Savingtech, CBD anything, +2 other hot meta 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. Truebill

Truebill is an app that identifies and cancels unwanted subscriptions, along with standard financial planning app features (like expense reporting).

The startup now boasts over 1M users, with an additional 5-10K signing up every day. Annual revenue is an estimated $9M.

Truebill raised $45M in Series D funding in June this year, taking its total funding to $83.9M.

What’s next:

Truebill is part of the “Savingtech” meta trend.

A recent survey found that 77% of Americans are anxious about their financial situation.

Plus, 50% of US respondents in a Gallup survey said that their finances are getting worse – the highest percentage ever recorded in the last 20 years.

As a result, there’s growing demand for money management and savings tools.

Wealthsimple, an online investment and saving company, automatically assembles diversified long-term portfolios for users. With annual revenue estimated at $77.6M.

And other fast growing companies in the category include WalletHub (personal finance resource site), Honey (coupon finder), and Lemonade (insurtech startup).

2. Hair clay mask

A hair clay mask is a mud-like coating designed to clean and moisturize hair.

Bentonite (formed from volcanic ash) is the most commonly-used clay in hair masks. And apple cider vinegar is also often added to help remove grime and product build-up.

Demand for hair clay masks is growing (up 272% over 5 years). However, there are still relatively few products on the ground to meet demand. “It’s a 10” mask is one of few products in the space positioned directly at the haircare market. AMZScout estimates their monthly sales on Amazon to be around $4.7K.

According to Allied Market Research, the hair mask market is expected to grow to $886.4M by 2026.

What’s next:

Hair clay masks are part of the alternative beauty meta trend.

A national survey by Allure found that 41% of women aren’t comfortable with their own appearance. And almost a third say they would do something unhealthy if it meant improving their appearance.

Which helps to explain how increasingly unorthodox treatments and products are catching on. For example, Cosrx released a gel containing snail slime.

Microneedling is another beauty treatment quickly growing in popularity. The process involves making a number of small skin pricks, in an attempt to stimulate the production of collagen. Sdara, a leading seller of microneedling kits, generates an estimated $4M a year.

Other alternative beauty topics gaining steam include gua sha, jade rollers, and healing crystals.

3. Infuser machine

Infuser machines allow users to infuse oil or butter with herbal flavors.

Many of these are marketed towards marijuana users. Ardent Cannabis makes an advanced infuser that also has melting and cooking capabilities – nicknamed the “Easy Bake” of cannabis. The company has generated $7M in total sales since launching in 2017.

LEVO Oil, another major player in the infuser space, doesn’t explicitly target the cannabis market. Instead, LEVO positions their “premium kitchen appliance” as a way of enhancing food and beauty products, or making scented candles. The company has estimated annual revenues of $964K.

What’s next:

Machine infusers are part of the “CBD anything” meta trend.

The market for CBD oil, the non-psychoactive component of the cannabis plant, is expected to grow over 5x to $5.3B by 2025 (from $967.2M today).

CBD products showing search growth include CBD gummies (+8400% search growth last 5 years), CBD chocolate (+500%) CBD coffee (+82%), CBD pillows (+127%), and CBD for dogs (+4900%).

Then there are THC products like THC soda and THC candy. As the main psychoactive component of cannabis, THC is most closely associated with the “edibles” that can be created with infusers. Market growth hinges on developments in the legality of marijuana around the world, but the legal cannabis market is forecast to hit $73.6B by 2027 (Grand View Research).

4. Systeme

Systeme is marketing automation software.

The startup has over 5,700 customers (primarily from Europe). Growth is partly driven by their affiliate program, which pays out more than $36K each month.

Systeme’s revenue has doubled each year for the past three years, reaching $289K MRR today. And the bootstrapped startup is aiming to reach $7M ARR next year.

What’s next:

Systeme is part of the Funnel Software meta trend.

We’re seeing a growing number of SaaS startups focused on creating marketing funnels.

In fact, email funnels are a whole market of their own. Email Octopus has grown revenue to $1.36M in the six years since it was founded, and has sent out more than 10B total emails.

And ClickFunnels has grown to $100M in annual revenue (up from $14M in 2015).

Other topics within the funnel software meta trend include Groove Funnels, Kajabi, and Drip.

---

Get new trending topics in your inbox:

---