Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

AI's early stage funding appetite

31 Aug 2023 · 1 min

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In this brief presentation, the speaker outlines the expansive role of artificial intelligence across multiple sectors—including autonomous vehicles, financial trading, predictive maintenance, manufacturing, and healthcare—highlighting how AI can transform diagnostics, treatment plans, and market trend predictions. He then shifts to the macro funding environment, noting that global venture capital funding fell sharply in Q2 2023 to $65 billion, a 49% drop from the previous year. Despite this overall decline, AI deals accounted for 18% of total venture investments, making AI a notable bright spot. The speaker also shares anecdotal evidence that early‑stage venture calls increasingly focus on AI, with investors routinely asking about AI opportunities and interests.

Chapters

Whether it's autonomous vehicles revolutionizing transportation, AI algorithms transforming financial trading, or machine learning enhancing predictive maintenance and manufacturing, the scope for innovation is vast. For example, in a field like healthcare, AI can analyze large datasets to improve diagnostics and treatment plans, or in finance, where it can help predict market trends. The macro driver, as you have all seen today, is heavy funding appetite. So in a rapidly declining funding environment, AI seems to be the one bright spot. According to Crunchbase, global venture funding in Q2 of 2023 fell to $65 billion, down 49% compared to Q2 of 2022. However, AI deals represent 18% of the overall venture investments. And anecdotally, at the early stage, most of our calls with multi-stage firms include the question, what are your thoughts on AI? What are you looking at in the space?