give new organisations. such as ourselves, a chance.
Women’s wellness and hygiene as a category is picking up momentum with many startups focussing on specific needs in this category and coming up with innovative products
“Women’s wellness and hygiene as a category is picking up momentum with many startups focussing on specific needs in this category and coming up with innovative products. Women themselves are prioritising their health and this is an encouraging sign for us. Making a mark in our category is a challenge due to the intimate and personal nature of the products. With the change in consumer behaviour, increased acceptance to newer product offerings and customer engagement, it is helping us at Avni develop and promote products.”
DATING APPS
Able Joseph, Founder & CEO, Aisle
“Dating as we know it, has gone through a massive shift. Singles are now seen defining their dating intentions more openly with new matches and dating on their own terms. With the older generation of singles gravitating towards mindfulness and transparency, the dating industry is sure to follow suit to meet their needs. The demand for complete authenticity, honesty and intent will continue to change the tide for years to come.
“On the business side, as more and more people turn to online dating to find relationships, verifying the authenticity of profiles has become increasingly important. The younger generation, who are comfortable with technology – expect a high level of safety from it.
“They’re bringing the focus back on keeping things safe, authentic and finding their ground before they can seek out more serious relationships. To improve the quality of matches, singles rely on tech companies to provide robust verification processes. With these tools in place, the younger generation can feel more confident that the profiles they encounter are the real deal.”
REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
Paul Wallett, Regional Director, Trimble Middle-East & India region
“In 2022, the real estate and construction industry found a powerful ally in technology as it battled inflation with rising fuel and raw materials costs.
Companies that used digital tools effectively were able to deliver profitable projects, while a majority of others had to contend with higher costs and incomplete projects
“Companies that used digital tools effectively were able to deliver profitable projects, while a majority of others had to contend with higher costs and incomplete projects.”
CYBERSECURITY
Pankit Desai, CEO & Co-founder, Sequretek
“In 2022, the economy has been firing on all cylinders. Customers and consumers are willing to spend again. As a business we saw possibly the best growth from the number of customers that we onboarded to the growth in existing customers segments. There is general bullishness in the market. With people coming back to work and businesses growing there was a significant uptick in cybersecurity related incidents and fairly high profile that too. From our perspective, cybersecurity is now the conversation that is front and centre in most boardrooms, even for relatively small companies.
Cybersecurity is now the conversation that is front and centre in most boardrooms, even for relatively small companies
“From a security point of view, the government has also become very active and started pushing regulations that hold companies accountable for cybersecurity breaches. We believe that the trend of what’s happening globally, in terms of an upcoming recession & the negative sentiments that are happening elsewhere, India should be able to dodge that bullet. We have a stronger economy, and the kind of action the government has taken to boost investment in infrastructure and long term capital, we are seeing that we should be able to continue to grow from it.”
IT
Raman Kovelamudi, Co-founder, InfoVision
“Post pandemic, we are seeing enterprises focus on accelerating digital transformation as a key priority. And to achieve this goal, they have been leveraging edge technologies including blockchain, AI/ML, AR/VR and Digital Twin.
Businesses are experiencing the outcomes of adopting new technologies through improved efficiency, customer experience and innovation
“Businesses are experiencing the outcomes of adopting new technologies through improved efficiency, customer experience and innovation. Smarter investments by tapping into the potential of these emerging technologies will create new opportunities for companies to grow and thrive in 2023.”
Avneesh Kumar Agarwal, Founder & CEO, SpeckyFox
“There has never been a more exhilarating — or challenging— time to be a tech leader. From a high attrition rate to working remotely, to digitization, every day seemed to be a challenge for the IT industry. To begin with, as IT companies recovered from supply chain disruptions brought on by the pandemic, they progressively began putting plans for unforeseen events and other operational risks. For this, they implemented systems with increased visibility and resilience.
There has never been a more exhilarating — or challenging— time to be a tech leader
“With greater experience and composite personnel under their collective belts, tech companies improved their cultures, intensified experimentation with collaborative solutions, and created better methods to manage taxes. However, we also can’t deny that the IT industry under performed. Due to an increased attrition rate, it started performing poorly at the beginning of 2022, resulting in employee costs rising dramatically and the businesses failed to pass those costs on to customers.
ROBOTICS
Sangeet, CEO & Co-Founder, Addverb Technologies
“The robotics industry is witnessing a significant increase in the demand for intralogistics automation solutions across the globe. According to a report by Global Newswire, the warehouse automation market is expected to grow to $31.03 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 15.45%.
Businesses are looking for energy-efficient and sustainable technological solutions which are cost-effective. Automation is providing customers with all these technologies in the form of robots
“Globally, businesses want to imbibe automation in the warehouses due to the challenging nature of work, labour shortage across western countries and the energy crisis in the European nations. Businesses are looking for energy-efficient and sustainable technological solutions which are cost-effective. Automation is providing customers with all these technologies in the form of robots.”
