Where the next venture opportunities lie — A Request for Startups

Leading accelerators periodically publish Requests for Startups to signal where the next generation of companies should be built. Y Combinator's Spring list highlights AI-native product management tools, AI-driven hedge funds, stablecoin infrastructure, and AI tools for government and physical work.

These themes reflect the current technological frontier.

But the deeper opportunity lies elsewhere…

The Philosophy of the Opportunity

The largest and most enduring venture outcomes emerge where technological capability collides with massive, underserved structural markets. At Fairbridge, we call this space Progress Gaps: the distance between what technology makes possible and who it reaches.

Venture capital has perfected the development and commercialization of the software value chain into markets of high disposable income. The ecosystem keeps advancing new tools for developers, traders, and knowledge workers. Meanwhile, the foundational systems of society (health, economics, clean environment) remain fragmented, inefficient, and out of reach for hundreds of millions of people.

Fragmentation and dispersion can be easily mistaken for niche, but these markets are structurally the largest and most lucrative because technological adoption remains nascent.

The greatest ROI of this technological moment will come from closing the gap between technological and social progress.

The Markets

Progress Gaps are trillion-dollar markets where demand is accelerating and technological adoption is lagging. We have positioned Fairbridge to scale in this space, and we are just at the beginning of this opportunity.

Health Access. Telemedicine, diagnostics, and AI-driven monitoring have transformed what is possible. For most families, the reality remains unchanged: coordinating care without crushing burden on time and economics, managing chronic conditions, and navigating insurance is still extraordinarily complex. And, basic, nutritious food and preventative routines remain inaccessible to millions who want and can afford them.

Economic Mobility. Financial technology has optimized payments, trading, and lending. And yet, millions of households face even more volatile income, scarce working capital, crippling debt, and depreciating assets. The financial system was built for predictable salaries, stable savings, and stable off-ramping into social security and other programs. It has not kept pace with modern work, accelerating inflation, and the perforation of the safety net.

Livable Planet. Climate innovation has focused on energy transition and much investment has gone into parallel markets e.g., carbon trading. Meanwhile, communities worldwide face the immediate consequences of a changing climate — flooding, heat, water scarcity, droughts. Technologies for adaptation are drastically underdeveloped relative to existing demand.

Fairbridge Request for Startups

We are excited by the intersection of technology and structural demand, backing companies that broaden access to health, economic mobility, and a livable planet. This is where the next generation of iconic companies will be built.

Following Y Combinator's lead, we are publishing our Request for Startups. We have made early, promising bets across many of these areas and are deepening our focus. These requests will sharpen as we partner with founders who have the lived experience to lead.

Health Access

• Care Economy Infrastructure - Platforms that coordinate caregiving, managing logistics payments, benefits, scheduling and freeing up time and economic stress

• Preventive and metabolic health technologies for disease reversal through monitoring, nutrition, and behavioral support

• Health navigation systems to simplify care options and treatment coordination

• Care model innovation focused on reducing cost

• Trust Infrastructure for the Internet - Systems to manage health, to reduce health and financial risk in a low‑trust, digital environments

• Insurance

Economic Mobility

• Trusted, robust infrastructure for everyday financial life - Platforms solving taxes, payments, retirement, liquidity, and working capital for everyday users

• Tools that strengthen family and individual balance sheets - Cost-of-debt optimization, systems to help households refinance and reduce expensive debt

• Income preservation, growth, and diversification in the face of technological change and rising inflation

• Platforms formalizing informal economies - Marketplaces that organize informal economic activity unlocking access to mainstream products and services

• Ironman tools for SMEs and sole proprietors to drive competitiveness and productivity

• Insurance

Livable Planet

• Climate adaptation infrastructure to help communities respond to heat, flooding, and extreme weather

• Solutions that scale available capital and actionable knowledge for sustainability

• Water and food resilience systems to strengthen supply chains and resource management

• Ocean and planetary monitoring infrastructure to improve ecosystem understanding and ameliorate damage to coastal residents

• Accessible and scalable high quality sustainable options to supplement everyday high-volume consumption

• Insurance

Get Involved

If you are building in this space, we want to hear from you.

1. You can learn more about Fairbridge’s mandate and sign up for our monthly newsletter

2. And you can apply for funding

If you are a strategic partner interested in learning more about our programs and to collaborate, please reach out to me. Some of our work includes:

1. Expanding our investment program by finding more exceptional mission-driven founders

2. Our community and platforms activities to catalyze formation of new ventures in the space for Progress Gaps

Photo credit: Venus Ranieri