Source: Subreddit Stats
A modular movement rises in real estate
This real-estate trend is bigger than a tiny house: It’s a modular home.
Modular homes are pre-built residences, usually constructed in a factory -- the pieces are transported to a construction site before being put together (and built much faster than traditional homes).
While tiny homes are known for their footprints of just a few dozen square feet, modular homes can be considerably larger -- one Florida dealer lists modular floor plans of 1.4k to 2k+ sq. ft.
On Reddit, a community of modular home enthusiasts (r/modulars) has grown to 24k+ subscribers in 2020, over a period of just a few months.
According to Ahrefs data, the term “modular homes” attracts an average of 137k searches per month. The top related terms show people searching for modular homes in their areas (e.g., “modular homes near me,” “modular homes Colorado,” etc).
Dwellito is one online marketplace for modular home sales (you may have seen the company’s ads for backyard offices during quarantine).
The discussion on r/modulars reveals opportunities: Potential buyers are looking for local suppliers and, as one Redditor put it, builders of “modern, clean, fresh interiors.”
Fermentation is a red-hot slice of the alt-protein market
Beyond Meat. Impossible Foods. SIMULATE (AKA the “Tesla of chicken nuggets”). It’s no secret that some of the biggest names in the alt-meat market have been gobbling up cash lately ($1B+ in July alone, as we’ve noted previously).
But there’s one slice of the market you may not have heard about -- the fermentation business. And it’s sizzling this year, according to a new report from the Good Food Institute.
The term might conjure images of homebrewed beer and homemade kimchi, but fermentation is actually a hugely important process for alt-protein makers. They use it to produce big quantities of meat substitutes, and to give fake meat unique flavors and sensory characteristics.
How hot is the fermentation sector? The GFI report says:
- It’s seen 66 deals from 2013 through the first half of 2020, with 21 of them happening last year and 14 this year.
- Fermentation companies have raised $837m+ in VC funding since 2013 -- and 85% of that money was raised in 2019 and the first half of 2020.
- 180 unique investors in 19 countries have jumped into the space.
A tennis/squash hybrid is hitting it off
Could the quarantine era’s next hot sport be a European import?
Search interest in Padel -- a tennis/squash mashup that’s not to be confused with the game known stateside as paddle tennis -- has taken off in recent months:
Invented in 1969 in Acapulco, Mexico, padel is especially popular in Spain and Italy. It’s played on an enclosed surface that’s about ⅓ the size of a tennis court, using stringless rackets and low-compression balls.
According to Ahrefs, padel attracts 5.8k searches per month, with a keyword difficulty of 4 -- meaning it’s easy to rank in the top 10 organic search results.
A few product ideas, from Jungle Scout and elsewhere:
- Low-cost gear: The hottest padel-related keyword is (naturally) “padel racket,” up 121% over the last 90-day period. But products from mainstay tennis brands (like Head and Dunlop) can run $100+.
- Padel shoes: Regular running shoes won’t cut it. Padel’s heavy emphasis on lateral movement makes flexibility a key characteristic of padel-specific footwear.
- Apps for the American market: The US Padel Association’s listing of domestic clubs covers only a few states, and many services (e.g., Padel Manager, Padeltrack) cater to players overseas.
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