Will Generative AI Startups lead to a New Economy?
The AI Unicorns Landscape: Arrival of a New "AI Economy" π Klarna, change and the great investment.
Hey Everyone,
Is Generative AI going to lead to a new economy? This is one of the biggest questions weβve had since late 2022. IDC, the market-forecasting giant, projects that AI β including but not limited to generative AI β will boost the global economy by $4.9 trillion in 2030, up from just below $1.2 trillion this year.
Ollie is based in Bangkok Thailand and I am currently in Taiwan. No matter where you live there is a sense that the world is changing and AI may be accelerating the pace of change.
Generative AI is poised to significantly impact the global economy, potentially leading to what could be considered a 'new economy.' This article will focus on the landscape of AI unicorns poised to usher in a new economy on the back of new capabilities, an emerging agentic AI and text-to-action based economy.
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Companies like Klarna have famously created more efficiency and that has led to layoffs due to their adoption of Gen AI. Klarna: AI lets us cut thousands of jobs - but pay more. So is Klarna an exception or the new rule? It might be too soon to say for sure.
Will the AI startups and tools of today lead to many more such case studies like Klarna in how companies adapt?
Ollie Forsyth is the founder of New Economies, a newsletter discovering and sharing the latest technology trends shaping our world. Previous editions include: The Ageing Population, The Workplace: AI Tools, AI Agents and, The Transition from Operators to Angel Investors.
I am obsessed with AI startups and thinking about them in terms of what they will accomplish in the years ahead. But who are they? Where do they come from? What is their trajectory?
What will their impact on the real world be? Will new kinds of AI reasoning reshape society? What will be the state of the new AI economy?
Venture capital investment in generative AI reached approximately $21.3 billion in 2023. The US and Canada accounted for nearly 45% of private equity-backed investments in 2023. Many pundits and AI evangelists say Generative AI is poised to usher in a new economy by significantly boosting productivity and economic growth.
The New Economies newsletter is really strong in AI coverage and so I asked
if we could share some of his work. With innovation advancing rapidly on a regular basis, you may not always know about the latest trends taking shape so heβs providing these to you for free. Read about.Who are the AI unicorn startups of this era?
Data on funding, top colleges and locations of HQ operations
Median valuations, top VCs and AI investors
Access to Ollieβs list of Investors
By
, August, 2024.In this edition, we discover the latest AI unicorns and the characteristics behind them. Additionally, we uncover and spotlight over 500 early-stage AI startups that should be on your radar.
Letβs get started!
Over the past year, AI has really hit its stride. What was once a buzzword is now a crucial part of business strategies across various industries. AI is not just another tech trend; it's transforming healthcare, finance, education, and shaping the future of work and daily life.
The Startup Landscape
The number of AI startups is surging as more founders seize one of the most promising opportunities of our time. If we look at the startups featured in our recent market maps covering AI Agents & Generative AI, most of them did not even exist a few years ago.
Explore the AI startup ecosystem
The Startup Fundraising Landscape (Q2 2024)
Funding to companies in AI more than doubled quarter over quarter to $24 billion β representing 30% of all dollars invested, the largest quarter for AI funding in recent years.
Five out of six billion-dollar funding rounds went to AI companies. Elon Muskβs xAI raised $6 billion, and AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave raised $1.1 billion. Automated driving company Wayve, data preparation company Scale AI and AI biotech company Xaira Therapeutics each raised billion-dollar rounds.
Aside from AI, global startup funding picked up in the second quarter, reaching $79 billion β rising 16% quarter over quarter and 12% from the $71 billion invested in Q2 2023. Mega-rounds β fundings $100 million and above β accounted for much of the increase this past quarter.
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Meet the 140+ AI unicorns
Meet the 144 unicorn companies working in AI.
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When were these AI unicorns founded?
Since 2000, our data reveals that over 140 unicorns have emerged in the AI ecosystem. Notably, 28 of the AI startups founded in 2016 have already reached unicorn status.
As the startup ecosystem has matured, the number of unicorns has significantly increased in recent years.
Which universities did some of these unicorn founders attend?
Stanford University (USA): A leader in tech entrepreneurship, with founders from companies like OpenAI, Databricks, Inflection AI, PonyAI, and Anthropic.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT (USA): Known for innovation, with connections to founders of Scale AI.
University of California, Berkeley (USA): A hub for tech startups, including those like Databricks.
Harvard University (USA): Renowned for leadership and innovation, with alumni involved in companies like DeepMind.
University of Oxford (UK): A launchpad for tech founders, including alumni from Cohere and, ElevenLabs.
Carnegie Mellon University (USA): Specialises in AI and robotics, contributing to founders in the AI industry like those from Shield AI.
University of Cambridge (UK): Has a history of innovation, with connections to AI startups and companies like DeepMind and, ElevenLabs.
Where are these unicorns headquartered?
Based on the 144 unicorns featured in the market map, 64% are based in the U.S, followed by 14% in China and 4% in the U.K.
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