The global economy may still be far from recovering its pre-pandemic strength, but startups are out to prove that they are fearless in proving that they can weather inhospitable conditions and emerge as game changers and industry trailblazers.

Here’s a look at six of the most promising startups that are offering novel but highly viable products, services, or business models.

Zenity

Zenity has identified a new necessity in the field of security and is offering an excellent solution for it. This is the need to protect applications that have been created using low-code/no-code technology. Over the years, businesses have turned to alternative ways to build apps for their specific needs. The low-code/no-code option has become quite popular because of the unlimited customizability and cost-efficiency it offers.

However, low-code/no-code apps contribute to the proliferation of shadow IT and its negative impact on organizations. The lack of visibility over self-built apps is a setback to the overall security posture management of organizations. Zenity resolves these challenges by providing a comprehensive governance and security platform for all low-code/no-code apps.

Zenity aims to address the lack of visibility and governance in the deployment of self-built apps and facilitates the enforcement of internal security rules as well as compliance with security regulations. This kind of security is not yet being offered by the leading cybersecurity providers. Zenity is leading the way in securing low-code apps, which is expected to dominate app deployment among organizations.

Riskified

An AI company, Riskified harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to combat ecommerce fraud. Now serving well-known brands including Prada and Ticketmaster, Riskified offers seamless fraud management that helps maximize revenues, expand businesses, and create better experiences for customers.

Riskified offers a platform driven by proprietary machine learning models and a global merchant network to identify customers. Those who are deemed legitimate are given expedited, frictionless transactions while those that are suspected to be fraudulent are ignored or blocked. The platform features an autonomous AI system that monitors traffic to detect anomalies, flag fraud rings, and ensure prompt response to emerging threats.

Additionally, Riskified comes with dynamic features that support predictive machine learning models for different industries, types of goods, and merchants. It provides real-time visibility into sales performance and insights into customer interactions. It also comes with proprietary features for stopping abusive customer behavior while rewarding loyalty, optimizing customer experiences, overcoming payment failures, and building customer trust.

Chainalysis

It’s easy to dismiss blockchain-related startups nowadays because of the dreaded volatility of cryptocurrency and the abundance of threat actors posing as blockchain businesses. Chainalysis, however, is different. This blockchain data platform aims to help government agencies, banks, and other possible users of the blockchain ecosystem to work with the technology better especially when it comes to identifying and eliminating anomalous transactions.

Chainalysis seeks to establish transparency for the global economy through blockchains. It helps institutions in becoming more familiar with the use of cryptocurrency and the measures necessary to ensure security. Chainalysis does these through authoritative data, software, services, and research that support regulatory compliance, investigations, and the accuracy of risk management tools designed to address cyber crimes related to cryptocurrency and blockchain products and services.

Moreover, Chainalysis helps in fortifying the money laundering controls of banks and financial institutions. It offers a product called KYT, which monitors transactions to ensure compliance with government regulations on money laundering and terrorism financing.

GoStudent

A startup from Vienna, Austria, GoStudent is an online student tutoring platform. This concept may sound mundane, but it has to be quite special for it to accumulate more than $300 million in funding from high-profile investors like Softbank and Tencent.

GoStudent is branded as the "future of tutoring," as it seeks to supplant traditional tutoring with innovative online teaching methods. It serves students of all ages, connecting them with expert and experienced tutors. GoStudent aims to address the weaknesses in conventional online tutoring through its flexible booking system, interactive tools that support effective learning, a systematised way of updating students and their parents, and strict quality control over the deployed tutors.

While many are already itching to return to classrooms and leave the restrictions of the pandemic behind, online tutoring is expected to remain a relevant option for all learners. Many students benefit from customised one-on-one instructions with dedicated tutors to improve their understanding of subjects they find challenging.

Plaid

Plaid is a Californian startup that specializes in enabling all companies to build financial technology solutions. With accumulated funding of over $700 million, this fintech-ecommerce solution provider has won the trust of investors with its goal of allowing anyone to connect financial accounts to apps.

Plaid provides an API that any coder can use in their app to enable linking to financial services for easy and fast payments. This API enables secure connections with popular payment systems including Venmo, Samsung Pay, Betterment, Truebill, Chime, and Acorns.

Plaid is a solution created by developers for developers but in a significantly less complicated and more secure way. It allows developers to connect payment systems to stores or individual accounts with only a few lines of code. It also provides an intuitive front-end module that optimises onboarding.

Nuro

A Mountain View, California startup, Nuro is guided by the goal of improving everyday life with artificial intelligence and robotics. This $2.1 billion startup is one of the most promising users of AI and self-driving technology.

Nuro operates a fleet of autonomous vehicles designed for the transportation of local goods. It is set to reshape local ecommerce with the introduction of autonomous delivery vehicles that come with heating and cooling capabilities to ensure the best condition of the goods being delivered. These vehicles also have customisable compartments to maximise space and ensure the safe loading and unloading of items. Even better, Nuro’s vehicles are fully electric. They do not generate harmful emissions and noise. These vehicles were also built using ethically-sourced components.

National or global delivery and logistics companies may be able to do what the Nuro’s locally-focused product delivery service does, but they cannot match the efficiency and safety of an automated local system. At the right scale, Nuro’s local ecommerce delivery system is set to stimulate local economies especially with online shopping and delivery services becoming the new normal for most consumers.

These are just some of the many exciting startups that are expected to leave a mark on 2022 and in the years ahead. What do they have in common? They share the ingenious use of modern technologies to address new problems while serving changing market needs. The internet, artificial intelligence, automation, and blockchain are expected to play major roles in the modern lifestyle. It should not come as a surprise that businesses are harnessing them for enterprising purposes.