FINTECH
Rishabh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Credgenics
“Indian fintech currently contributes about $100 billion of enterprise value (EV) and this is expected to reach $350 billion in EV by FY26, contributing more than 15% of India’s FS EV. Digital lending apps (DLAs) accounted for more than 60% of loans disbursed by nonbank financial companies (NBFCs) in FY21. 2022 witnessed the conglomeration of the power of AI, Machine Learning, automation, digitization and data analytics, which provides a sustainable long-term potential for transformation and growth for financial services. The trend is likely to stay in 2023 as well.
2022 witnessed the conglomeration of the power of AI, Machine Learning, automation, digitization and data analytics, which provides a sustainable long-term potential for transformation and growth for financial services
“In 2022, India crossed the halfway mark towards the five-year goal of becoming $5 trillion by 2024-25. While the country has covered a lot of ground (pandemic notwithstanding), a lot still needs to be covered. Credit penetration in most living expenditure categories is less than 5% for households. MSMEs also lack access to formal credit, with more than 60% relying on costly informal sources of credit. Banks, NBFCs, fintech players, small finance banks, who play a mainstream role in India’s economic growth, remain constrained by inefficient credit flow cycles due to inefficient debt recovery processes. Traditional debt collection methods, which are mostly manual, slow and costly, make loan recovery at scale a challenge.”
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Kumar Gaurav, Founder & CEO, Cashaa
“This year we entered the winter season in terms of cryptocurrencies, as the high-profile collapses of Terra/Luna and FTX sent shockwaves across the industry and liquidated more than $2 trillion from the total crypto market cap all-time high from November 2021. While these events came throughout the year, some investors declared that they are done with crypto, or others, who know that these fluctuations are normal, are looking confident for the next year to come and they are preparing their investments.
This year had the opportunity to clear up the market from scam companies, and make them take a step back and think twice if this is an industry where they want to be involved in. It is also teaching investors to have patience in terms of their investments
“We are looking confident for the coming year in terms of business opportunities. This year had the opportunity to clear up the market from scam companies, and make them take a step back and think twice if this is an industry where they want to be involved in. It is also teaching investors to have patience in terms of their investments.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLE
Manu Iyer, Co-Founder & CSO, Fyn Mobility
“The EV industry in India has had its best year ever with record sales in both the 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler segments. Significant investment has gone into EV manufacturing, infrastructure and research & development. This includes areas like cells, batteries, chargers, motors, controllers and firmware.
The EV industry in India has had its best year ever with record sales in both the 2-wheeler and 4-wheeler segments
“The EV financing market has also grown rapidly with lenders becoming more comfortable with the quality and performance of the vehicles. On the commercial side, adoption of electric 3-wheelers has touched record levels, with customers finding comfort in the reliability and lower costs for deliveries in the last mile. The rapid growth and adoption of EVs provides excellent employment opportunities, with the industry expected to employ 60mn people directly and indirectly by 2030.”
F&B
Harshit Mittal, Co-founder & CTO, SupplyNote
“The food industry has been growing consistently for the last decade, despite the later part of the decade being the pandemic. In 2022, we have witnessed that the industry has been making a comeback and is getting stronger than ever. The technology adoption within the industry is also increasing phenomenally. There are hundreds of startups starting every year dedicated to food tech and the market is still vastly untouched. But that is all about to change.
There are hundreds of startups starting every year dedicated to food tech and the market is still vastly untouched. But that is all about to change
“With young entrepreneurs being the face of innovation within the F&B businesses, the tech adoption has been higher than ever. We’ve acquired many clients this year who are data-driven, leveraging the power of technology to optimise their operations and switch to a smoother, data-led supply chain. With the awareness increasing within the industry, SupplyNote won’t be left behind but will be at the centre of this transformation. We are planning to launch multiple initiatives to increase awareness within the industry of technologies that can make the life easier for everyone.”
AGTECH
Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cropin
“2022 has been a challenging year for the global food system, to say the least. It uncovered several structural weaknesses in the wake of challenges such as extreme weather events, supply-chain disruptions, geo-political tensions, international conflicts, and growing food wastage.
2022 has been a challenging year for the global food system, to say the least. It uncovered several structural weaknesses in the wake of challenges such as extreme weather events, supply-chain disruptions, geo-political tensions, international conflicts, and growing food wastage
“The year also exposed our inability to manage global hunger and food security, reversing the progress made over decades of efforts. The enormity of the challenge is evident from the fact that food security, climate-resilient agriculture, and agri-financing were the central theme of discussions at the recent COP27 event in Egypt and the G20 Summit in Indonesia. In this context, we expect some significant agri-food industry trends to accelerate in 2023.”
