6 Startup Sectors Targeted by Investors in New Normal

There are six startup sectors targeted by investors, namely education, fintech, health, agriculture, logistics and new retail. The pandemic was a disaster for a number of startups, one of which was a startup that shared co-working space; WeWork. Even so, there are startup companies that make money in the midst of a pandemic.

In the social distancing phase, it will demand startups to increasingly innovate. To differentiate the business in order to maintain the continuity of their business, the social distancing phase will demand startups to innovate more. 

The digital economy in Indonesia is currently stretching. There are lots of new startups popping up, and there are even four local startups that are now unicorn. They are Gojek, Traveloka, Tokopedia, and Bukalapak. Investors are reviewing which startups are able to survive in the midst of this crisis.

The startup sector is eyeing investors when entering the era of a new custom order that is considered successful in bridging the needs of consumers and businesses during the pandemic. One of them is logistics.

Startup Sectors that might be Your Big Opportunity

1. Edutech

Education is the key to getting knowledge and expertise, two things that are important to be able to achieve success in life. Unfortunately, in many countries, the existing education system is still not in accordance with the times, so both the process and curriculum provided are still out of date.

Therefore, a new era of Educational Technology (edtech) is emerging, trying to bring the necessary changes to this very important sector. Various startups and technology companies that conduct business in this sector have introduced various methods that can make the education system more effective, efficient, and accessible to all parties.

The journey is still long, but a country with a large population such as Indonesia certainly needs a large-scale edtech solution. Recent research shows that 55% of Indonesians who have finished school lack the skills needed to enter the workforce successfully. This figure is certainly worrying because it is far greater than their neighboring countries such as Vietnam (14%) and the average of other countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (20%).

In 2015, Indonesia placed 62nd out of 72 countries that participated in the research in terms of mathematics, natural sciences, and reading skills. These factors make Indonesia a promising market for edtech startups, that are expected to create concrete solutions to bring Indonesia’s education sector into the technological era.

Over the past decade, education systems around the world have experienced significant changes, led by a technological revolution that is now trying to challenge the status quo. The same thing will happen in Indonesia.

We will see teaching and learning sessions in the classroom with previously recorded tutorials, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC), learning sessions led by artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality-based learning sessions, and other educational methods that will make the process learning to be more personal and productive.

2. Health-tech

The health sector is one of the segments currently being worked on by local developers at the startup level. Generally provide a reservation service and a directory of doctors, but several others issued new innovations that are ready to be relied upon for the medical needs of its users.

The still low level of public education about health-tech and the lack of adoption from health practitioners to doctors understanding health technology is one of the reasons why health technology in Indonesia is still far behind compared to other countries.

In Indonesia, the technology that is now very familiar to people is on-demand transportation services to e-commerce. Health technology services are still very low in development.

However, according to Grace Tahir, this did not make the industry’s potential and opportunities decrease, instead with all the shortcomings that exist, health technology services still have great opportunities for business.

3. Fintech

Start-up companies in the financial technology startup sectors are predicted to continue to emerge and experience significant growth this year. Not only to get big profits or income for startup companies, but the existence of fintech also can improve the standard of living and purchasing power of many people.

For example, there are startup companies that then make innovations to bring merchants where the merchant accepts payment systems with debit and credit cards at a low cost. There are also startup companies that then make fintech innovations that can build the infrastructure of the banking world to increase the purchasing power of consumers or the public. 

More than that, the existence of fintech in Southeast Asia even has an important role in poverty alleviation efforts of up to 600 million people. more. Startup companies also continue to convince investors of this.

4. Logistics

The development of e-commerce business brings blessings to startups in logistics. At least, there are five startups related to shipping goods that have received additional capital since the beginning of this year. If in the past to search for books, we had to go to bookstores, now with the trend of e-commerce (e-commerce) people can buy it through their cellphones or gadgets at home.

Delivery of goods becomes very necessary for people when the corona pandemic. And in this field of logistics, the most important thing is trust and speed. People will flock to use the most trusted and fastest shipping service to send their goods.

5. Agritech

Indonesia itself is an agrarian country whose majority of the population is engaged in agriculture. Recent data shows that 37.77 million Indonesians work in the agricultural sector, larger than other business sectors. Seeing this potential, finally starting to emerge several startups that make applications to develop business in agriculture.

Not only getting quality agricultural products, startups, and this application can also help you to get information about the prices of agricultural products. On the other hand, startups and agricultural applications can also be a source of information for farmers on how to grow crops, solutions to agricultural problems, and so on.

6. New Retail

New retailers try to connect traders with technology. The aim is to make it easier for businesses to increase profits and reach wider consumers. Conceptually, this approach tries to empower several features that have previously been applied to e-commerce systems to conventional retail.

It does not digitize all business processes but targets aspects that are considered not optimal. The retail business in Indonesia was devastated by the outbreak of Covid-19 in Indonesia. Because this industry relies more on selling offline than online. Therefore the new retail business will be very promising for you who will start a business in the midst of the current pandemic.

Starting a startup sectors is an easy matter. Anyone can start building a digital startup. However, the difficult thing is to keep the startup growing. The startup sectors options above can be an illustration to start a start-up business that continues to run in the new normal era.

(Read also: BukuKas Startup Received pre-Series A Funding from Several Investors )