Is AI eating the venture world?

📈 Trends: global venture capital funding was $21.5B in February 2024, stable compared to January 2024 and slightly up from February 2023, according to Crunchbase. The investments were distributed across different stages, with over $2B in seed-stage, ~$10B in early-stage, and ~$9.3B in late-stage.

🤖 AI: with $4.7B, AI companies captured 20+% of venture funding in February 2024, up from $2.1B in February 2023. Some companies closed massive rounds (~$1B for China-based Moonshot AI, $675M for Figure, $320M Lambda, $200M for Glean) in hope of big returns. AI could double or triple the current $600B software spend over the next 5-7 years, according to Dharmesh Thakker from Battery Ventures.

🏦 Fintech: in Fintech, AI goes beyond mere automation: it can unleash new approaches to predictive analytics, personalized investment strategies, real-time financial decision-making and fraud avoidance. By integrating and analyzing diverse data sets, it supports swifter decision-making, new business models, and expands access to banking, brokerage and insurance services.

In short: let’s not forget that AI is an enabling technology; a means, not the end. Success and adoption happen when they are tied to novel, compelling use cases that drive higher efficiency and better user experiences. In Fintech, the injection of new AI-driven processes could help reverse the current down sentiment. But reconfiguring these companies’ operations will require new structured growth equity investments and the support of experts who can marry capital with operational expertise, and orchestrate Fintech’s next chapter.