In today’s global economy, entrepreneurs are looking to emerging market opportunities in developing economies where growth is happening. Emerging markets now account for about 50% of global GDP and 6 billion people (85% of the world’s population).
This scale, plus the growth of the middle class and favourable demographics, means there’s a huge canvas of new demand for goods, services, and technology.
By understanding emerging market trends like digitalisation, sustainable energy, and changing consumer behaviour, entrepreneurs can find high-growth investment opportunities in emerging markets and position their business for long-term success.
Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
Emerging markets are countries moving from low- or middle-income to more industrialized, higher-productivity economies. They are sometimes called developing economies.
Key characteristics include strong GDP growth (4.0% annually through 2035 vs 1.6% for advanced economies), increasing global integration, and rapidly expanding domestic financial systems.
Examples of major emerging economies are China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, and Indonesia. Unlike developed countries, many of these markets have less mature regulatory frameworks, lower per capita income, and higher market volatility. But the sheer size and growth rate of developing economies make them the engines of global growth.
Institutions vary on precise definitions, but by 2025, emerging markets will contribute about two-thirds of global growth. For entrepreneurs, this means that even if emerging market opportunities carry more risk, they also come with access to rapidly growing consumer bases.
Emerging market trends – from urbanization to tech adoption – are changing the way business is done.
For example, analysts note that emerging market revenues trade at a historically large discount to developed markets, reflecting both the risks and underappreciated growth potential.
In this context, identifying sectors where local demand is surging can unlock emerging market investment opportunities.
Drivers of Growth in Developing Economies
There are several structural drivers behind the growth of the emerging economies. Demographics and urbanization are at the top of the list, first and foremost. All emerging economies have young populations that are growing.
Africa is projected to reach 2.5 billion people in 2050, and other regions like South Asia and Southeast Asia have mind-boggling youth populations. When people move to the cities, incomes per capita rise and consumer markets expand.
For example, Nigerian urbanization has gone from ~34% in 2000 to ~55% in 2025, and it facilitates wider economic activity. Similarly, the emerging market middle class is projected to double the current 354 million households to 687 million in 2034.
This growing middle-income group sustains consumer goods, financial services, healthcare delivery, education, and entertainment consumption demand.
Secondly, industry development and investment in infrastructure are at the base of expansion. Most of the developing markets have been investing heavily in roads, ports, electricity, and broadband infrastructure to support trade.
Such investments reduce the cost of doing business, open up new areas to trade, and enhance supply chain efficiency. Southeast Asian transport corridors and special economic zones have expanded to accommodate increased manufacturing and export capacity.
It can be seen in export-oriented manufacturing hubs like Mexico and Vietnam, with low labor costs and supply chain attraction policies for diversification. Third is innovation with technology as an accelerator. Most of the new markets are opting for mobile-first and digital solutions, skipping the traditional approach.
For example, financial innovation for people with low incomes is a key enabler: mobile money platforms have gone viral in Africa and across Asia, not just for payments but also for lending, saving, and micro-insurance for hitherto excluded groups.
Such new market forces of fintech enable financial inclusion and new business models (e.g. peer to peer transfer, digital loan start-ups) for start-ups.
Similarly, huge smartphone device adoption and increasing internet penetration are driving the Southeast Asian and Latin American e-commerce revolutions.
Governments are even launching digital identity initiatives and testing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a means of expanding access.
Putting together demographics, infrastructure, and digital adoption provides fertile ground for business expansion in emerging markets.
Key Sectors and Opportunities
Across these drivers of growth, certain sectors stand out for high growth potential in emerging economies:
Renewable Energy and Clean Tech: Governments of emerging markets are investing in renewable energy technology (wind, solar, green hydrogen) for climate targets and grid modernization.
Technology costs are decreasing, and environmental concerns are growing, making clean energy companies financially viable and socially useful. Entrepreneurship opportunities include solar panel manufacturing, building microgrids or investing in clean energy itself.
Public-private partnerships and infrastructure funds are investing more in large-scale wind farms and large-scale solar farms in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Fintech and Digital Finance: Financial services are being disrupted by the fintech tsunami. Mobile banking apps and wallets are becoming common across most emerging markets.
Mobile money (apart from the kind of service offered in Kenya’s M-Pesa) has transformed in Africa from multiple service banking, insurance, to loan products.
Southeast Asia and Latin America are looking at more fintech start-ups serving unbanked consumers and small businesses. Start-ups can innovate using lending platforms, digital remittances, and blockchain solutions specific to regional requirements.
Venture capital funding for fintech in countries like Nigeria and Indonesia is increasing, same effect.
Consumer Products and Services: Expansion of the middle class is driving demand for retail packaged goods, brand names in retail, and services. Industry segments like packaged food, consumer electronics goods, private healthcare, and education technology are replicating.
Domestic and regional brands are gaining share with product localization to taste and price that global multinationals ignore. Indian and Brazilian e-procurement websites are growing fast to cater to urban and semi-urban consumers, and low-cost personal care or entertainment product businesses are rising with incomes.
Entrepreneurs can exploit emerging market opportunities in retail distribution, franchising, or local branding for such consumers.
Agritech and Agriculture: A Large number of people are engaged in agriculture in most of the emerging markets. Digitization of the sector is a high-potential opportunity.
Start-ups and investors are creating digital agritech platforms (farm management, weather, and access to market) to link export and finance markets to smallholder farmers.
