5 Startup Top Trends in 2022 

A new year, new year’s resolutions and, well, for some of you: uncertainty. Is it the right time to kick off the startup you dreamed of? We researched various magazines and blogs and aggregated the most promising startup trends for 2022. Is your startup home to one of these industries or technologies? Then it’s your time to shine! 

Privacy-Enhancing Computation is Rising with the Growing Awareness of Data Privacy 

Gartner published the top strategic technology trends 2022 and privacy-enhancing computation is amongst them. They define the term as follows: “Privacy-enhancing computation utilizes a variety of privacy-protection techniques to allow value to be extracted from data while still meeting compliance requirements.”  

GDPR compliance scared and annoyed many companies. It turns out, it was only the beginning. With Apple changing its guidelines, app users now have the choice to share their data with the providers. (No need to say, that they very often refuse now to do so). This was followed by Apples Mail Privacy Protection, preventing Apple Mail users from sharing so called pixels, which means marketers don’t know if they opened an email, what location they opened it from, etc.  

In fact, a recent study by KPMG shows that data protection is a relevant issue for more and more consumers. For example, 86% of U.S. citizens state that data protection is a growing concern for them. This leads to the assumption that data privacy is more popular than ever, needing tools and techniques that provide data for important business insights while also protecting the private data of users and consumers. 

Cloud Native Platforms for Faster Developing 

As a method to develop and run applications completely in the cloud, the cloud-native approach allows companies to be more agile and cost-effective. While digital transformation remains one of the biggest challenges for companies, cloud native platforms and applications help them to structure and develop features in the cloud, hence faster and better scaling. 

The big advantage of cloud native platforms is that they allow developers to entirely focus on developing applications and features, not worrying about the underlying infrastructure.  

EdTech Startups are Facing a Growing Market 

EdTech (Educational Technology) is also amongst industries with high potential. The pandemic has created a high demand for digital learning methods. However, it also became clear, that there is still room for improvement in educational technologies. The industry was worth $89.49 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow by up to 20% by 2028.

Artificial Intelligence Remains a Startup Trend

It’s not really surprising, but solutions based on AI are still in high demand and are unlikely to lose their appeal and usefulness any time soon. Whether it is used in decision-making processes, machine learning, or engineering, it’s a key element in various disciplines. 

Startup Trend Low Code 

The term low code refers to solutions based on graphical interfaces instead of coding in a programming language. It’s a great way to help people without or little programming knowledge to build digital solutions themselves. Even skilled developers are using low code solutions from time to time to get fast results. It might not always be flawless and highly individual visions cannot be implemented with these applications. However, users of such applications are growing fast and are always on the lookout for more low code tools they can implement.  

Become a founder in 2022

These are five trending technologies or industries where startups can deliver with their fast and adaptable way of working. Of course, many other industries are also in high demand, and you should not be discouraged by such trend reports. Looking into the future is always foggy and does not mean that entrepreneurs cannot succeed in other areas. But of course, these 5 startup trends also intend to encourage those who already have ideas in these areas to take the next steps into venture building. No matter from which background your idea is:

“If something is important enough, or you believe something is important enough, even if you are scared, you will keep going.”

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX 

And if you’re not quite convinced yet to finally make your startup idea a reality this year, here’s another reason. In 2021, more money was invested in startups than ever before. Dealroom states that especially Europe is the “fastest growing region for VC investment attracting €49 billion; outperforming the USA, China and Asia.”  So, let’s get going because 2022 can be your bright starting point as a founder.