Extended Reality, Kumospace, +2 more rapidly growing trends

Exploding Topics scours the internet to find emerging trends before they take off.

Here are four of the latest developments, along with some insights and analysis to help you take advantage.

1. Paraffin Wax Machine

Paraffin wax machines are heated wax baths used to treat the feet and hands.

Primarily marketed as tools for smoother skin, the devices are also often used for arthritis relief.

54M people suffer from arthritis in the US – 23% of the adult population (CDC).

AMZScout estimates that the top-selling paraffin wax machine generates $68K in monthly revenue.

Machine refills can also be extremely profitable. Therabath’s refill packets bring in an estimated $114.3K per month.

And the paraffin wax market as a whole is expected to hit $9.8B by 2025.

What’s next:

Paraffin wax machines are part of the “home pampering” meta trend.

66% of US spas suffered steep revenue drops due to COVID restrictions.

Which became a catalyst for growing interest in home alternatives:

Red light therapy is increasingly available as a DIY treatment. One popular product on Amazon generates monthly revenue of approximately $7.25K.

And Currentbody, a startup dedicated to home beauty devices, has seen a 592% surge in search interest. Estimated annual revenues are $45.73M.

Other fast-growing products in this category: Dermavel (plasma pens), Fanola (haircare), and gua sha (massage).

2. Kumospace

Kumospace is a “Roblox experience for adults”.

Web-based virtual spaces can be customized with a set of interactive elements including furniture and decor. Logos, music playlists, and videos can then be added.

With spatial audio turned on, users can hear conversations happening around their virtual environment (which is designed to simulate multiple conversations happening simultaneously).

Kumospace has acquired over 2,000 enterprise customers (including Shopify, Facebook, and Columbia Business School) since its early last year.

The startup raised $21.9M in a venture funding round announced last month.

What’s next:

Kumospace is part of the “virtual collaboration tech” meta trend.

With remote work adoption, searches for “Zoom fatigue” remain common. And Stanford researchers suggest that many mainstream video chat platforms have serious design flaws. These include intense close-up eye contact and an increased cognitive load.

An increasing number of startups are bringing their “Zoom 2.0” products to the market. These products frequently include virtual spaces and spatial audio among their feature sets.

In fact, Dealroom has identified 246 companies offering tech tools for remote work.

Examples of growing startups in this space include AhaSlides, Teemyco and Orbital Chat.

3. Quercetin

Quercetin is a natural flavonoid found in many fruits and vegetables.

The average person consumes anywhere from 10 mg to 100 mg of quercetin from their daily diet. But quercetin is increasingly taken as a supplement for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Quercetin sales are projected to increase by $108M per year through 2024 (CAGR of 6.53%). This will bring global Quercetin sales to $1.9B.

North America and Europe are expected to be the primary markets driving this growth. In fact, 52% of new Quercetin global sales are expected to come from America and the EU.

Examples of popular quercetin supplement brands include Now Foods and Natural Factors.

What’s next:

Quercetin is part of the antioxidant therapy meta trend.

The global antioxidant market size is currently estimated to be $6.6B. And the industry is expected to increase at a CAGR of 5.3% through 2026, growing to approximately $9B.

MaryRuth’s is a brand that manufactures a drink rich in antioxidants (estimated $292.6k in monthly revenue on Amazon).

Other trending brands offering antioxidant therapy products include Nature’s Bounty, Nutricost and Livestamin.

4. Extended Reality

Searches for extended reality have increased 92% in the last 24 months, so we thought we’d take another look at this exploding topic.

Extended reality (XR) combines real and virtual environments via technology including AR, VR and wearables.

Unlike virtual reality, XR has a huge number of potential commercial and industrial applications.

Despite this, commercial demand for XR only accounts for 47% of current XR spending, with the majority coming from consumer product demand. But the XR manufacturing space is set to overtake consumer spending and reach $35B by 2023 (2x the entire industry today).

What’s Next:

Broader interest in extended reality has helped fuel the Industrial XR meta trend.

Growing industrial and B2B XR startups include:

Nreal: China-based XR startup that develops the “Nreal Light” lightweight mixed reality headsets. The glasses cost $600 and are aimed at being a more affordable alternative to competitors like Magic Leap and Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. The startup raised a $100M Series C last September.

Varjo: Known for its “dual-resolution displays” used for industrial design, research, training and health care. The XR hardware company raised $20M in debt financing last month, with $122.5M total funding to date.

Labster: Creates virtual laboratory simulations for the university and high school market. Raised a €49.4M round in February 2021 led by Andreessen Horowitz.