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SmartAsset, Pareup, Ultimate4trading, PayPerks: do any of these brands ring a bell? If not, don’t worry; we’ll get you up to speed in no time, with these six business trends that you need to watch out for this year. From fintech to food tech, here’s a complete breakdown of six phenomena impacting on consumers and young entrepreneurs pursuing the big bucks in New York, New York.
1. The rise of fintech
The “fintech” industry which stands for financial technology has grew by 201% since 2014 according to the FinTech Innovation Lab, run by the Partnership Fund for New York City and Accenture. This is thanks to a disruptive band of Cloud passionates and plugged-in business leaders and customers, redesigning how financial operations and transactions take place. The FinTech Innovation Lab has raised a total of $175 million in venture financing! No longer a back-office process, fintech has invaded Wall Street from across the financial sectors, including eCommerce, banking, security, insurance and trading. As financial technology is become more and more popular in New York and across the world, many summits and conferences on the subject matter attract innovators, entrepreneurs and decision makers to discuss pressing issues and ideas linked to fintech.
Mike Katz, a Columbia graduate and venture capitalist who claims that “New Yorkers have entrepreneurship wired into their DNA”, wrote in one of his final papers partially published by fast-growing American business site “Business Insider” that “maybe Goldman Sachs’ innovation of credit default swaps is not a praise-worth advancement in recent news, but New York is home to the most innovative ‘fintech’ firms in the world.”
2. Brooklyn algorithm startups
Algorithms have invaded every area of business because of their incredible potential to run on huge datasets, successfully predict outcomes and have an infinite number of applications.
In recent years, there’s been a definite rise in tech startups designing complex algorithms to resolve specific problems. From whom you should date to spotting the potential bestseller you should publish, or recruiting the best candidate for a job, there’s probably an algorithm out there to help you.
Brooklyn, home to angel investors and algorithm startups setting up shop every other day, has attracted over $890 million in startup funding since 2009. The borough even features its own $8.3 million seed fund, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. The city of New York as a whole acquired as much as $8.24 billion in venture capital in 2015 (a 40% increase since 2014).
3. Thriving business angel groups
Many business angel groups are flourishing across NYC allowing start-ups to find suitable investors who can help them fund ideas and develop business plans. The New York Angels, for example, is an organization committed to “finding, funding and mentoring great young companies from pitch through a successful exit”. With over 100 active members including founders, venture capitalists and business leaders, the group has invested over $95 million in entrepreneurial ventures. Many other business angel groups, including Georgetown Angels, HBS Angels or Tri State Ventures, can also help aspiring entrepreneurs build their dream start-up.
Angel investor groups are both important assets for young entrepreneurs, such as Global Entrepreneurship Program students, as well as great sources of inspiration!
4. Food + tech
A 2012 study released by Chicago-based consulting firm Technomic discovered that millennials really care about food (and will use up 25% of their monthly paycheck on eating out). Add to this growing food supply issues, a rising world population and global warming, and you’ll quickly see why there have been so many food tech startups shooting up in New York City…
Key industry preoccupations include sustainability, packaging, health and supply. In 2016, watch out for cellular agriculture, indoor agriculture, smartphone apps tackling food waste in cities (such as Hungry Harvest or WISErg), and vertical farming.
5. The commercialization of HR
According to a report published by Forbes this year, 50% of the American workforce will be working freelance by 2020 (NB: not necessarily full-time). New York City thought-leaders and brands have been optimizing HR to retain talent, cater to a more diverse and mobile workforce and fix dwindling employee engagement. If HR sounds like something you might be interested in, you should look into employee productivity apps like Honey, Keas, ShapeUp, Bonusly or CultureAmp, flexible benefits, telecommuting, wellness programs and co-working spaces as possible business ventures.
6. Big data and analytics
With the growth of personalized and mobile marketing, organizations have been mining data on consumers’ profiles and habits. The US data agency Acxiom, for instance, offers its clients ranging from financial service providers to consumer products, rich customer profiles featuring up to 1,500 data points based on 50 trillion transactions.
Become a glocal influencer with the Global Entrepreneurship Program
With many world-renowned universities teaching entrepreneurship, developing start-up ecosystems, and accelerating innovation with specialized labs and business centers, New York City is filled with young and audacious entrepreneurs ready to take on new challenges and bring the next big idea to incubators and investors.
emlyon business school, Zhejiang University and, now, New York City’s Pace University, have joined forces to develop an international master’s degree designed to nurture the talents of young entrepreneurs from around the world. This one-year graduate program will take you to France, China and the US, providing you with an international outlook on the current global economic climate, as well as insights into business trends in specific markets, and an understanding of the key challenges and opportunities for the entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow.
Pace University and the Lubin School of Business are at the forefront of innovation and global entrepreneurship. With a series of courses in entrepreneurship and business as well as an Entrepreneurship Lab, a Small Business Development Center, a Center for Student Enterprise, and the Helene & Grant Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Pace is the ideal environment for Global Entrepreneurship Program students to expand their entrepreneurial knowledge.
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This article is based on a post originally published on the Global Entrepreneurship Program blog.
