8December 2021Lessons Learned; What the MarTech Revolution can Tell us About Investment Opportunities Today By Chris Young, Co-Founder and Partner, Revel PartnersIN MY OPINIONData and AI enabled the digitization of advertising and streamlined the buying and selling of ads. Now, those same forces that drove innovation and transformation in advertising are impacting new verticals across the board. AI-driven SaaS platforms are helping build marketplaces and increasing connectivity between clients and enterprises. It's a fast-moving, rapidly evolving space but thankfully there are plenty of pointers to guide investors based upon what we saw data and AI to do marketing and advertising a decade earlier. MARKETPLACES The emergence of automated marketplaces in advertising first occurred with the application of data and AI to DSPs. This brought them under the umbrella of programmatic buying. In the wider venture space, B2B marketplaces based on these principles represent a perfect hidden investment opportunity. We are now entering a broader era of marketplaces run by AI. Programs for training models, making corrections, and delivering custom experiences all rely on data. Marketplaces of every stripe are transforming verticals thanks to data and automation. They're also democratizing previously walled-garden spaces.Key contenders have already begun to emerge in different niches, like agriculture, cannabis tech, real estate, and even the art market. There is plenty more opportunity for growth here as well, which is good news for investors. WORKFLOWSAutomation helped transform workflows in advertising. The same type of platforms that drove efficiency in advertising are now helping to change how other enterprises function. Media and marketing companies rely on a complex network of stakeholders, processes, and decisions. They all needed to maintain perfect cohesion and cadence to succeed.Marketing departments were hamstrung by inefficiencies. This left less time for campaign planning and implementation. Automation changed that. It spurred productivity and collaboration. This drove revenue and streamlined operations and that meant billions of dollars to the bottom line.The need to automate manual workflows is not unique to advertising. Essentially every business relies upon complex internal networks. Most are only growing more complex. The need to streamline old processes or develop new ones is urgent. A recent study by IDC Market Research found that companies lose 20 to 30 percent in revenue every year due simply to inefficiencies.Companies are now fully reimagining how we work. Products that solve meaningful problems in
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