For example, Brazil and India are launching apps providing farmers with real-time prices and microcredits, which increase productivity and income.
Cold chain logistics, food processing, and green farm techniques are areas where innovation is possible. Food security and farmtech entrepreneurs see huge growth potential.
Infrastructure and Logistics: Beyond big public works, there are smaller-scale infrastructure needs that are critical to many developing economies.
This includes cold-storage chains for perishable goods, warehousing, and broadband in rural areas. Companies building out last-mile delivery networks, affordable housing, or renewable micro-grids can capture unmet demand.
For example, local “infrastructure-as-a-service” models for water and power are becoming a viable business line. As countries in Africa and Asia roll out urban transit and energy projects, construction and engineering ventures can thrive with the right local partnerships.
Information Technology and Digital Services: Rapid tech adoption itself creates opportunities. Many emerging markets are skipping traditional infrastructure and going straight to internet-based solutions.
Governments often support tech hubs and startup incubators (e.g., Singapore’s innovation districts or Africa’s tech accelerators) to foster entrepreneurship.
Emerging market trends in IT include the broad adoption of cloud services, digital health platforms, and AI-driven services. In countries like India and Vietnam, outsourcing and software services for global clients remain strong sectors.
Even in manufacturing, emerging tech like automation and 3D printing is starting to be applied to help economies move up the value chain.
These sectoral opportunities are also region-specific. For example, Southeast Asia’s large, tech-savvy population is driving explosive e-commerce and fintech growth (Indonesia’s digital economy is a great example).
In Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are hotbeds of mobile payment and agri-finance innovation. Latin America is benefiting from near-shoring trends: Mexico and Colombia are seeing manufacturing and tech investment grow because of proximity to the US market and young domestic workforces.
Across the Middle East and North Africa, diversification away from oil is driving investment in renewable energy, logistics, and tourism. By staying on top of emerging market trends in each region, entrepreneurs can tailor their offerings to local market gaps.
Challenges and Risk Management
Doing business in emerging markets comes with its own set of challenges. Entrepreneurs need to be aware and ready for these emerging market risks. Political or regulatory risk may be higher in emerging markets.
For example, elections or policy changes in an emerging market can be followed by unexpected tax, tariff, or foreign investor mandate changes. Currency and inflation volatility are the norm; when domestic currencies decline (common during global shocks), foreign investors and importers see their costs balloon.
Infrastructural shortcomings (e.g., unstable power supply or transport infrastructure) and administrative delays add extra costs. Institutional inefficiencies are another limitation.
Most of the emerging markets group has unclear legal environments and weak data. Contract enforcement can be tough, and government officials’ data (GDP, inflation, etc) is not reliable. Extensive local due diligence should be done, joint ventures with qualified local partners investigated, and possibly currency exposure hedged.
It’s also good to be flexible: experts suggest focusing on home market businesses with secular themes of growth instead of pure export plays to reduce geopolitical risk.
Creative structures, such as joint ventures or impact investing vehicles, can be used to incorporate risk protection. Being aware of the constraints is as important as taking advantage of the opportunities.
Despite the constraints, the size and shape of emerging markets can still deliver attractive returns, according to most experts. Just have realistic expectations and flexible strategies that can be refined as conditions change.
Strategies for Entrepreneurs
To thrive in emerging markets, entrepreneurship is about combining global best practices with local expertise. Partnering with local businesses or the government can reduce entry barriers. PPPs, for example, are used to deliver infrastructure or social initiatives, and dealing with them can give you stable contracts.
Entrepreneurs must draw on local skills – many developing economies have good engineering and technology universities – to innovate at lower costs.
Localization is another way. Adapting products, advertising, and other offerings to local prices and traditions is key. Local brands, as mentioned earlier, are profitable because they serve niche market needs over foreign competitors.
Also, take advantage of government incentives (e.g., special economic zones, startup incubator funds, industry-specific grants, etc.) to boost margins.
It’s also helpful to educate customers and gain their trust; few developing economies, for example, consumers are unsure about online payments, so much attention most financial technology companies give to making phone wallet products secure and convenient.
Lastly, it’s helpful to stay on top of new trends in the market with networks (business councils, industry groups). Global supply chains are changing – nearest-shoring in Latin America or Asia, respectively – all worth paying attention to.
Entrepreneurs who are aware of trade agreements, e-commerce adoption, and population demographics will be able to react faster. In plain terms, this means opening up to their neighbor, opening up payment channels, or investing in sustainability.
The World Economic Forum and other multilateral bodies always point out how entrepreneurship, in general, has been the engine of growth in emerging markets; so entrepreneurship ecosystem building (incubators, funding networks, training) is a strategy as well as a collective contribution.
Conclusion
In short, emerging market opportunities in developing economies offer many opportunities across many sectors. Fast-growing middle classes, rapid tech adoption, and infrastructure build-out create opportunities in emerging markets that will grow faster than slower-growth developed markets.
Volatility and regulatory shifts are real, but with planning and an entrepreneurial mindset, you can mitigate them.
Entrepreneurs who track global trends – digital economy, renewable energy transformation, changing consumer lifestyles – will be best placed to capture the upside.
As the global economy becomes more multipolar, those who understand and adapt to emerging market trends will not just be tapping into demand but helping shape the next era of growth in developing economies.
Featured Image – Freepik
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