What Type of Mobile Apps Will Tech Investors Fund in 2024?

Knowing what investors are looking for in a mobile app is a game of utter unsurity. 

The investment/funding rounds most often than not come in waves. 

2017 was the year of Blockchain. Investors were swooping in to grab a piece of the decentralized pie. 

2018 was all about mobile app startup funding of urbanized business models. Businesses like eScooters and P2P travel accommodation booking came to the forefront during this time. 

2019, surprisingly was all about Fintech. Investors from all across the world and different interest groups were funding projects making Fintech sector reach the developing and underdeveloped nations. They also showed a special interest in projects that would combine the domain with disruptive technologies like Blockchain and healthcare and AI, etc. This, in turn, helped set up the grounds for app investment trends 2023.

In 2021, AR & VR came up with features like motion tracking, people occlusion, etc. Many AR-based mobile app ideas for investors are said to turn into fully functional mobile apps. Industries such as healthcare, tourism, education, e-commerce, etc. have also taken benefit of the mobile apps fund in 2021.

Let’s have a look at the edutech predictions and market uprising, that will help the future apps fund:

• As per Grand View Research, the global education technology market size was valued at USD 89.49 billion in 2020 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.9% from 2021 to 2028.
  
  
• According to Statista’s Projections, the e-learning market worldwide is forecast to surpass 243 billion U.S. dollars by 2022.
  
  
• According to some reports, global investments in education technology are on the rise, with a total of $10 billion in 2020. They are expected to reach $87 billion in the next decade.
  
  
• Holon IQ’s reports state that EdTech is growing at 16.3% and will grow 2.5 times from 2019 to 2025, reaching $404B in total global expenditure.
  
  
• A response to the EdWeek Research Center survey by 87% of teachers said that their ability to use educational technologies had improved during the school building closures as a result of pandemic.

We have shared the first part of the knowledge in this article –  steps to raise money for your mobile app startup. In there, we had touched base upon a number of things: How much mobile apps fund do you actually need, the types of investor for mobile app startup, Things investors look for in an app, and how to get investors for apps.

In our other article on the ‘Alternate Funding Models’ we have also looked into the different models or how to get investors for your app that businesses can look into if the traditional routes don’t work. 

In this article, we will get you acquainted with what mobile app fund investors will be looking for in 2023.

*Disclaimer: This article has been the result of our observations. The ultimate probability of businesses getting funding for app startup will depend on what individual investors are looking for in an app to invest in startups and how well businesses are able to promote their value offering, and type of investors.

App Types That Investors Will Focus in 2023

A. On-Demand or Educational Cannabis Apps

Cannabis is getting legalized across the world like wildfire. Entrepreneurs are looking ahead to different tips to make their cannabis business successful. And with this, the inclusion of technology in the sector for making it worldwide. A massive tech-driven demand for the industry is coming in from the mobile domain. In fact, to invest in startups app, the cannabis sector has become a prominent part of the on demand investment apps 2023.

According to a report, 42% of total annual U.S. cannabis demand is projected to be met by legal purchases in regulated marketplaces by 2025, up from 24% in 2020. This growth will be fueled by both a continued rise in legal market spending as well as the conversion of existing illicit market consumer spending to legal regulated sources.

Businesses, from all across the globe, are finding ways to make cannabis accessible to users from their smartphones, whether it’s through cannabis delivery applications or apps educating people of how and to what extent should they use cannabis. 

Zak Garcia, the chief marketing officer at CBD Capital Group says “with hemp-derived CBD products legal in all 50 states, the market is growing at 132%”. According to the Brightfield Group report as well, the total cannabis market is projected to reach $22 billion by 2023.

B. Real Estate Apps Blended with AR/VR or Blockchain

To invest in startups app, with the interest rates across the globe being on a historic low, it is very difficult for mobile app investors to not like real estate sector. 

Being an industry that affects the majority and is ripe for technological advancements, real estate is poised to get a lot of investor attention in the coming time. The attention defining the real estate app investment trends 2023 will majorly be seen around products that make real estate accessible to the world and bring transparency in the domain. 

This, in turn, translates into how important it is for entrepreneurs who already have a solution to get in touch with their real estate mobile app development company and get their mobile app features updated, maybe even get it incorporated with new technologies like Blockchain. In fact, if you do end up taking the decentralization route, you’ll be able to avail the benefits of blockchain app investment trends as well. 

