Lychee Soda

Lychee soda is a carbonated beverage containing lychee fruit extract of flavor. The product initially gained traction in Asian countries such as China, India and Vietnam (who are also the primary producers of the Lychee fruit.)

Lychee soda sales are just beginning to see significant growth in North America. In fact, sales are predicted to grow at a CAGR of 8.2% by 2025. In fact, a popular lychee soda brand generates an estimated $18K/month on Amazon.

What’s next

Lychee soda is part of the Asian Flavors meta trend. Sales of CPG with Asian-inspired flavors have been increasing significantly in the US. For example, products with Korean flavors recently saw a 12 month increase in sales of 28.8%. Sales of products with Japanese flavors increased by 38.10% during that same time span.

Many brands are taking advantage of this trend:

Kimino, a Japanese drink maker, saw 1,521% sales growth of its yuzu soda.

Another CPG brand, Sanzo, which makes Asia-inspired flavored drinks, managed to increase the sales of its sparkling water by 941%.

beatBread

beatBread is a platform intended to help musicians fund their projects. Think of it as a neobank that issues loans specifically to musicians. What makes beatBread unique is that artists pay back loans via streaming and airplay income. These terms are a big part of why the startup is trending: it allows artists to keep 100% ownership of their projects (masters, albums, solos, etc.). Artists with as little as 10,000 monthly listeners can be eligible for funding through the platform.

What’s next

BeatBread is part of the Music FinTech meta trend. With the independent artist sector growing at more than 30% annually, music fintech is poised to play a larger and larger role in the space. Examples of trending music fintech startups include:

• Opulous is a DeFi protocol for the music industry. The startup serves as an NFT launchpad for musicians that want to launch their NFTs.
• Emanate is a music streaming platform built on the blockchain. The startup pays artists for every stream. The startup has raised $50K in accelerator funding.
• Anote Music connects investors to up-and-coming artists seeking funding for their projects. Anote Music has raised €1M over three funding rounds.

Digital Sustainability

Digital sustainability refers to using digital technologies that have a positive impact on the environment. The global success rate for digital sustainability initiatives is currently at only 4%. However, this number is forecasted to grow to 35% in the next few years. Interest in digital sustainability is growing largely due to the fact that environmental concerns now drive many consumers’ buying decisions. In fact, 70% of US consumers now care about sustainability when purchasing a product. And 88% say that they would be more loyal to a brand implementing sustainable practices.

What’s next

Digital sustainability is part of the GreenTech meta trend. The global GreenTech market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 27.2% through 2028. IoT, AI and cloud computing are some of the core technologies driving this growth. In fact, according to McKinsey, using green AI to reduce food waste could save organizations $123B a year by 2030. Sunlight transport, plastic roads and plant walls are examples of trending GreenTech products.

Locsanity

Locsanity is a DTC hair care startup. What makes the startup unique is that it specifically targets people with dreadlocks. Locsanity sells over 50 core SKUs ranging from extensions to shampoos. The startup generates an estimated $750K in annual revenue.

What’s next

Locsanity is part of the DTC Hair Wellness meta trend. The Hair Wellness market is expected to grow by a CAGR of 5.6% through 2028. And DTC will be the fastest-growing channel during that period.

Examples of trending DTC hair wellness startups include:

• Shampora sells customizable hair wellness solutions. The startup has sold over 100,000 products since its launch.
• LUS Brands is a hair wellness startup for people with curly hair. The startup has raised $1.2M in funding.
• Dae Hair sells hair routine solutions made from natural ingredients.

GitOps

Searches for “GitOps” are up 96% over the last 12 months.

What is it?

GitOps is an operational framework used for infrastructure automation. In other words, GitOps applies the same best practices used in DevOps to infrastructure. The reason for growing interest in the practice is that GitOps can lead to increased productivity, higher reliability and better stability. For example, a London-based financial services company saw a 50% increase in their production speed after implementing GitOps.

