Disrupted businesses

Both the Kyoto protocol in 1997 and the Paris agreement in 2015 contain commitments to reduce GHG emissions to limit the impact of global warming. However, there are huge hurdles to overcome to reach those targets. As regulators and consumers are pushing companies to better monitor their environmental impact, we view the ability to improve the measurement and monitoring of GHGs as one of the great challenges. Hardware- and software-based solutions are now creating the means to do this more cheaply, reliably and frequently than before. In particular, we have identified  emerging deep-tech companies with expertise in asset observation that are leveraging technological advances in the satellite ecosystem.

Organizations are set to take a giant leap towards a vision of Industry 4.0 defined by hyperconnectivity, flexibility, and intelligence. This vision starts from planning and designing a product, a building or a plant and extends to engineering, simulation, building/production, and quality testing. The manufacturing plant is now a “product” too, but we are still a long way from the paradigm shift towards totally automated factories. Nonetheless, we believe smart factories are set to flourish in the next decade as the regionalization of production and the transition from mass production to mass customization drives more flexibility, autonomy, and efficiency in manufacturing plants. On the hardware front, the complexity of the underlying technologies, mainly sensing and AI, will continue to give birth to new and disruptive players, while we expect the software market to continue to consolidate.

In a catering, restaurant and food retail have been increasingly shaken up by consumer demand for fresher and healthier products, and more convenience. Then, Covid structurally accelerated the digitalization of food consumption. Teleworking is expected to double from 5% to 10% over the next ten years in Western economies, while e-commerce penetration in grocery is set to double globally, to more than 6% in just three years. As digitalization blurs the boundaries between traditional segments, we believe that the food tech companies that have solved the complex economic equation of last-mile delivery can now establish themselves for the long term alongside the traditional industry giants. Their tech DNA and more agile approach enable them to revolutionize the way we produce food, the way we choose it and how it is delivered.

The healthcare industry has undergone a profound transformation in the past few years, from the way drugs are researched, developed and commercialized to how patients are diagnosed, treated and monitored. The Covid pandemic has significantly accelerated these trends, with funding increasing and regulation being reworked to accommodate this new environment. As a result, we expect healthcare to be buoyant in coming years. The amount of patient data collected and exchanged is growing exponentially, both inside and outside care organizations, providing the necessary foundations for the decentralization of care delivery and ultimately, precision medicine. We caught a glimpse of what virtual care could be during the pandemic, but we think it’s only a start, with telemedicine expanding the entire digital health spectrum further than ever.

According to the UN, cities are responsible for 60% to 80% of the world’s annual energy consumption and generate at least 70% of the world’s greenhouse gases. And urbanization is still growing: by 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities compared with 55% today. “Smart cities” aim to optimize the use of resources, in three ways. First, by reducing energy consumption, as in Los Angeles, where smart street lights are said to have cut energy costs by 63%; second, with better energy production, using smart grids, renewable energy and vehicle-to-grid technology; and third, by improving living standards with connected homes, better transport infrastructures, water and waste management. We believe smart cities are now becoming a reality, fuelled by mature technologies such as sensors, fibre/5G networks and software solutions such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) or Building Operating Systems (BOS). These make it possible to design, build and operate infrastructures and buildings with more efficiency and flexibility, enabling smart buildings and facilities management, and eventually ensuring sustainable growth.