Successful entrepreneurs surf a trend

The sharing economy and healthcare-offerings on your smartphone were two of the biggest trends that really had their breakthrough in 2014 and carried on growing in 2015.

When we evaluate the potential of a business idea it is definitely a plus if the business idea is surfing a macro-trend. Looking at our portfolio, we see plenty of those surfers.

The sharing economy has truly sat it’s mark on a global scale

AirBnB has created a global market for peer-to-peer sharing and lending of housing facilities. As a tourist, it is fantastic to rent a small apartment in a funky harbor-neighborhood in Amsterdam, instead of staying at a boring hotel. As a landlord, AirBnB gives you the opportunity to make a few extra bucks renting out your place. The required trust between the two parties is established through social media and the payment is handled smoothly online.

Lending Club is another example. They have become a significant player in the lending-industry. Why pay a huge overhead to banks when you can use Lending Club’s peer-to-peer network of lenders and debtors.

In 2014 we invested in the Danish startup Gomore, which today has almost half a million members who shares their car — either through “ride-sharing” or leasing. Including their other markets, Spain, France, Sweden and Norway they have way more than a million users! If you are going from Århus to Copenhagen, it is cheaper and way more fun to get a ride through Gomore, than using your own car or taking the train. If you want to rent a car, why not rent the Neighbour’s, instead of paying a premium fee to a car-rental company for the same service?

We’re excited to see how big GoMore can get! We have high expectations that this area of the sharing economy will appeal to the mass market when considering that cars are our second most expensive property after our homes.

Mobile Health (or digital health) is another trend we are keeping an eye on.

Basically, mHealth or digital health is about how we integrate the opportunities that comes with having smartphones with healthcare services.

It can be anything from wellness to traditional medical treatment. The diffusion of smartphones makes almost everyone a potential user of mHealth-products, which is why startups within this space are so interesting — especially from a commercial point of view. At the same time mHealth technology can reduce otherwise escalating expenses in the healthcare sector.

Through mHealth regular consumers are able to keep a watchful eye on their own state of health regardless of what doctors and the established healthcare system might think.

Not only does it make consumers (patients) more aware and capable of making their own decisions, mHealth also puts a constructive and much-needed pressure on innovative initiatives in the healthcare sector.

Endomondo and Brain+ are only two of several mHealth services we have invested in. We have also invested in Teleskin, who has developed an App that scans birthmarks and skin changes for the consumer to keep an eye on how these progress and ultimately make sure they don’t get cancer unnoticed. We believe this App can revolutionize the way we prevent cancer today.

We are enthusiastic about companies that surfs macro trends and hope that the future will offer more exciting examples!

Oversat fra dansk. Original bragt på Finans.dk