It’s the Small Things: The Tech Revolution

1. Banking on Innovation

Large payment processors like PayPal and Western Union were among the first companies to adopt electronic money transfers, which helped expand digital transactions around the globe. Since then, small innovative money transfer services, such as Kenya-based M-Pesa, have emerged to serve populations who lack access to traditional banking services by providing a safe way to deposit funds and make purchases via phone application. –Forbes

2. Insurtech Takes the Wheel

The success of insurance technology startups like Lemonade, which provides home and renters insurance, have raised the profile of insurance companies that leverage algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze policyholder risk and reduce costs. Meanwhile, changes in car design have created inroads for new auto insurers like Avinew, whose coverage rewards customers who use autonomous safety features. –VentureBeat

3. The Rise of Robo-Regulation Monitoring

Increasing levels of regulation have created an opening for so-called “regtech” providers, which help their clients establish consistent regulatory monitoring and reporting and compliance practices to avoid penalties and adapt quickly to new laws and regulations. The global market for regtech is expected to grow to $12.3 billion by 2023, up from $4.3 billion in 2018. –Research and Markets

4. Tech Fights for Defense Contracts

In an effort to get ahead of mounting cyber threats, military and intelligence agencies are upgrading their roster of defense contractors by tapping established tech companies and startups to help detect fabricated audio and video files, known as “deep fakes,” identify objects in drone photographs, and more. –Axios

5. Tapping into Virtual Workspaces

As technology enables more workers to telecommute, software will become an increasingly valuable tool to bring them together virtually. According to one group of market researchers, team collaboration software is poised to grow to more than $16 billion by 2025, up from $8 billion in 2018. –Grand View Research

6. Disruptors Target Real Estate

Reined in for decades by brokerages and regulation, real estate may be the next industry affected by technological disruption. Access to information is allowing more home buyers to circumvent agents and unravelling the traditional real estate model. Entrepreneurs are offering cloud-based data platforms for buyers and sellers to make better and faster decisions. –Forbes

This edition of “It’s the Small Things” originally appeared in the September/October 2019 issue of Middle Market Growth. Find it in the MMG archive.