IASV Seed Ventures’ Post

Weekly Thoughts - #AI #YC #YCombinator - 06/22/2024: 1. YC’s Platform Advantages and Foresight Challenges - Advantages: YC’s unique geographical location and resource advantages, situated in Silicon Valley, make it an important platform for helping companies build a good reputation and connect with prominent venture capitalists (VCs). - Disadvantages: YC lacks strategic planning and often identifies opportunities from existing projects rather than incubating from an industry perspective. 2. Reasons for the Popularity of ToB Applications - In the iteration of AI large model technology, ToB (business-to-business) applications benefit from performance optimization and energy-saving efficiency, making it easier to profit by selecting the right market. Conversely, ToC (business-to-consumer) applications require constant iteration and balancing between the education market and platform constraints, making it more challenging. 3. Future Trends and Opportunities   - YC focuses on ToB and emphasizes niche markets, neglecting that the real opportunity lies not in niches but in larger model disruptions.   - The future direction will shift from continuous improvement of technical performance to the provision of complex services.   - With the optimization of technical performance, revolutionary applications are gradually emerging.

3 Waves of AI Agent Adoption 🌊🚀 The 2024 landscape for AI is transforming at a rapid pace. Here’s where the smart money and big players are investing: 🌐 Wave 1: Text-Based Agents → Early adoption in content-heavy fields like marketing and support. Jasper, backed by Insight Partners’ George Mathew, Coatue, and Bessemer Venture Partners, leads in generative content creation. 🖼️ Wave 2: Multi-Modal Agents   → Moving into fields needing complex, multi-input tasks like gaming and architecture. Glean.ai , funded by Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins , and Lightspeed, offers AI agents for managing vast data ecosystems. Figure , with backing from Microsoft and NVIDIA, and led by Brett Adcock, is pushing boundaries with humanoid robotics for real-world applications. 💼 Wave 3: Regulated Industry Agents  → Slower adoption in privacy-sensitive fields like healthcare. Cyera, invested in by Accel, Redpoint China Ventures 红点创投中国基金 Spark Capital, focuses on AI for data privacy and regulatory compliance—essential for industries like finance. With support from VCs like Saam Motamedi of Greylock and Khosla Ventures in various AI projects, each wave marks another step toward broader AI adoption. Excited to see where AI takes us next?! 👀 #AI #LLMs #LLM #AIAgents #Startups #Innovation #VentureCapital #Investing #SaaS

AI boom prompts some venture capital investors to seek alternatives - Axios: AI boom prompts some venture capital investors to seek alternatives  Axios http://dlvr.it/T3WT55 #ai #artificialintelligence

London’s Gradient Labs secures €3.2M AI-driven automation. Gradient Labs an AI startup founded in mid-2023, has secured £2.8M in a seed round of funding. The startup is building an operating system of AI agents that automate manual, repetitive work. With the funds, Gradient Labs aims to advance its AI-driven solutions and reshape the landscape of customer support and other manual-intensive industries.Good to hear. Looking to the future, where else would you look, Gradient Labs is actively seeking people who are passionate about AI and eager to contribute to the potential of AI in transforming business operations. Gradient Labs believes scalable and high-quality automation comes from closely supervising, evaluating, and course-correcting AI agents, rather than relying on AI as a mere co-pilot. Its goal is to redefine current practices by providing companies with deep insight, control, and safety in the automated work process. Currently collaborating with eight design partners across various sectors, including fintech, insuretech, online marketplaces, food delivery, travel, and crypto. One to watch! #AI #insuretech #travel #crypto #familyoffices #hedgefunds #wealth

Over 25% of US VC funding went into AI-related companies in 2023. Despite a notable decline in overall US VC funding, the AI sector has remained resilient and experienced a continuous upward YoY trend. While the investment landscape contracts, AI's share is expanding significantly. This surge is largely attributed to AI's increasing significance across various sectors such as fintech, healthtech, edtech, and more. Read the full Crunchbase article on this link: https://lnkd.in/eC9HZ5Vh

 Did you know...    That #AI is dominating venture capital❓  📈It is now making up a record 18% of #VC #funding in #Europe. This marks a significant increase from just over 4% in 2012.   🚀 AI funding experienced steady growth before plateauing, but Generative AI has sparked a renewed surge. Today, Generative AI alone accounts for more than 10% of VC funding in Europe.    🔎 Read more in Roosh and Dealroom.co’s AI Europe Report 2024: https://lnkd.in/d5a64wsJ     👀 Keep tuned for more curiosities about #Innovation! 

Generative AI Revenue estimate from Sapphire Ventures Published on July-2024. Source: https://lnkd.in/guvjrpCi This Market Memo, released in July 2024, is an #interestingread. It highlights the ongoing shifts in venture capital and #AI investment, with global VC funding totaling $24 billion across 1.7k deals. AI remains a dominant theme, but signs suggest it is entering the "Trough of Disillusionment," with investors becoming more cautious amidst delayed product rollouts and mixed market responses.

Jump On The AI Train Artificial intelligence has been picking up real steam in the venture capital (VC) market. In the first half of this year, AI was responsible for over 40% of new unicorns in the USA, and quoted for more than 60 percent of the increase in VC backed valuations. Global investment is subject to reach over $12 billion in total VC investing before the end of 2023. If you are not on the AI train, buy a ticket, because this train is not stopping it is only picking up steam. #ai #artificialintelligence #aitrain #vcinvesting #venturecapitalist #venturecapitalists #aiinvesting #aivaluations

🌟 Meet Benjamin Levy, the driving force behind BootstrapLabs, at GENAISummit.AI. Benjamin Levy🔗, Co-Founder of BootstrapLabs, is a visionary investor pioneering the AI-first investment strategy, focusing on seed-stage investments in the $87 trillion Artificial Intelligence opportunity. As one of the first VC firms to dedicate itself to #AI, BootstrapLabs stands out with its unique approach, leveraging decades of experience as founders to support the next generation of founders. The firm's competitive advantage lies in its close collaboration with top #AI talent and domain experts, providing unparalleled support to its portfolio founders. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a pioneer in #AI investments! #GENAISummit #AIInvestments #BootstrapLabs #ai #artificialintelligence #airevolution #machinelearning #deeplearning #futureofai #techinvestment #technews #techstartup #techleaders #techtrend #technology #tech #SF #sanfrancisco

𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸'𝘀 𝗔𝗜 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗶𝘁: 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 SoftBank Group, under the leadership of Masayoshi Son, is doubling down on its commitment to artificial intelligence investments, eschewing immediate share buybacks despite pressure from activist investor Elliott Management. The company's CFO, Yoshimitsu Goto, emphasized that SoftBank's strengthened balance sheet is best utilized for pursuing AI deals, viewing this as a critical time for investments that will fuel the group's future growth. This strategy aligns with Son's vision of AI as the next frontier, describing past investments as merely a "warm-up" for the company's AI-focused future. While Elliott, which has rebuilt a $2 billion stake in SoftBank, pushes for a $15 billion buyback program, SoftBank remains focused on large-scale AI investments. Recent moves include a $1 billion investment in UK self-driving car startup Wayve and talks to acquire chip designer Graphcore, underscoring the company's aggressive pivot towards AI and related technologies. 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜: 𝑆𝑜𝑓𝑡𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝐶𝐹𝑂 𝑌𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑢 𝐺𝑜𝑡𝑜