AI venture capital investment’s new obsession

Haunted by the struggles of cryptocurrencies and other recent Silicon Valley fads, venture capitalists are rapidly turning their focus to AI, the new promised land in Big Tech's never-ending quest for riches. .

Dennis Barrier, co-founder of venture capital firm Cathay Innovation, told AFP after a meeting with several investment fund handlers that “if it's not AI, it's not worth it” to big investors.

“The fund is about to make a big move,” Barrier said.

“And the chances of that happening outside of AI in the next few years are pretty slim.”

AI startups raised nearly $50 billion from investors last year, even as layoffs and budget tightening were commonplace among technology companies, according to market research firm Crunchbase.

The first wave of the AI ​​gold rush focused investments on companies building large-scale language models that enabled generative AI capabilities.

According to PitchBook, a record $29 billion was invested in generative AI in 2023.

But building a basic model from scratch costs a lot of money depending on your computing needs, and most of that money can only be raised from the wealthiest backers like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Nvidia. It flows to a select few companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Mistral, a hot French startup developing its own model, has already secured funding this week from some of Silicon Valley's wealthiest investors, including Nvidia and Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most active companies in the field. After receiving the offer, it received new investment from Microsoft.

“We believe that slowing down AI will be deadly,” Rockstar venture capitalist Marc Andreessen wrote in his Techno-Optimist Manifesto last year.

But many venture capitalists, spooked by the cost of entry, are turning their attention to narrower-focused AI startups with the potential to disrupt banking, healthcare, energy and other sectors.

Cathay recently invested in Bioptimus, a French biotech startup that uses AI to develop new medicines.

Speaking from his downtown office overlooking San Francisco Bay, Barria explained that Cathay looked at engineering skills, data access, cost management and ambitions to transform the sector when searching for promising companies.

“You have to have a little faith,” Barrier said.

“A working application can spread like wildfire. You have to get there first.”

Loora, an Israeli startup that uses generative AI to teach English, raised $12 million last week.

Loora's mobile application teaches English through conversation and has attracted more than 15,000 customers who have signed up for about the same price as a Netflix subscription.

Loora co-founder Roy More told AFP from his headquarters in Tel Aviv that simply adopting AI will not attract investors.

What businesses need is more and better data to improve their apps and improve the user experience, he said.

“I don't think the use cases where AI actually brings value and solves problems are widespread yet,” he said.

For now, the best return on investment is in the business world, where many startups are focused.

Alembic, a specialist in large-scale data analytics at the heart of AI, just raised $14 million.

Using technology originally designed to track health data during the coronavirus pandemic, the startup can help determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and co-founder of DreamWorks, is the founder of WndrCo, the VC firm that backs Alembic.

“AI is real,” the former Hollywood mogul told AFP.

“It's not an evolution, it's a revolution, a positive revolution.”