UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology is publishing its What’s Next Watchlist for 2016. The Watchlist was created by tracking applied research and venture development and aims to determine which emerging areas are the best investment bets for 2016 based on timing and potential impact.
What’s Next Watchlist — Emerging Areas to Watch for 2016:
- Healthcare + Data / Cognitive Technology
- Cybersecurity and Encryption
- Data+Cognitive Technology+Enterprise
- Drones and Robotics
- Connected Cars
- 3D Printing, Digital Manufacturing, and Verification
- Fintech, Transactions, and Blockchain
- Education and Training + IT/Data
- Collaboration, Workspace, possibly with Virtual Reality
- Media+Brands+Retail and Data/Cognitive Technology
2016 Pre-investment category:
- Food Sustainability and Meat Alternatives
- Neurological Disease Prevention
Correlated Additions from Advisors/Investors:
- Broadband and 5G Infrastructure
Methodology:
This list was obtained by tracking two sources of data. One is the technical reports of UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center projects. Authors represent Silicon Valley Executives, Ph.D. students, and undergraduates. The second source is from the Series A investments over the past 12 months from leading VC firms that include Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Foundation Capital, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, and others.
Data from the two sources is combined to create one list. The list is then voted on for timing for investment in a range from “too early” to “crowded” by investors from the Sutardja Center’s Board and extensive network of investors and industry leaders. Data collected from the advisory is analyzed using data science tools for variation errors and ranked according to the strength of the data signal for each potential area.
PI: Ikhlaq Sidhu. Project team: Carlos Rodrigo Ramos De La Vega, Jocelyn Weber Phipps