Telstra Ventures top 10 tech trends for 2021

Telstra’s venture capital arm has offered a glimpse of its crystal ball of what to watch across the tech sector this year.

Overall time spent gaming rose by 29 per cent during the pandemic, according to US consulting firm Activate. Picture: Bloomberg

Employee wellness apps, online gaming, insurance against cyber attacks and preparing for 6G are tipped to be among the top 10 trends of 2021, according to Telstra’s venture capital arm.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a number of developments in the tech sector as businesses adjust to a semi-remote workforce, with working from home tipped to become the norm.

Telstra Ventures, which has invested $US100m ($130m) in cyber security, says while the need to develop tools to combat online attacks will continue to rise, it is casting a wider net, looking to capitalise on how people work, live and play in a post-COVID world.

“We do a review about two or three times a year to see if we are on track, what the investment managers are having a look at,” said Telstra Ventures partner, strategic synergy, Gurpreet Ghuliani.

“We’re pretty confident that what you are going to see is an acceleration of these trends. The pandemic, unfortunately and sadly, has impacted countries in different ways, which means people working from home, looking at entertainment options, that will stay consistent regardless of where you are in the world.

“I’m really hoping a vaccine will help resolve a lot of the COVID-19 issues, but I think people and organisations are now used to employees working from home and I don’t think that will change, even in the post-pandemic environment.

“Online gaming and e-sports people are enjoying it and it is giving them more choice, which is why we start talking about 6G.

“I’m not saying 6G will turn up now, but at a VC (venture capital firm) we do try to look at organisations that are maybe two, three, four years ahead.”

To that end, Mr Ghuliani’s colleague Mark Sherman has shared a glimpse of Telstra Venture’s crystal ball and what the top 10 trends of 2021 are likely to be.

On top of the list is online gaming, which has experienced a surge in growth during the pandemic. Overall time spent gaming rose by 29 per cent during the outbreak, according to US consulting firm Activate.

People are increasingly using gaming platforms to view virtual concerts, for messaging, gambling, dating and even virtual celebrations of weddings and birthdays. Activate predicts the consumer gaming industry will reach a value of $US198bn by 2024.

“Online gaming and e-sports experienced huge growth in 2020, partly as a result of the pandemic, and are set to become a mainstream phenomenon in 2021,” Mr Sherman said.

“Moreover, plenty of innovations seen in the gaming industry — in areas such as user acquisition and user engagement — will be replicated across many different sectors, including retail and financial services, driving a ‘gasification’ of the tech industry and beyond.”

Telstra Ventures’ Mark Sherman says: ‘Online gaming and e-sports experienced huge growth in 2020, partly as a result of the pandemic, and are set to become a mainstream phenomenon in 2021.’ Picture: istock

Mr Sherman said with the rise of online gaming, internet networks would need to get smarter and tougher.

“Another trend to watch will be the rise of companies that can provide an ‘upgraded internet’ that can deliver an optimised fast-lane for companies such as gaming platforms.

“An example in our portfolio is Subspace, which is able to dramatically improve latency times and local network performance for gaming via a globally deployed infrastructure.

“Expect many online platforms to make network strategies a priority in 2021.”

Third on the list is the need for data analytics on demand. Digital transformation has been a corporate buzz word for much of the past five years, but Mr Sherman said the COVID-19 pandemic had taken it up a notch.

“We predict that 2021 will see growing demand for analytics platforms that are able to draw data from a range of digital sources to measure, for example, how people are using apps and engaging with marketing campaigns. One such company in our portfolio is Singular, which provides a platform that aggregates all of a marketer’s data into a single dashboard.”

Companies will start to envisage what the next iteration of broadband cellular networks will look like.

“Planting seeds for 6G will be important in 2021,” Mr Sherman said.

“For example, one of our portfolio companies, Cohere, is today helping mobile operators by increasing spectral efficiency. This approach does to the network what Google did to the internet — making the internet searchable by mapping a mathematical model onto the location of all the information on the web.

“Similarly, Cohere makes a radio network predictable, scalable and high performance by mapping in a mathematical model to understand the information about each mobile channel, independent of handset, antenna, processor or radio. Not only will this help operators with 5G now, but it opens the opportunity for Cloud RAN (radio access network) and provides some early frameworks for 6G down the road.”

If you don’t know what Kubernetes is, hopefully by the end of this year you will, with Mr Sherman marking them No 5 on his list.

“Kubernetes, the Google-developed open-source technology that helps with the deployment and management of containerised applications, has only seen modest adoption in enterprises to date — but we expect that to change in 2021.

“As every company strives to become a data company, a cloud-native architecture driven by Kubernetes will become the standard thanks to its ability to scale app environments quickly and cost-effectively. Indeed, evidence of Kubernetes momentum can be seen in … (the recent) acquisition of Rancher Labs by open-source enterprise software giant SUSE.”

Mr Sherman said the insurance market would continue to be disrupted as “insurtech” start-ups scaled up and bigger insurance firms moved into the space.

“Expect to see new models such as ‘insurance on demand’ — currently only accounting for a low single-digit share of the global insurance market — achieve significant consumer adoption in 2021. Companies to watch in our portfolio in this space include Corvus in cyber insurance and reThought in flood insurance.”

It would be hard to have a top 10 list without China, particularly given the geopolitical tensions between Canberra and Beijing which have seen the communist regime impose punitive tariffs or bans on a range of Australian farm commodities from barley and beef to wine and lobster. But Mr Sherman is predicting China’s enterprise tech sector will aid the global recovery to COVID-19.

“China’s corporate governance and legal and regulatory environments have also improved significantly, further strengthening the sector and driving entrepreneurship. The Chinese enterprise tech sector will therefore be a key driver for global economic recovery in 2021 and beyond — and a major source of investor activity and high-profile IPOs,” he said.

Tailored solutions in cyber security will proliferate in 2021.

Mr Sherman said firms would also seek platforms involving artificial intelligence to guard against cyber attacks, particularly with “every business adopting cloud strategies to enable flexible working”.

“The focus of online criminal activity could shift and individuals and SMEs could see a surge in cyberattacks as a result,” he said.

“Tailored solutions to protect against cyberattacks of all shapes and sizes will therefore proliferate in 2021 (and) AI will continue to be one of the primary tools for fighting cybercrime.”

Rounding out the top 10, Mr Sherman shifted his focus to ways companies could attract and retain talent. He said online learning platforms that enabled training and reskilling would thrive.

“Education providers have been required to ramp up their remote learning capabilities during the pandemic — and new educational business models and delivery channels will emerge as a result,” he said.

“Advances and proliferation of online content, mobile applications and programmatic customer acquisition will also challenge conventional teaching methods.

“All this means that the education sector — often seen as a tech laggard — will be a source of tech innovation in 2021 and online learning platforms will go mainstream.”

And with personal development comes ensuring the health and wellbeing of employees, with Mr Sherman highlighting opportunities among “digital wellness” platforms.

“Under lockdowns people have flocked to online exercise classes and ‘wellness apps’ are topping download charts,” he said. “2021 will see new digital lifestyle brands emerging.”

Additional reporting: Dow Jones Newswires