Reports: A Comprehensive Insight into our Sectors

Artificial intelligence has shaken off its experimental mantra and fully launched into the developmental phase of the innovation cycle. The growth of many industries is now dependent on the advancements of AI and their application. Industries are hungry for an artificial intelligence that can propel their next technology push, improve efficiency and productivity.

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.

2019 saw consolidation, funding and innovation at every stage of the global automotive value chain, from the production of vehicles and embedded technology to the enterprise systems that drive the automobile sales machine.

After a record 2018, partly as a result of new data protection regulations, deal volumes so far suggest that the Cybersecurity sector will not be losing any momentum in 2019. The number of attacks as well as their complexity is growing rapidly, prompting companies to cyber-arm themselves and fill in the gaps and loopholes in their security, thus driving the popularity of cybersecurity vendors.

Understanding customer preferences and targeting them accordingly is now more crucial than ever. With “traditional” digital tools such as banners and email becoming more challenging, marketers are turning to increasingly sophisticated CRM and customer analytics tools that can navigate new landscapes like chatbots and messenger apps. 

During the first half of the year, the highly anticipated $1.4b IPO of social discovery platform Pinterest, put later-stage e-commerce firms in the spotlight. In addition to Pinterest, we have even seen the IPOs of American social media-oriented fashion retailer Revolve and Nigeria-based online marketplace Jumia, rank in the top 10 most successful VC exits so far this year. 

The ongoing rise of software innovation continues to deliver new companies, business models and jobs. The unwavering rise of cloud-based applications is a fundamental component of today’s enterprise software landscape. New players are fast-moving in on the space to push the boundaries of what used to be impossible.

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.

2018 witnessed the highest level of venture capital investment on record, both in volume and value terms. This included an unprecedented increase in the amount of supergiant rounds and new unicorn births in addition to growth in all median sizes of funding rounds. The total value of all unicorns has also inched above $1 trillion according to CBInsights.

Hampleton's latest Healthtech M&A market report reveals that boom times are back, along with a rapidly increasing appetite to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to solve many of medicine's pressing problems.

The HR Technology market has evolved considerably in the last twelve months, with changes across technologies used for core HR, payroll & benefits and recruitment purposes. Enteprise software vendors are addressing disruption in the field through innovation or acquisition, and financial buyers are deploying extra capital to benefit from high-growth opportunities, thus creating an increasingly competitive space. 

Over the past three years, solution providers in the industry have seen emerging technologies penetrate the insurance mainstream. These new technologies offer solutions to underserved markets, enhance business models, or create new markets altogether.

The first half of 2019 saw total disclosed deal value in the IT & Business Services market reach a whopping $97 billion - the highest total on record for a six-month period. The overall median disclosed deal amount also increased to $43 million from $23 million in 2H 2018. And, although deal volume lessened, trailing 30-month median revenue and EBITDA multiples remained within the high end of their respective range, signalling steady growth over the past six and a half years. 

High levels of investor confidence, a constant stream of innovation, reflectively cheap capital, rapidly developing supporting technologies and a strong push to create earnings growth through acquisitions are seemingly the right conditions for the M&A market to boom. However, overall trends have shown a correction from 2015's peak volumes and total deal values to a low in 2017 and finally a slight rebound in 2018.