Foil wings, Known Origin, +2 more exploding topics
Exploding Topics scours the internet to find emerging trends before they take off.
Here are four of the latest developments, along with some insights and analysis to help you take advantage.
1. Foil wing
Search interest in foil wings is up 6x over the last 24 months. So we decided to take another look at this exploding topic.
Otherwise known as a “surf wing” or “wing foil”, the equipment consists of a paddleboard with a mounted hydrofoil, plus a separate large wing.
When the pieces are combined, they’re used for the watersport known as “windfoiling”.
This is essentially a hydrofoil version of windsurfing, which will be a new event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
What’s next:
Foil wings fall under the “new-age sports” meta trend.
Other examples of sports taking off as part of this meta trend include:
Teqball: Ping pong meets soccer on a warped table.
Pickleball: A badminton-tennis-ping pong hybrid.
Padel: Mini-tennis played within glass walls.
Carveboarding: Skateboarding on a wooden board akin to surfing.
2. Known Origin
Known Origin is a digital art marketplace that runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Artists can tokenize their artworks into ERC-721: a non-fungible token standard that enables digital ownership verification.
More than 1000 artists have already published their art pieces on the platform. And the marketplace has processed 23,187 transactions to date (with an average price of $687 per transaction).
In August 2021, the marketplace hit an all-time high trading volume of $1.65M.
What’s next:
Known Origin is a part of the crypto art meta trend.
Monthly sales volume for crypto art has now reached $400M. And more than 1.625M token-based artworks have been sold to date.
Traditional art players are embracing NFTs too. For example, Sotheby’s recently sold a lot of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for $24.4M.
And Christie’s has become the first leading auction house to conduct an auction with Ethereum as the bidding currency for its curated set of Art Blocks NFTs.
3. Banza
Banza manufactures food products made from chickpeas.
The company initially launched with a chickpea pasta product. But has expanded into rice, mac & cheese, and pizza categories. Today, Banza’s product portfolio consists of 45 SKUs.
The startup raised a total of $28.8M in funding to date, including a $20M Series B round.
Based on an estimate by VentureSource, Banza was valued at $151.1M during its last funding round.
The market for gluten-free pasta is forecasted to register a CAGR of 9.78% through 2024. And reach $1.289B by 2025.
What’s next:
Banza is a part of the alternative protein meta trend.
According to CB Insights data, VC funding in alternative protein startups totaled an all-time high of $2.53B last year — a 96% YoY increase.
And a recent survey found that 36% of consumers intend to increase their consumption of alternative protein sources in the near future.
Retail sales of plant-based meals in the US alone have grown by 25.5% over the past two years, reaching $377M in total value.
One fast-growing player in the alternative protein space is NUGGS.
Recently rebranded as SIMULATE, the startup produces a plant-based alternative to chicken nuggets. As of mid-2020, the company reported having sold 1 million pounds of nuggets. And has raised $57M in total funding, including money from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
4. LED face mask
LED face masks are electronic mask devices that provide non-invasive light therapy.
The beauty device is said to improve skin health in a number of ways, such as wrinkle treatment, skin hydration and a boost to collagen production.
LED face masks are used for 20-30min sessions and retail for $500+.
Beauty brands that offer popular LED masks include MZ SKIN (50X search growth) and CurrentBody (4900% search growth).
What’s next:
Along with red light therapy and skin serum, LED face masks are part of the SkinTech meta trend.
Growth in the SkinTech space was initially driven by lockdowns, which made DIY skin products the only option. But the trend has continued post-pandemic, with a wave of new at-home skincare products including Cicapair, sheet masks and acne patches all taking off.
Overall, consumers are also much more skin savvy these days, with demand for professional treatments surging. For example, micro-needling, chemical peels and Dexamethasone prescriptions.
