Coronavirus Innovation Map is a platform of hundreds of innovations and solutions from around the world that help people cope and adapt to life amid the coronavirus pandemic, and to connect innovators.
The CoronaVirus Innovation Map is a visualized global database that is mapping the innovations related to tackling coronavirus in various fields such as diagnostics, treatment, lifestyle changes, etc., on a geographical scale. Listings are added by the research teams of StartupBlink and the partners, as well as crowdsourced by the global community. In fact, anyone can suggest an initiative to be added!
StartupBlink has innovative proprietary technology databases and algorithms that we use to map startup ecosystems and innovation. This puts us in a position to produce customized databases depending on the type of innovation at hand. The technology required is ready and since COVID-19 has sparked a lot of innovation because of its novel status, StartupBlink is able to gather more data about this innovation and reflect it on our database that is already being used as a resource for startup ecosystem innovation.
We are glad to have a brief interview with StartupBlink CEO Eli David to get his high-level observation on the innovation landscape in 2020.
Q1 : What are the major changes in startup ecosystems in 2020?
The major changes in the startup ecosystem in 2020 is, of course, the digitalization. And anything that can provide the solution in a way that does not involve humans is become very, very attractive compared to others.
Q2 : Among these changes, what do you expect will have a lasting impact after COVID-19?
Let’s say startups that have to do with the more physical ecosystem like tourism, aviation, are definitely received quite a hit. So, there are clear winners in 2020 compared to also clear losers as well. Also a lot of startups that were not so relevant, are disappearing. So, 2020 is not a major crisis here. It’s just a year of change, in a very, very deep change.
The lasting impact after COVID-19, the digital world anything that has to do with online experiences is going to receive more attention from people. I think remote work is going to be have a very lasting impact. Now that culturally, it is allowed to think in remote work, there’s going to be a lot of impacts.
Q3: Regarding technology and innovation developments, what is accelerated, and what is slowing down in 2020?
Actually, the online world is going to receive a lot more of our attention and budget compared to the offline world. Basically, the entire world is moving online. So, anything that can accelerate that is very successful, and anything that has to do with the physical world has been slowed down massively and suffered the most, we all know them.
Q4: Do you see startups/small businesses adopt more automation on AI solutions to enhance their productivity and agility?
Yeah, I think startups will definitely adopt more AI solutions. However, the problem is that, for small businesses, they have a problem to adopt AI because AI is usually very expensive. So, I have a feeling there’s going to be more than anything. The corporate and AI is going to help the corporate even get more market share. And the startups themselves are going to try to develop something unique and then sell it to the corporate just like always. But there is a limit over here, that the bigger companies, the more it has advantages and relatively small startups cannot really compete with them and that’s always a problem. But it’s more than anything a problem right now.
Q5: What do startups or scale-ups need the most from startup ecosystem builders in 2020?
The startup ecosystem builders in 2020 have to be active. They have to help ecosystems, they have to be more than anything to work on the infrastructure of the ecosystems, and help startups and founders fulfill their potential. And we’re talking more than anything about removing red tape, bureaucracy, and also promoting direct systems to make sure that people know about their ecosystems, because ecosystems basically are competing for talent, and that’s always important.
Q6: What are those startup ecosystems builders that have done an impressive job to support startups this year? (1~3 examples on top of your mind)
I think the ones that have done really good work, I have a few examples. I like the examples of the relatively smaller location. And one that comes to mind is Kingston in Canada. It’s a relatively small city, close to the bigger cities in Canada, but still managing to differentiate and be successful and those are exactly the examples we’d like to see. Kingston is working heavily with the good universities in Kingston, mainly Queen’s University. And they’re managing to do a very impressive job in attracting people from outside of Kingston and also keeping their own local talent without leaving.
The same is happening in the Sunshine Coast in Australia, another example of a relatively small city. These very, very active on the promotion of the tech system and the development. I think it’s another nice example of how a relatively smaller city can be very successful in promoting and enhancing their ecosystem.
One more example would probably be the municipality or the chambers of commerce in Cali in Colombia, they’re also doing a great job to compete with a bigger city and create creative regional hubs. So, it’s always nice to see the quality of the work from the ecosystem developers of the smaller locations.
Q7: What are those startups that have done an impressive job to pivot and innovate this year? (1~3 examples on top of your mind)
As for the startups, I have to say that I can’t really think about specific examples, but I will tell you that the startups that I like seeing the most are the ones that have pivoted this year, instead of waiting for a normal life to come back, the startups actually leveraged on this crisis, change their business model, and are very, very flexible.
And I think a few examples can show that. The biggest one is probably is Zoom and Peloton, and companies that have seen the demand for the products really increase and keep on customizing it based on a new reality. We have a COVID-19 map at coronavirus.startupblink.com built together with United Nations that actually features more than 1000 startups that are innovating. There is so many, many startups are innovating on prevention and diagnostics, so it’s absolutely great to see.