"The Golden Age of Biology is upon us," said Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha commenting on CRISPR gene ... [+]
With economic indicators not seen since the Great Depression (30 million jobless claims in the past six weeks representing 18.6% of U.S. labor force; GDP Q1 contraction of 4.8% forecasted to surpass 30% for Q2) and the U.S. stock market propped up by trillions of dollars in government stimulus and soaring toward record highs, this is either the worst of times, as Fed Chair Powell declared in his April 28 monetary policy address, or the best of times yet to come.
As more than half of U.S. states begin to reopen from the COVID-19 shutdown, one thing remains clear for now: The sharing economy is dead. Long live the distancing economy.
To get an understanding of the role that AI will play in driving growth amid the global coronavirus crisis, I had a chance to talk with Navin Chaddha, managing partner of Mayfield Fund and Forbes Midas List investor, on the post-pandemic outlook for private equity investment. He shared Mayfield’s thesis for their newest early stage funds which closed at $750 million on March 25, just as 90% of the world was locking down. Mayfield is using the funds to back companies that are helping society adapt to the new normal and build a better, more sustainable and resilient world.
In discussing key AI trends to watch, Chaddha identified six areas that Mayfield is exploring.
1. Biology As Technology
CRISPR gene editing, computational biology, and bio printing are bringing forth a golden era of biology where health diagnostics and therapeutics as well as food, fuel and materials will be rapidly advancing.
2. Human Centered AI For Better Health Outcomes
AI algorithms are enabling disease surveillance, tele-medicine, virtual diagnostics, fever detection based on facial recognition, and vaccine and drug development.
3. Robotics, Drones, AR/VR
The rise of robotic process automation in industrial warehouses and logistics will address supply chain failures. In hospitals, robots are taking the pulse of patients and assisting in operating rooms. Drones are providing security patrols and being tested for delivery of goods. AR and VR applications are allowing for touchless experiences.
4. E-commerce For A Sustainable Planet
With massive store closures resulting from Shelter In Place quarantines, e-commerce has seen an unprecedented surge in demand. AI-powered social discovery platforms like secondhand marketplace Poshmark (a Mayfield portfolio company) have becoming entertaining, economical and environmentally-friendly ways to tidy a wardrobe, make money and connect with others. Ridesharing companies which have seen sharp drops in demand are pivoting to help with last mile deliveries, like Lyft (another Mayfield portfolio company) which just began offering essential deliveries. Platforms that can provide on demand services the equivalent of mobile locksmith trucks will be coming on the scene to service a variety of at home needs including bike repair and phone repair.
5. Privacy & Identity For The Surveillance Age
As governments step up contact tracing to eradicate contagions and traditional services go online that require the use of personal identifiable information, the need for secure and private identity verification technologies will become critical to ensure compliance with HIPAA, CCPA, GDPR and other laws. Edge computing that keeps data on the device and out of the cloud will begin to dominate.
6. Future Of Remote Work
Lastly, as the world moves to a distributed workforce, a remote first ecosystem powered by AI and ML will spur innovation in virtual marketing, selling, customer support and knowledge sharing from home.
“Investing is a marathon, not a sprint,” Chaddha advised. “You need to invest in both upturns and downturns, and very often great companies are created in times of great crisis. So we are actively looking for opportunities and are being slow and steady and taking the long view. As all industries have been affected by the COVID-19 shutdown, this could be deep and recovery will take time. It could be a two to five year cycle before we return to the level of productivity we were at. There will be short term pain but we know from Darwin that the fittest companies who adapt will emerge stronger. The time is now to lean forward and prepare for the future.”