C. Innovative Fintech Solutions Merged with AI 

Louise Samet, Partner at Blossom Capital, Stockholm, Sweden says, “I’m excited about the global opportunity in B2B fintech. For quite a while now, there’s been a lot of focus on consumer fintech products, while there’s still a huge opportunity in B2B payments, banking and insurance. Companies like Pleo and Tink are growing extremely fast and others are following.”

Like Real estate, Fintech is another mobile app investors market that holds the potential to disrupt masses. An application that uses a combination of different technologies like Blockchain’s decentralization and Artificial Intelligence with the domain, is poised to be an instant hit with the mobile apps for investors in 2023. 

The app investment trends 2023 will not just see a greater rise in P2P payment app development but also ones that help millennials to get more financially sound and secure, such as stock market apps like Robinhood app or AI-powered budgeting app like Cleo. 

D. ERP Solutions Backed by Big Data

Investors have a special place for infrastructure solutions that help startups and enterprises grow. An example of this can be seen in Slack, Intercom, or Skype for businesses. This year as well, they will be focusing on products that help businesses deliver better solutions or simply better streamline their processes. 

In this vein, we can see different type of investors and investments happening in business automation systems, helping brands across industries – Finance, Manufacturing, Healthcare, etc. 

Sarah Smith, the Investing Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, says “I believe the way leaders, managers, teams, and all employees interact and work is changing quite rapidly, but it is not yet clear if one super-app will stitch together everything a remote team needs or if we’ll deploy even more apps than before. More importantly, I’m keen to find tools that create the trust, empathy, and companionship that inherently comes with in-person interactions which are mostly lost in a fully remote working world.”

E. mHealth Apps Incorporated with Machine Learning or Blockchain 

The fact that the healthcare domain is still mainly practiced with humans, even after going through the stages of healthcare evolution, being the sole innovation agents, offers a massive opportunity for the incorporation of custom healthcare software development driven by technologies. The combination of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Healthcare and Blockchain hold the potential to evolve the entire health and care ecosystem. 

The mhealth mobile app startup fundings are bound to see investors inclining towards app solutions that makes healthcare cost-efficient and real-time accessible to the masses. On this front, they will also be showing interest in insurance applications which would help people in need in real-time through the scope of micro-lending. 

F. Networking Platforms

Connections and warm introductions are crucial in the world of venture capital. LinkedIn is the de-facto medium for venture capitalists when it comes to researching and reaching out to other potential investors, portfolio firms, and other critical relationships.

LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, are traditional networking tools with flaws. They’re based on vanity metrics like the number of contacts made or the percentage of InMails sent. With connections, there is little understanding of the genuine strength of relationships. Relationship intelligence solutions like Affinity take it a step further by assisting you in determining your overall relationship strength with each person in your network.

G. EduTech Industries

EduTech is one of the areas in India that has received a lot of funding from IT investors. VC investments tripled from $310 million to $998 million between January and July 2020. Investors for apps have also turned their attention to less regulated areas like test preparation and tutoring. The pandemic lockdown has resulted in an increase in mobile app development services across the educational sector. Well-known startups like Vedantu, Unacademy, and Byjus control a substantial portion of the funding in this area, and many are still rising.

Geographical Markets That Will Statistically Get Investors’ Attention

The global mobile app investment landscape will be fundamentally altered by the impact of changing trade regimen and digital disruption. In order to remain competitive in the market, businesses will have to work in close alliance with policy makers to adapt and then respond to the changing economic globalization. 

One such shift can be seen in the United Kingdom because of the Brexit. The country is seeing its top position getting challenged by several other countries and projects to Germany. 

The app investments trends 2023 can be seen betting on the growth potential of India, with the country’s economy coming on track to overtake China as the most populous country by 2027, according to the United Nations.

Also, Vietnam, which is one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, is becoming a profitable haven for U.S. multinationals looking to safeguard themselves in the US-China tariff issues. 

“There’s huge growth potential in Asia,” says Rich Sega, the global chief investment strategist at asset manager Conning. “The geopolitical stress in Hong Kong has opened up opportunities for other areas in the region for Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.”

Ultimately, apps for investors will lead to mobile app solutions that make technology mainstream, taking it to domains and nations which have been operating sans them. Moreover, they will be expanding their focus from leading nations like Australia and the USA to emerging markets, which show a potential of immense economic growth.

Parting Thoughts

Now that you have got a starting point for 2023, it is time to take the journey with mobile app development services and come in the conscious mind of investors looking for investing in an app startup.

At Appinventiv, we are known to help our clients get funding for app startup on their project idea and finished applications. It’s an event that results from our knowledge of the steps of how to get an investment for an app and knowing what types of investors invest in. 

THE AUTHOR

Prateek Saxena

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER