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.

At a glance, 2018 showed activity in virtually every functional arm of the future car, from connectivity hardware to mobile parking and mobility apps. The broader automotive industry also experienced shocks that partially upended a few previously accepted truths about the sector. 

Global digitization, new regulation, high profile incidents and new technologies drive cybersecurity M&A to record highs. Cybersecurity M&A volume has already reached the full year levels from 2016 and 2017 with 141 completed transactions year-to-date (October 2018).

The digital marketing industry is shaping up with more turns and more tech. The rise of chatbots and AI analytics is nudging retailers to invest and acquire more in the realm of personalised touches and deeper insights, while a shift from pre-sales to post-sales marketing is closing the loop in the customer journey life-cycle.

With more sales concluded online year-over-year – in verticals as specific as automotive and pharmaceutical retail – e-commerce is transforming the way consumers and businesses buy goods but also what buyers expect as a customer experience out of transactions.

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.

Whilst fintech has rippled across the financial services industry and revolutionising the processes and business models, there have been significant regional disparities. The UK leads the way in Europe, breeding a new generation of innovators with record level of investments in 2018.

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.

In the healthtech sector, numerous technologies were targeted by acquirers in 2018: blockchain, data storage, artificial intelligence and patient information management software all garnered keen interest, as did health-specific IT services and medical hardware. Meanwhile, in the age of ultra-connectedness at home or on-the-go, patient-oriented self-service technology continued to strike a note with acquirers.

There has been a plethora of new entrants attacking individual segments of the HR industry, which means incumbents will have to defend their positions, through innovation or acquisition, in an increasingly competitive space. As we are currently witnessing, an era of inevitable HR tech consolidation has already taken hold.

Industry 4.0 has become an integral part of business for key technology giants: Bosch Rexroth, Festo, PTC and Siemens, to name a few, are all turning yesterday’s promise of connected and intelligent manufacturing technologies into today’s reality.

The proliferation of mobile devices, new technologies and enormous funding has spawned an army of start-ups impacting the world stage of insurance software vendors. Existing insurance software vendors need to adapt and adopt these new technologies, including AI, blockchain data, IoT, predictive analysis, as well as serving new business models such as micro-insurance, mobility-as-a-service, usage-based insurance and more.

The IT & Business Services sector remains continuously pertinent, encompassing services ranging from telecommunications, systems integration, and accounting IT services; to web design, digital marketing or security IT services. As technology such as big data analytics, cloud computing and internet of things continues to infiltrate these areas, a wave of consolidation is being driven by companies seeking to stay ahead of the curve by ensuring their connectedness and relevance. 

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.