Investors will continue to bet on sunrise sectors through 2021 and beyond

As the coronavirus outbreak shut down the world, we effortlessly moved to digital shopping, remote working, video streaming for entertainment, WhatsApp-based grocery ordering, telemedicine using mobile phones and schooling from home. Organizations and people adapted quickly in the face of unprecedented adversity, helped by a powerful cocktail of computer power, cheap and sustainable electricity, almost free bandwidth, gargantuan data lakes, next-generation software platforms and human ingenuity. AI/ML companies are seeing strong investor interest Investors have noticed, and deal-making in the AI and machine learning sector has reached a frenzied level, with an average of more than one deal announcement a week for the last three years, according to the research platform VCC Edge. 2019 was the landmark year of 19 deals worth $323 million; this year also saw Ola transform into an electric vehicle manufacturer with SoftBank backing. A report from Maple Capital Advisors projected $500 million of investments in this sector through 2021. Notable deals in 2019 and 2020 included Tiger Global investing $89 million in Ninjacart, and AgroStar raising $27 million.