The growth rate of Bitcoin investment amount exceeded 145%

Earlier this week, we looked at trends in some of the biggest sectors of startup investing, such as e-commerce, software, social networking, and education. What lesser-known startup sectors are attracting venture capitalists and where are their founders finding those unique opportunities to innovate?

Bitcoin is the fastest growing sector, followed by photo sharing and physical storage. According to Mattermark data, the annual investment growth rate in these sectors exceeded 145% from mid-2012 to mid-2015.

The rest of the list also dispels the notion that entrepreneurs and investors develop only incremental innovations. Space travel is about pushing the final frontier. And entrepreneurs have raised money to transform a host of basic industries: transportation, hospitality, lending, health insurance, and banking. But photo sharing is also gaining momentum with inevitability.

If we examine the relative share of capital raised by each sector in the last 12 months chart, we can observe that quite a few sectors such as Bitcoin, Physical Storage, Drones, and Classifieds only account for a small portion of the total investment amount, less than 20%. Other sectors, such as Transportation and Hospitality, have captured 6% of the billions of capital invested in the last 12 months, driven by the funding momentum of Uber and Airbnb.

Now let’s look at the negative growth sectors, where entrepreneurs are raising less money. Semiconductor funding is down 31% per year, dating is down 9% per year, and the worst performing sector, deals, is down 48% per year. In some cases, the reason for the decline in funding in these sectors is obvious: group buying dominates the deals market, leaving little room for new entrants.

Semiconductor entrepreneurs are limited to the handful of foundries that can make their equipment, and they have to compete with existing companies, such as Intel and TSMC, which have large balance sheets to support cutting-edge research. The reasons for the decline in email and dating are harder to guess.

Nevertheless, we will continue to see huge changes in the fundraising field in the next few years. According to historical data, as the total amount of venture capital is growing rapidly, entrepreneurs will seek less competitive fields in the future, so that the differentiation of enterprises can be more reflected when recruiting talents and raising funds. In addition, investors will explore underdeveloped fields to invest in the future in order to obtain rich returns.