What’s next

GitOps is part of the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) meta trend. IaC refers to the process of manipulating infrastructure through code vs. manual intervention. IaC is expected to grow at a similar CAGR as the entire DevOps market (22.9% through 2027). The mainstreaming of cloud practices and the continued increase in adoption of DevSecOps are two main drivers of accelerating IaC growth.

Fngeen

Fngeen is a DTC watch manufacturer focused on the budget watch market. (Each watch costs less than $40.)

Fngeen is trending largely because their cheap watches are designed to look like luxury watches.

One of Fngeen’s best-selling watches is the New Golden watch. Over 700 units have already been sold via their AliExpress store.

What’s next

Fngeen is part of the DTC Timepieces meta trend. The global watch market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 13% through 2025. DTC is set to be the main driver of that growth (CAGR of 14%).

Rinsmola, Donerton and Kalinco are examples of trending DTC timepiece startups.

Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation is the use of technologies to scale the automation of processes within an organization.

One example of hyperautomation is the usage of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to understand documents.

The global hyperautomation market is expected to reach $2.2B by 2028 (a CAGR of 18.25%).

Hyperautomation technology in the manufacturing industry is set to be a significant driver of this growth.

What’s next

Hyperautomation is part of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Technology meta trend.

According to Gartner, 80% of finance executives have made plans to implement RPA within their organization.

And Deloitte estimates that 78% of the companies that have already implemented RPA plan to significantly increase investment in this area in the next three years.

Which explains why the global RPA market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 32.8% through 2028.

And, as Deloitte puts it, if this growth trend continues, RPA will approach a “near universal adoption” within the next 5 years.

CoverManager

CoverManager is a hospitality management platform that handles reservations, cancellations, waitlists and online and dine-in food orders.

Most restaurant software platforms are designed for casual dining or delivery. What makes CoverManager unique is that they focus on high-end bars and restaurants. (In fact, 40 of their customers are Michelin Star restaurants.)

According to the startup, the platform is currently used by 3,500 food service businesses.

What’s next

CoverManager is part of the Smart Hospitality meta trend. The global smart hospitality market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 24.3% through 2026. Here are a few examples of trending smart hospitality startups:

• Cuyna is a restaurant tech startup for ghost kitchens. The startup has raised $3.65M in funding.
• Pirpos is a cloud-based Point of Sale system for restaurants.
• Supy is an order processing system for restaurants. Supy raised $1.5M in an angel funding round.

Organ Complex

Organ complexes are tablets that contain freeze dried organ meats, like liver, brain, heart, spleen and lungs. The organ complex trend tracks almost 1:1 with rising demand for organ meat in general. Demand for organ meat is largely due to the growing interest in the space from the Carnivore Diet and Keto Diet community. According to a survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation, 7% of Americans report following the Keto Diet. A 233% increase over the last 4 years.

What’s next

Organic complex supplements are part of the keto-first products meta trend. According to the Mintel database, the number of keto-friendly food products has more than doubled over the last year alone. Growing brands and products in this space include ACV gummies, marine collagen, Zevia, collagen beverage, and Laird Superfood.

Qload

Qload is a TikTok video downloader. What makes it unique is that the software can download videos without the ever-present TikTok watermark. The app had 5k downloads on the Google Play store last month alone (Sensor Tower).

What’s next

Qload is part of the TikTok Content Tools meta trend.

• TikTok Analytics allows content creators to analyze their TikTok performance metrics.
• Fanbytes helps brands find TikTok influencers suited for specific campaigns. The service has already been used to create over 2000 campaigns with over 500 brands.
• Fireliker is designed to help TikTok creators to increase their following, likes and views.

Edge Artificial Intelligence

Edge AI makes it possible for artificial intelligence algorithms to run locally, either on the device or on the server close to the device. The edge AI market is forecasted to grow to $1.15B by 2023 (representing a CAGR of 27%). Improved privacy, security, latency and load balancing are some of the innovations driving growth in the edge AI space. Myelin Foundry, Blaize and Latent AI are trending edge AI startups.

