Reports: A Comprehensive Insight into our Sectors

Artificial intelligence continues to sweep through all industries horizontally, changing software and technological processes as we know them. AI is the key source of transformation and disruption used by many corporations to stay afloat and remain competitive –by virtue of assistance, augmentation and automation it can contribute to various processes.

Since the last edition of Hampleton’s AR/VR report, the industry has kept making significant strides, with increasing amounts of funding flowing to later-stage companies in particular to accelerate the development of AR/VR technology in a wide variety of applications, ranging from retail to industrial manufacturing and from healthcare to energy and power.

This year, the Autotech sector has been impacted by Covid-19 lockdown measures, economic recession and a collapse in car sales in Europe and the USA. OEMs and suppliers were distracted from M&A while putting out supply chain fires and dealing with reduced demand for new vehicles.

Enterprises have been forced to rapidly digitise their products, processes and services. Lockdown measures around the world have accelerated the move to digital. Working from home has required better IT capabilities, whether in-house or outsourced. This has generated a need for reinforced cybersecurity: while the world is focused on the health and economic threats posed by Covid, cyber criminals are undoubtedly capitalising on this crisis. 

The Digital Commerce market experienced monumental growth and saw huge upheaval in 2020. It’s no secret that the growth of e-commerce and the shift to online platforms for work, school and play have boosted our overall confidence in and reliance upon digital commerce companies. But how much of this is reflected in Digital Commerce M&A and fundraising markets?

Covid-19 is re-shaping the Enterprise Software M&A market. Both private equity and strategic buyers are focusing their sights on companies helping to improve communications, streamline processes or facilitate remote working capabilities; businesses that help fuel the e-commerce boom, like supply chain logistics software critical for improving last-mile fulfilment; and, of course, healthcare software.

The fintech industry continues to grow and break records. Changes are being accelerated by the shift away from cash, the boom in electronic payment transactions, and the application of innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

There is growing appetite to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital solutions to solve many of medicine's pressing problems. This has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Organisations continue to face the challenge of finding, keeping and developing new hires to their full potential. Combined with AI- and technology-based advances, these motivations are driving the HRTech market. As a result, what used to be a slow-moving corporate technology space a decade ago is now a $148 billion market of HR cloud solutions to address the needs for the future of work.

Technological advancements have radically transformed the ways in which insurance is offered, and the software used by insurers to adequately deliver insurance products. 

Enterprises are digitising more products, processes and services than ever before. At the same time, they are migrating them to the cloud for efficiency, scalability and corporate agility. These trends are driving growth across all segments of the IT Services sector, keeping firms with relevant expertise in hot demand.