This year was one of transition. After much thought, I decided not to run again for Congress. My campaign showed me that the dynamics of our current politics make it unlikely that government will solve our pressing societal challenges. Instead, it is up to innovators and investors.
In 2021, we founded BCP Blitz to do this. BCP Blitz is a “Smart Society Fund” that combines traditional technology venture capital and impact investing to generate outsized returns and solve our most pressing problems. We focus on three investment sectors to do this – Food / AgTech, Climate / Sustainability and Security / Wellness – because we believe that a Smart Society is healthy, safe and sustainable.
I call this “Venture Capital 2.0”. The prior phase of venture capital was all about returns. While many great innovations have brought seismic positive progress to society, we have also too often seen negative externalities created across our climate, mental health, children, cap tables, teams and more. In 2020, just 2.4% of founding VC partners are women and just 2.3% of VC funding went to female founders. In my experience, female LP decision makers are also very rare.
At BCP Blitz, we are honored to partner with incredible entrepreneurs who have developed cutting edge technologies that help advance a Smart Society. Thank you to the entrepreneurs we’ve partnered with in 2021 and the LPs who have made this possible.
Here are my predictions for VC and startups in 2022:
1) Venture capital will become “impact with high returns” – Entrepreneurs will create the solutions for our most intractable problems. Venture capital investors will identify and back these solutions, increasingly moving toward an asset class that “makes money and does good.” At BCP Blitz, we call it Smart Society investing, or “ESG with high returns”.
2) Edge platforms will go mainstream – We’re moving from a world where data is captured centrally to a world where any object can collect, analyze and act on data. Gartner predicts that more than $800B will be spent on edge platforms and infrastructure in 5 years. We expect edge adoption to accelerate in 2022, and BCP portfolio company, Pratexo, to be a leader in this shift.
3) Food will be revolutionized by technology – Technology innovation will transform all parts of the food value chain, from farming to production to consumption. These innovations will improve food security, human health and carbon footprints. We’ll see increasing innovation in food and agtech in 2022, like the advanced aquaculture technology that our BCP portfolio company, AquaPrawnics, applies to shrimp farming.
4) Integrated hardware and software will create outsized impact and returns – Software investment has long dominated venture capital circles. At BCP, we see big opportunities for investments in integrated hardware and software products. These companies combine high margin recurring software revenue with sticky and differentiated hardware in capital efficient, impactful business models.
5) Challenges to digital, physical and mental health will continue – Whether COVID, cyber or stress, threats to our digital, physical and mental health will continue in 2022. As such, we expect accelerating technology innovation across cybersecurity, forensics (like BCP portfolio company, UniqueWire), health, fertility and wellness (like coaching platform, TaskHuman, where I am a Non-Executive Director, and biomechanics technology, Uplift.Ai where I am an Advisor).
6) Climate and sustainability solutions will come from startups – Climate change is accelerating, and critical solutions for the future must come from new innovations. We predict increasing innovation and venture capital investment in technologies that help reduce our carbon footprint, mitigate resource consumption and change our plastic usage, like sustainable home good company, Outlines, where I recently angel invested.
7) Work-from-everywhere will be here to stay – We will continue to see hybrid work models between work, home and other places, with great companies started everywhere. In 2022, we will see new investor models that mirror this, with more virtual fund operations and more agility to invest across many ecosystems. On the company side, we predict widespread adoption of new HR, compliance and benefits solutions, like TaskHuman and global talent mobility platform, Topia (which I founded in 2010).
8) The creative economy will be transformed – Creative pursuits like art, theater and classical music have long been controlled through gatekeepers and money. We will continue to see new technologies that make it easier for creative talent to build their careers and reach buyers / audiences from anywhere in the world, like art discovery and NFT platform See.Me, where I am an Advisor.
Source: https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3-of-vc-funding-in-2020