What’s next

Edge AI is part of the TinyML meta trend. Tiny machine learning is a technique that shrinks deep learning networks to fit into small hardware. Global shipments of TinyML chipsets are expected to reach 2.5 billion units by 2030. This represents a 164x increase from its 2020 levels of 15.2 million units. Vivoka, Perceive and Cornami are examples of trending TinyML startups.

Taskade

Taskade is a cloud-based task management platform. The platform is positioned as “the love child of Notion, Slack and Asana.” Well-known companies such as Netflix, Booking.com and Lyft use Taskade to manage projects. The startup has raised $5M in funding from Y Combinator and Grishin Robotics.

What’s next

Taskade is part of the Workspace-as-a-Service (WaaS) meta trend. The global WaaS market is valued at $4.6B. And the space is orecasted to grow at a CAGR of 11.52% through 2026. Examples of growing WaaS startups include:

• Stormboard is a cloud-based workspace where users can share ideas and manage projects together.
• ProofHub is a planning, collaboration and organization platform. It is currently used by more than 85,000 businesses worldwide.
• Hub Planner is a cloud-based resource management platform.

Generative NFTs

Generative NFTs are computer-generated nonfungible tokens. Specifically, creators customize an algorithm that can generate NFTs depending on the style the user chooses. A very popular generative NFT (Chromie Squiggle) sold for $2.44M. Art Blocks and Autoglyphs are trending startups that develop generative NFTs.

What’s next

Generative NFTs are part of the Generative AI meta trend. Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence capable of generating art, media and text content. The generative AI market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 20% through 2025.

• Rephrase’s generative AI learns people’s facial features when talking and then constructs realistic faces for a specific text or audio.
• Synthesis AI is a generative AI capable of creating digital human faces.
• Apulis uses data processing and deep learning algorithms to develop generative AI tools for a variety of uses.

Nexton

Nexton produces fruits and vegetables using vertical farming techniques. Specifically, the startup’s technology makes it possible to farm indoors while maintaining required temperatures for year-round farming. The startup currently produces up to 300 tons/year of leaf vegetables and up to 100 tons/year of strawberries. Nexton has raised a total of $880K in funding from KB Investment and SEMA Translink Investment.

What’s next

Nexton is part of the “hydroponic farming goes mainstream” meta trend. Only 7% of indoor farms use hydroponic farming. However, this number is forecasted to triple by 2023. This farming method is trending because it uses 90% less water than traditional soil farming. And hydroponic farming can produce up to 10x more crops than soil farming. The global hydroponic farming market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 22.52% through 2025.

Postnatal Vitamins

Postnatal vitamins are supplements intended to help lactating mothers meet their recommended dose of nutrients (like vitamin A and choline). Sales of postnatal supplements are projected to grow at a CAGR of 7% through 2031. Pink Stork, Naturelo and Mommy’s Bliss are examples of trending postnatal vitamins brands.

What’s next

Postnatal vitamins are part of the OTC Maternity Vitamins meta trend. The global maternity vitamin market is expected to reach $441M by 2023, with North America being the significant driver of this growth. And the most popular maternity supplements are currently prenatal vitamins. Sales of prenatal vitamins are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8.6% through 2025.

Reverse ETL

ETL, short for “extract, transform and load”, is the process of transferring data from an application to a data warehouse. (For example, from a CRM like Salesforce into a data warehouse like Google BigQuery). Reverse ETL, as the name suggests, is the inverse of that process. The reverse ETL process makes warehouse data actionable by feeding that data directly into third-party tools that an organization uses. For example, someone using Salesforce can quickly have data about a group of customers sent into their Salesforce workflow. Interest in reverse ETL tools has skyrocketed ever since the first batch of reverse ETL tools (like Census) were launched in the second half of 2021.

What’s next

Reverse ETL is part of the Operational Analytics meta trend. Operational analytics is the process of using data analytics to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The rise of new technologies (like reverse ETL) is why the operational analytics market is forecasted to 3x by 2027.