Welcome in 2023. But, before we start realizing goals for a new year, it’s always great to get the full image of the VB and VC trends of 2022. Good news – ICEO has done it for you. We put under the microscope the 7, in our opinion, most insightful reports from the previous year. Let’s go with a summary.

Investor HeatMaps by SimilarWeb

Quoting the creators of this report, it is a place where we recognize “pandemic winners and losers”. The traffic and customer behaviors in multiple fields of industry are analyzed and compared to each other between 2019 and 2022. Thanks to thorough research, we can easily see which sectors and categories are currently a rising trend, and which ones are still suffering after a long and challenging period.

Key findings:

• The industry widely understood as Crypto is classified as the most powerful sector on the market now. The most recent growth percentage is 205% with a sign of a rising trend.

• One of the main factors of this rise are sectors that belong to the field of Crypto. If we look into the Strongest Categories summary, we will find the areas like NFT Marketplaces, Metaverse & Games, and Crypto Exchanges.

• The two further industries after Crypto still have a high growth percentage, but they are both on a falling trend. These are BNPL (146%) and Social Ad Management (111%).

Full report

The Metaverse Overview: Vision, Technology, and Tactics by Deloitte

Deloitte gives us an analysis of all crucial subtopics related to the metaverse. This idea has been well-deservedly a hot subject among venture builders for the last two years. It’s enough to say that in 2022, total value of venture investments in metaverse reached $2B. 2023 promises to be even more optimistic. The report reveals the theoretical side of the metaverse. For example, we receive a detailed image of the main characteristics and dimensions of the technology. There are also in-depth tactics and probable scenarios that may happen to the metaverse in the upcoming future.

Key findings:

• The value brought to the people by the metaverse is multidimensional as it works on many levels – visual, spiritual, entertaining, social, economic, material, and more.

• According to the report, the metaverse has 5 major bottlenecks to overcome – Portability of Access to the Virtual World, Rules Creation, Industrial Application, Data Security/Privacy Protection, and Energy Supply.

• Blockchain is one of only a few technologies that meet the development needs of the metaverse.

Full report

Metaverse: A Guide to the Next-Gen Internet by Credit Suisse

Speaking of the metaverse, it is also great to look into the report by Credit Suisse. The reader finds out about the history of this idea, which helps in understanding it even better. According to the report, we experience the ‘embodied internet’ that more and more entrepreneurs are becoming convinced of. The main reason for that phenomenon is the versatility of the metaverse – it seems like the number of fields that can benefit from it is endless. It includes commerce, telecommunication services, IT hardware, and broadly understood education.

Key findings:

• Metaverse consists of five essential components: Content, Device/Hardware, Infrastructure, Community, and Currency/Settlement.

• The idea is also multi-layered. The layers are: Experience, Discovery, Creator Economy, Spatial Computing, Decentralization, and Human Interface. We need to cover them all before we reach the Infrastructure of the metaverse.

• Several other technologies grow behind the metaverse. For example, we can see the increasing value of the AR/VR headset market or excellence in different areas of display technology.

Full report

Future of Fintech by Raconteur

Raconteur reflects on the impact the constantly evolving reality may have on fintech worldwide. The main subjects include military conflicts, economic crises, changes in the employment market, the perspectives of an older generation, and many more. All articles are supported by statistics and expert opinions, which turns into reliable and inspiring predictions about the future of fintech.

Key findings:

• Fintech still attracts investors and, consequently, brings significant incomes. In Q1 of 2022 total financing volume in this area reached $37.4bn. It’s the third-largest result since the establishment of this area.

• Environmental aspect is not a priority for fintech companies funded by VC in the UK – in total, 93% were rated with just one (57%) or two (36%) stars in benchmarks concerning their activity with regard to ESG indicator.

• The gender pension gap in the UK continues to widen. This trend leads to a growing number of startups that help older people in reasonable money management (so-called financial sobriety).

Full report

State of European Tech 2022 by Atomico, Orrick, Lazard, SVB, and Slush

The cooperation between such big companies could only lead to quality content and a reader indeed receives a reliable summary of the European tech industry. The report is divided into chapters about the general view on the new reality, the characteristics of founders and operators, the trends concerning companies and investors, and the result of everything that happened in 2022. All these statistics and analyses lead to anticipation of the events in the tech market 2023. Of course, ICEO pays the most attention to insights about venture capital investors.

Key findings (about VC):

• The level of so-called dry powder (the amount of capital available for future development) is continuously growing, with $44B as the current value. For comparison, in 2017 this amount was almost twice lower ($23B).

• In the report from 2021, 93% of respondents considered the VC market as highly competitive. Thanks to the calming of the situation, now only one-third of investors have the same feeling. On the other side, an impressive percentage of 48% think that in 2022 the successful investment was much easier (in 2021 only 1% had this opinion!)

• VC investors don’t impress start-up founders with their attitude and engagement. Business development and sales are the areas that are ranked the lowest in the ranking.

Full report

The Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome

If you want to stay tuned to (literally) the world of startups, you will fully enjoy this piece of work. Creators provide the reader with a thorough overview of the ecosystem of startups with divisions not only into continents but even into cities. Of course, the report goes from the general to the specific - it starts with wider rankings and insights, and later it goes into regional areas. Therefore, pack up and go for a business journey around the world.

Key findings:

• All main sectors under the name Deep Tech continue to grow rapidly. They include Web3, Supply Chain, digital financing, and many more. It’s safe to say that Deep Tech plays an integral role in the growth of the Global Startup Ecosystem.

• The general world startup landscape has changed significantly. There is clear evidence that India is moving closer to the USA and China. Year by year we record more unicorns and a growing number of large exits on early-stage rounds. In consequence, many new cities have joined Bangalore as strong players in the market.

• Leaving aside the rise of India, the top 5 funding ecosystems stay the same. These are respectively: Silicon Valley (#1), New York City, London (tied at #2), Boston (#4), and Beijing (#5).

Full report

The ultimate map of the Polish funding ecosystem by Inovo

Sadly, the report by Startup Genome doesn’t include the Polish funding ecosystem. But Inovo comes to the rescue - the VC located in Warsaw presents us with the latest specific update on our reality. The last edition was published two years earlier and we experienced many groundbreaking changes during that time. All of them are included in the summary. If you want to dig deeper into the subject, the report has many links to further articles and spreadsheets. The most general conclusion is simple - the Polish funding ecosystem is at least twice as powerful as it was shown in the previous summary.

Key findings:

• In 2021, Polish and international VCs participated in 424 funding rounds and consequently, the total investment amount reached €793M. It’s worth mentioning that a significant part of this money are follow-ons that funded the budget of around 10 companies.

• Q1 of 2022 hasn’t been any worse for Polish startups - €250.7M was invested in them, which is comparable to the amount achieved in the whole of 2019.

• The number of active international investors in Poland has almost doubled in comparison to the previous report.

Full report