Get All Access for $5/mo

Where Are Investors Going To Place Their Bets In 2016? Investors are mainly looking for innovation within existing models.

By Sneha Banerjee

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Shutterstock

Everyone by now knows how 2016 is going to be a year of selective funding in the startup space. Amidst valuation markdowns of big unicorns, investors are now beginning to think more in the lines of unit economics, solid business models and scalable ideas. When Entrepreneur Media asked a bunch of industry experts, here's what they revealed could be the most exciting sectors and ideas of 2016.

Innovation within existing models

Investors want startups to basically put in efforts to emerge with innovation and variation within existing models. "Major focus this year will be on innovation within these sectors and not just dressing up of the old ideas," Jaspal Sarai, COO and Co-founder of Jaarvis Group said.

According to experts, this time industry needs to repair and discard ideas that aren't gaining any traction and sit down and think of achieving important unit metrics. Food-tech startup Faasos recently rejiged their business model. Unicorns such as Flipkart and Ola Cabs also dropped business ideas that did not click with their consumers.

FinTech

With the introduction of Unified Payment Interface (UPI), the fintech space is expected to see a lot of innovation. UPI is a big boost to simplify payments processes in the ecommerce section and many fintech startups see this as an opportunity to scale up during this process.

Education

With startups like Byju and Oliveboard securing funding from prominent institutions, there is a lot of cheer within this sector. Investors are interested in a variety of startups in this space – vocational courses, local language content creation, online tutorials for competitive exams and courses for the physically challenged category. "I'm still very gung go on education," Siddharth Talwar, Partner at Lightbox Ventures said.

Bangalore-based e-learning startup, Edureka has partnered with data integration software provider, Talend last week, to enhance its curriculum for the Big Data community.

Integration of education, skill development with hiring is something that investors want companies to focus on.

Logistics & manufacturing

Industry folks are interested in the seamless development of using logistics and manufacturing as a service. Anup Vishwanathan, Venture Principal at Venture Factory, is bullish on healthcare and logistics sectors. Anup said, "There are structural inefficiencies that exist in these areas that are massive opportunities for startups (without the associated high cash burns)."

Agritech

Investors believe there is a lot of opportunity and advantage in merging technology with agriculture in India. There is a dearth need of integrating these two platforms which would also require a deal of support from government organizations.

Sneha Banerjee

Entrepreneur Staff

Former Staff, Entrepreneur India

She used to write for Entrepreneur India from Bangalore and other cities in South India. 

Growth Strategies

AMD Confident About Increasing Market Share In India

The semiconductor company is positive about the business environment in India on the back of growing investments in data centers and AI, Cloud repatriation, as well as technology refresh taking place across companies on both server side and client devices

Branding

ChatGPT is Becoming More Human-Like. Here's How The Tool is Getting Smarter at Replicating Your Voice, Brand and Personality.

AI can be instrumental in building your brand and boosting awareness, but the right approach is critical. A custom GPT delivers tailored collateral based on your ethos, personality and unique positioning factors.

Science & Technology

How Can Marketers Use ChatGPT? Here Are the Top 11 Uses.

With the recent developments in AI and the popularity of ChatGPT, you may want to integrate AI into your marketing practices. Find out how.

Business News

Is the AI Industry Consolidating? Hugging Face CEO Says More AI Entrepreneurs Are Looking to Be Acquired

Clément Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, a $4.5 billion startup, says he gets at least 10 acquisition requests a week and it's "increased quite a lot."

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

News and Trends

Apple Dethrones Nvidia to Regain Its Position as World's Second Most Valuable Company

Apple has reclaimed its spot as the second most valuable company in the world, overtaking Nvidia, with a market cap of $3.26 trillion.