Unleashing the power of technology to thrive in a new normal world

Companies and startups around the world are increasingly making extraordinary progress in digital transformation. As established companies have already gained prominence in the market, startups are putting efforts to lead the change. Startups are leveraging advanced technology to cope with the effect of COVID-19 that has propelled many tech startups to shut down. 

Here are the top technology trends that are influencing startups in 2021 and beyond.

No-Code/Low Code Digital Products

In recent years, low code and no-code platforms have gained significant traction across industries. These platforms are viewed as an opportunity for improving the industry’s challenges. Low-code or no-code platforms generally are apps and websites with a drag-and-drop interface and the users don’t require programming skills and knowledge to use them.

Unlike the conventional approach of app development, using low-code platforms can make it possible for startup founders to give a tangible and functional form to their ideas, faster than the time it takes to even recruit a developer. Low code abstracts and automates every step of the application lifecycle to enable rapid delivery of software solutions. Forrester predicts that the low-code market will reach US$21.2 billion by 2022. 

5G-Enhanced Technology

5G is the fifth-generation cellular network that can do much more than significantly improve a business’s network connection. It will provide new opportunities, allowing startups to deliver groundbreaking solutions that reach across society. The demand for higher internet speed and the need for connectivity is relentlessly driving the demand for the 5G network. In India, 5G is a big opportunity for the country’s booming startup landscape. It will enable companies to devise and design new use cases, such as the retail industry solution jointly unveiled recently by Verizon Business, Deloitte, and SAP. It leverages 5G’s capacity for extensive machine-to-machine communication, alongside Edge computing and advanced data analytics to immensely improve the retail store experience.

Telemedicine

The telemedicine ecosystem in the last few months has seen a tremendous rise as the pandemic vastly infected millions of people globally. Most of the public and private hospitals and healthcare practitioners have begun harnessing the power of digital healthcare with advanced telemedicine technologies. Indeed, the global telemedicine market is expected to hit US$191.7 billion by 2025 from an estimated US$38.7 billion in 2020, at a growing CAGR of 37.7 percent. In 2019, adoption of telehealth services was just at 11 percent that we expected to reach 49 percent by McKinsey & Company report. Telemedicine is boon for startups focused on delivering quality healthcare services.

EdTech

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated digital technology adoption in the education system. The global edtech investment was estimated to grow by 15 percent in 2020, a predicted US$7.61 billion. Digital education adoption was starting to gain popularity by the end of 2019. Global Market Insight report found that the e-learning market in 2019 crossed US$200 billion and predicted that it will grow at a CAGR of 8 percent from 2020 to 2026. Such growth will provide edtech startups opportunities to make significant strides towards digital education. Byju’s, Coursera, UpGrad, Simplilearn and Udacity, among others are some of the top EdTech players.

Above all, technology has a crucial role to play these days, transforming the way people and businesses live and work.