10 trends for startups to watch in 2022 and beyond (Trend 10)

For some, the planet is becoming too crowded and competitive in terms of resources. Technology advances – accompanied by creativity and imagination – are making thoughts of colonizing previously inaccessible parts of the Earth, such as space and the oceans, more feasible.

The space race has certainly ramped up in the last decade, with private space firms now taking a significant role alongside government-led institutions. In October 2010 the runway was dedicated at Virgin Galatic’s spaceport in the New Mexico desert, the first commercial spaceport in the world. Since then, the first waves of budding private astronauts realized their dreams with Virgin Galatic, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in 2021. Conceived to serve national space agencies, provide commercial launch services for e.g. satellites, as well as to provide private space travel, these companies and many more are accelerating the conquest of space.

Musk’s plans for a Mars mission plus public and private interest in mining resources on the moon and asteroids could be precursors of future plans for the human colonisation of space. The International Space Station is currently the closest we have to a human outpost in space but there have been many discussions and plans around possible near-Earth colonies. However, the socio-political challenges are significant, along with the purely practical considerations of ensuring human survival in potentially hostile environments.

Nearer to home, the ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet over 80% remains unmapped, unobserved and unexplored (source: NOAA). Driving weather, regulating temperature and providing essential sustenance, transport and economic routes, the oceans are vital to sustaining life. However, rising sea levels due to climate change are threatening low-lying island nations, coastal areas and many of the world’s capital cities. This, along with continued global population growth, has been focusing minds on how we create new living spaces in or on the ocean.

Land reclamation from the seas, lakes and rivers has been practiced for thousands of years. Notable examples of ambitious reclamation projects including the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Dubai, but it happens in all regions of the world. Floating structures and cities have been imagined many times in science fiction novels, e.g. in Jules Verne’s 1895 book Propeller Island, and movies, e.g. the 1995 film Waterworld. In 2019, the UN Habitat programme suggested that floating cities could be a potential solution to rising sea levels and ease the global housing crunch.

Some are already working on it: The Seasteading Institute was created in 2008 and pursued plans to build a floating city in French Polynesia, but the initiative failed in 2018. Meanwhile, Ocean Builders abandoned a project in Panama in 2020. There are precedents for floating living areas such as pirate radio ships, oil rigs and floating communities like the Uru people on Lake Titicaca. However, issues of governance and practical issues such as transport, food access and waste management remain significant barriers to establishing permanent living areas in the ocean.

Nonetheless, human ingenuity and ever-advancing technologies will no doubt continue to be deployed to overcoming the barriers both to space and ocean living. Where would you go?

What does this mean for startups?

• Again, huge opportunities: Startups focused on advancing understanding of unexplored areas of the world and beyond – and overcoming the challenges outlined above – should be of interest to investors and potentially big corporates looking for acquisitions/partnerships.

• Ensure government expertise on your team: Governments seeking to be at the cutting edge of science and advanced technologies, have traditionally driven young and important industries of the future. While they are likely to offer grants and project funding, they will also be concerned with developing regulatory frameworks and safeguards. So make sure you have someone on your team/an advisor with government relations experience. If you don’t have a seat at the table you won’t be able to help shape the future.

• Purpose matters: With significant socio-political concerns involved in the development of space and the oceans, it will be important to be very transparent about your startup’s purpose. For example if your aim with floating cities is to address housing shortages then you are more likely to get stakeholder buy-in than if the cities were designed to avoid tax!

• Cluster, partner, collaborate: Everyone (mostly) is pretty new to the game and with massive challenges to overcome, so it is always better to have multiple brains with diverse perspectives involved. Look at how you can participate in local clusters of businesses also focused on your sector, where you can find partners and build your network of people and organisations that can offer support and/or brainstorming.