Trends on our Radar - October 2012

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Trends on our Radar

Our regular pick of five hot technology areas and some of the leading innovative companies leading the way (October 2012) Produced by our Open Innovation and Technology Scouting team

Five Emerging Technology Areas and their Leading Innovators

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Social Gifting

3D Bioprinting

Renewable Chemicals

Agritech

Graphene


Social Gifting Near Term Trend

Driven by the megatrends of smart phones and social networks, sending gift cards using social networks is expected to grow rapidly. In the US alone the gift card market is worth $100 billion, yet only 0.5% is social gifting, presenting an enormous opportunity for new innovators to grab a part of this lucrative market.


Example Innovators

Boomerang, Illinois, USA Boomerang is developing a social gifting platform centred around local merchants. Gifts are delivered digitally via links through email or Facebook and can be redeemed by showing a merchant the offer on a smart phone. Digital gifts include vouchers for restaurants, spas, sporting companies and other local businesses.

Wrapp, Sweden Founded in 2011, Wrapp’s business model combines gift giving, marketing and social analytics, and has attracted a board of directors that includes Niklas Zennström (Skype co-founder), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder) and Fabian Månsson (former global CEO of H&M and Eddie Bauer).

Karma, California, USA Social gifting App developer Karma was acquired by Facebook in March 2012 for a reported $80m, an indication of the potential that Facebook sees in this area of social commerce.


3D Bioprinting Long Term Trend

While 3D printing of plastic and metal items holds the potential for a manufacturing revolution, the future may also bring widespread use of bioprinters. These offer the possibility of artificially constructing living tissue by outputting layer-upon-layer of living cells. As the technology develops, the future could eventually see the creation of synthetic human tissue for regenerative medicine and the production of ‘synthetic meat’ for human consumption.


Example Innovators

Modern Meadow, Missouri, USA Modern Meadow is aiming to bioprint meat as a environmentally-friendly alternative to current production from livestock which is highly resource intensive (in water, land, energy, animal feed). The company is backed by the philanthropic foundation of Peter Thiel (PayPal co-founder & early Facebook investor).

Organovo, California, USA Organovo is developing the ability to create tissue on demand for research and surgical applications. It is the first company with a three-dimensional tissue technology that works across tissue types, and has already demonstrated the ability to construct veins and arteries.

envision TEC, Germany envision TEC is a developer of a wide range of rapid prototyping systems for manufacturing, including a solutions for computer aided tissue engineering, with many potential medical applications.


Renewable Chemicals Medium Term Trend

Many of the products used in everyday life are made from chemicals derived from petroleum. Using this non-renewable feedstock source has a number of drawbacks such as price rises as fossil fuel stocks dwindle. To address these challenges, numerous technology companies are developing ways of producing chemicals from renewable resources. These renewable chemicals are increasingly price competitive with their petroleum derived equivalents and in many cases offer superior performance too.


Example Innovators

Elevance, Illinois, USA Based on Nobel-prize winning chemical catalysis technology, Elevance takes natural plant-based oils, like soybean, rapeseed, and corn, and converts them to specialty high-performance renewable chemicals used in detergents and cleaners, personal care products, lubricants, fuels and many more applications.

LanzaTech, New Zealand LanzaTech uses a patented microbe to convert industrial waste gases into chemicals and fuels. The microbe can utilise low-cost readily available resources such as industrial flue gases from steel mills and processing plants to produce direct replacements for many petrochemical derived compounds.

Avantium, Netherlands Avantium is a spin-out from Royal Dutch Shell, and has partnered with the likes of Coca-Cola to convert plant-based carbohydrates to chemicals used for example in packaging materials.


Agritech Medium Term Trend

With the global population expected to increase to more than 9 billion by 2050, increasing food production in a sustainable way will be one of the great challenges of this century. Innovations in areas such as high yield seeds, irrigation, fertilisers and pesticides are being developed in addition to farm management and logistics solutions.


Example Innovators

Kaiima, Israel Kaiima is a seed and breeding-technology company that creates non-GMO crops with dramatically improved productivity and improved land and water-use efficiencies. Its platform has been demonstrated in more than 30 plant varieties, with current projects focused on castor, jatropha, rapeseed, rice, and wheat.

Blue River Technology, CA, USA Blue River Technology is combining robotics, computer vision and machine learning to selectively identify weeds and unwanted plants. Its automated solution is more efficient than traditional methods and is particularly well-suited to organic agriculture and fields with chemical-resistant weeds.

Farmeron, Croatia Founded in 2011, Farmeron offers a Software-as-a-Service (Saas) farm managment product to give farmers key data, analytics and insights into their overall production performance.


Graphene Medium Term Trend

Discovered in 2004, graphene is a material composed of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons just one atom thick, which displays many exceptional properties. For example, not only is it the thinnest material known but also the strongest and the best at conducting heat. An enormous range of practical applications are now being developed by researchers and companies. In 2010 the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to the University of Manchester scientists who discovered graphene.


Example Innovators

Vorbeck Materials, Maryland, USA Using technology originating from Princeton University ,Vorbeck launched the world’s first commercial graphene product in 2009, a conductive ink for electronics applications. Vorbeck now works with partners in the energy, communications, materials, and transportation industries to develop new products.

Durham Graphene Science, UK DGS has developed a process for synthesising graphene from carbon using sustainable and readily available cheap feed stocks. Its chemical vapour deposition process offers the potential for a highly scalable, cost efficient and cleaner manufacturing process compared to rival methods based on graphite.

Theragnostic Technologies, USA Is developing a graphene-based contrast agent that can allow the same clinical MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) performance at substantially lower dosages.


Thank you www.ventureradar.com Twitter: @venture_radar Andrew Thomson, Director Email: [email protected]



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